I've recently started looking for Fair Trade Certified teas, so I decided to try a box of Mighty Leaf tea.

My first impression is that the tea is lower quality than the packaging and price would indicate. The box says that the sachets contain "whole leaf tea," but the tea in the sachets is in quite small pieces, not much larger than fannings. The sachets each contain almost three grams of tea, though, which is quite generous for teabags in the US. The dry tea smells quite strongly with spicy and woody notes.

The aroma of the brewing tea is malty and tannic. As the other reviewers noted, the tea is quite bitter and astringent. The overall flavor is a bit unusual, though, reminding me of cloves and pine. The tea doesn't taste as malty as it smells and after the tea starts to cool, the bitterness mellows a bit. It's still more astringent than I'd like, though, and the other flavors a little thin. The finish is short and spicy, tasting of cloves and oregano. The spiciness is strong enough that I actually double-checked the package to make sure that the tea isn't flavored.

This tea is an unusual and interesting blend and it makes for a nice change of pace. I don't find the blend particularly well balanced, though, nor does the novelty completely rescue it from being lower quality than the price justifies.

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