The dry tea is chopped up quite fine. It looks like a typical Darjeeling, having a range of colors from light green to a dark brown, indicating a range of oxidations. Taylor's puts 2.5 grams of tea in their bags, splitting the difference between the typical American 2 grams and the 3 grams of many English bagged teas.

Both the dry and steeping tea include the green vegetal aromas that are typical of late flush Darjeelings, like asparagus and string beans. As the other reviewers found, the first taste is shockingly bitter, though. It's not quite as bitter as an Assam, but it's more bitter than most Sri Lankan teas and definitely uncharacteristic of a Darjeeling. The flavor's reasonably strong, but I do use 8 ounces of water per teabag, in line with Alex's comment. There's a woody component to the flavor, along with a bit of straw. The overall impression is of a farm without animals: oak leaves, vegetables, and a clean barn with bales of hay and straw.

For what it's worth, I like it, but it's not particularly special. Between $4 and $5 for 20 bags, it's only slightly more expensive than Bigelow or Twinings when accounting for the larger teabags, and of comparable quality.

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