This was a very pleasant Assam, with a slightly more bready character, but otherwise what I expect from an Assam. A good, strong breakfast tea with a smoother than average flavor and some aromatic complexity.

Dry leaf smells pleasant, soft, slightly bready. Unlike some of the other teas, this one looks exactly like in Upton's picture, dark brown wiry leaf with a few orangish tips. The leaf is surprisingly broken, however, for a tea sold as such a high grade; this is particularly evident after steeping; there are no whole, intact leaves, and most of the leaves are broken into fairly small pieces.

The cup is full-bodied and thick, smooth but with a pleasant edginess. Aroma is mostly of bread or grain, with hints of dried fruit and spice. Upton describes a cedar-like quality in the finish, and I notice that, and like it. I find it more full-bodied and less syrupy than the commercial description. Slightly sweet flavor, though, especially when drinking the cup. Although this tea is strong, I recommend drinking it plain.

Resteeping produced a weaker cup than I expected. It still had some flavor, but was thinner and less aromatic than I had expected, and I needed a very long steep (12+ min.) to produce a cup of my desired strengths. I expect better resteeping out of a grade like TGFOP1. I wonder if it's graded accurately, especially given how broken the leaf looks. I would recommend a short first steep, no longer than 3 minutes.

Overall, a pleasant and easy-to-drink Assam, especially good for cold mornings. This was the last-of-the-lot (if this was packed on demand from a large bin, this could explain the more broken leaf), and I didn't get to see how much this tea originally cost, but at $1 for a sample it was an outright steal, even given that it didn't resteep well. This was a higher-grade Assam and a good example of one, at that.

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