So for my very first attempt with this tea, I (gasp) followed the instructions against both my better judgment and a Danish Steepsterer’s recommendation. There are at least two more brews to get out of this sample, so it seemed like a good place to start.
Following the instructions in this case, resulted in an 80C-steep for a whopping 8 minutes. Yes, eight. And yes. This is bitter, but far from as bitter as expected. What is less appealing is the metallic taste that sometimes seems so hard to avoid in ACP’s greens – but it evaporates once the brew cools off a little.
But I get ahead of myself a little – the dry tea smells very pleasant, there’s a nice balance between the orange and the strawberry, but the fruit notes are a little too candy-esque for me and my devotion to natural fruit flavours.
But yeah – next time this will need to steep for a shorter time, because right now this tea is half bitter and half fruit candy; two main flavour features that don’t marry particularly well.
[Sample gifted by my sweet friend T, October 2013.]
80 C, 8 min