Weird tea, but to me at least, pleasantly so! Connoisseurs of complex-flavored tea should like this, unless those flavors are not favorites. First off, the dry-leaf aroma (in the plastic sack), in-cup smell and taste are remarkably consistent with each other.

The hard part is describing what they are. I can see why one would interpret this as "white chocolate", especially with cocoa nibs as a stated ingredient (along with base white tea, jasmine blossoms, and natural and artificial flavors). But that combination yields a profile reminding me much more of a single- or dual-ingredient root beer, say sassafras and sarsaparilla (even though neither is an ingredient here), with a hint of chocolate. Occasionally I get the impression of a Tootsie Roll too, but not as much as with some strong jasmine green teas. The jasmine flowers are right there amongst the leaves, but it appears that they contribute more in combination than alone, to a fairly distinctive taste that I enjoy. It's rather unlike any other tea I've had. I'll dispute Murchie's description of this a "delicate" in flavor; it's midlevel in strength even at recommended steeping times. Soak it a couple minutes extra and it gets nicely potent, but not excessively bitter. Bitterness does increase as temperature cools.

The liquid brews up a translucent, dark straw to tan color in the upper parts, trending toward reddish brown at depth. Leaves are both red-brown and green, looking a lot like a green/black tea blend, even though the base tea is a white peony type of unspecified origin(s). Dark stems and white buds also populate the material, along with the multicolored tea leaves and jasmine blossoms.

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