This was a straightforward tea that I found easy to like; I became a fan from the first sip. It's robust, easy to brew, easy to drink, and pleasing in both flavor and aroma. Overall, it is more flavorful than aromatic though.

The dry leaf is beautiful, a very bright yellow color, not as orangeish as many of these tippy teas, and has a rich aroma that is fairly complex, with notes of malt and chocolate. The intact needle-shaped leaves though, are incredibly long, making it a bit annoying to measure out and put into an infuser.

Wow, the cup brews an incredibly pleasant cup. Bold and balanced flavor. Strong aroma of caraway and malt, perhaps some hints of fruit. The aroma is pleasantly strong but not all that complex. Mouthfeel is quite astringent, but I find pleasantly so: it makes the cup full-bodied. Never harsh.

This tea resteeps really well. It was remarkably consistent in character across multiple steeps, continuing to have a bold flavor and a similar aroma and mouthfeel.

Honestly the main thing I dislike about this tea is how unwieldly the long leaves are. I am really not a huge fan of the needle shape. But I can deal with that, it's worth it. Price is unbeatable. This is outright bargain-priced, at only $20 for 250g, for an artisanal tippy tea as balanced as this one.

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