What a pretty tea! There are lots of golden buds, usually in sets with one or two leaves. When placed in a teapot, they smell like chocolate, malt, and, true to reviews from previous years, tomatoes.
The first couple short steeps bring out all the notes above, combined with mild florals. The chocolate is less prominent than one might expect, and the malt is more so. The chocolate pretty much disappears by the fourth 20-second steep, as the tea transforms into a typical Assam profile. (I checked on Yunnan Sourcing’s website and it doesn’t look like this is really an Assam, so maybe it’s just a Dian Hong thing?) I don’t get any fruit flavours at all. The tea thins out by the tenth steep, though I got two more out of it before I gave up.
I might buy this again, but there are other teas that appeal to me more.
Flavors: Chocolate, Floral, Malt, Smooth
