Finally, after three decidedly lame ones in a row, I try a new peppermint tea that rates (barely) above the speed Sammy Hagar can't drive. I hope this upward trend continues with future peppermint teas, as this is an herb I dearly love.

Opening the wrapper released a pleasant puff of peppermint aroma, more than even some better-tasting ones that I've tried and reviewed so far. Upon closer inspection, it was easy to see why: dust...lots and lots of greenish peppermint dust, all over the inside of the wrapper and coating the bag itself, as the leaves were chopped very finely in the bag. Alas, the bag was only about 1/5 full. The wet bag swelled only to about 1/4 full, maybe a tad less. Chado High Tea appears to have used a very good grade of peppermint here, just not much of it, and ground it partly to powder! The in-cup aroma was average to mild, less than the dry-bag scent, and curiusly, the wet-bag aroma was noticeably stronger.

The flavor itself was slightly weaker than the smell, but still rather good. Some essential oil did float up to the top of the quickly darkened liquid. Seeing that oil is a sort of pass/fail peppermint-tea eye test for me before tasting, so it passes. Still, the flavor could have been stronger, and I suspect the very fine chopping released a little too much of the oil into the air during processing and before sealing the package. More sediment than usual (for a peppermint tea) fell to the bottom of the cup.

This food-service offering has potential to be a really delicious, vibrant, brisk peppermint tea, competitive with any of them out there, if the maker would just boost the volume of product in the bag (there's plenty of room!) and not grind it down so finely.

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