Interesting name! I like it, I get mental images of dragons and all. (Maybe that’s also because I’m currently listening to the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini on audiobook. Good story btw, very recommendable).
The leaves are dark, but they smell sort of like they ought to be greener. Fresh, kinda. I’m picking up sweet raisin note from them, which makes me rather look forward to tasting it. There is a lot of the raisins in the aroma after steeping too, along with something else that reminds me a little of vanilla.
Tasting it was a bit of a surprise. It tastes much greener and grassier than I had expected and I’m not finding any of the fruity sweetness anywhere. Instead there’s a slight astringency and an almost wooden primary flavour. Like a green that has been oversteeped. It’s not bitter, but it’s getting there. As the cup cools it gets a little better. The not-quite-bitterness has gone away, although it’s still tasting somewhat of pencil. You know, the flavour of the end of a chewed pencil.
I think I might have overdone it a bit with the steeping time of this one, but I’m trying to imagine what it might have been like otherwise. I’m trying to find the hints of what it could have been and I’m coming up short. It doesn’t mean they’re not there, but just that as it is, it’s not really gripping me.
According to NBT this is supposedly very suitable for multiple steeps, so we’re going to try that and see what happens. For now I’m not putting a rating on it, but if I reach a conclusion after a couple of resteeps, I’ll either make another post or just edit one in. Depending on the level of laziness.
ETA After a couple more steeps, I’ve reached a decision. It’s not that it’s not a good tea, because there isn’t really anything wrong with it. It’s just not really grabbing my interest much. I had a second and third steep of it (small pot, about two cups in each steep) and halfway through the third I just gave up and forgot about it. I got bored. Plain and simple.
Shame though, considering the name…
