Classic Black from Art of Tea

Scent in package: very quintessentially “tea” – nothing special
Brewed in: tea for one pot w/metal infuser
Steeped: 5.5min. @ 212 degrees
Cup: Café mug at work

If you’re looking for something pretty to look at, this tea isn’t it. It’s just your basic Nilgiri tea, though organic, and small dried bits at that. But if you’re looking for something to wake you up first thing in the morning, this will get the job done quite pleasantly, if somewhat astringently.

Nilgiri tea is very distinctive for me – it’s clean, fresh, and very light on the palate while still strong in taste. It’s not terribly complex, though this particular tea does have a bit of a muscatel aftertaste, not unlike a good Darjeeling. I over steeped my cup this morning by about 30 seconds, and it is more bitter than it should be, but not undrinkably so. It’s also quite drying in the mouth, but that’s probably the over steeping too…Nilgiri tends to be a bit drying, but not quite this much.

In any case, it’s very brisk and bold, and will get you going first thing…if you have friends/family who like Lipton, get them some of this to help wean them off those nasty teabags. It has the same base flavor, but far richer with that lovely aftertaste. It would also be a good black "tea party" tea - a flavor most people are used to, but just that much better than a bagged tea.

I’ll have to taste this again, brewed properly to decide if I’ll reorder or not, but I do already have a Nilgiri tea I like from Teas, Etc. that seems to stand up to being over steeped a bit better, so we’ll see. Like I said though – this one would be fine for switching people from bags to lose tea…and it works well for that first wake-up call in the morning too.