Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Simple Leaf’s Dawn Review

Type: Black
Origin: Abali Estate in Arunachal Pradesh, India
Price: $4.95 for 1oz; $13.95 for 4oz.
Vendor: The Simple Leaf
Brewing Method: 1 teaspoon of leaves (2.5 – 3.0 grams), 1 cup of filtered water, heated to 190°F-208°F, steeped for 4-5 minutes.
Overall Score: 4.4 out of 5

Dawn is an organic black tea from India. When I open the package, the first thing I notice is an intense, but sweet, chocolaty smell. The blend consists of long, thin, rolled, whole leaves that are very dark in color.

The aroma of the brew is malty with a slight hint of smokiness in the background. The smell of this tea is rather mellow for a black tea – I really have to put my nose to the cup to find it. The liquor is a nice copper color.




The taste is very smooth. The brew has a pleasant chocolaty or malty taste to it. It is not too bold, for being a black tea. However, the flavor does have a nice kick to it, which lingers for a while, and I’m sure it will stand up well to milk or sugar. Bitterness doesn’t seem to be a problem; though, astringency is.

All in all, this is a hearty tea with a gentler side – by that I mean it is a nice pick me up, but it isn’t too bold. Also, I found the chocolaty taste was definitely a plus.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't tried this blend yet but I've really liked every tea that I've tasted from The Simple Leaf. I'll definitely have to pick this one up because anything described as "chocolatey" sounds amazing to me!

PS - I love those little fish at the bottom of your cup! :D How cute!

Brittiny said...

Thanks for the comment!

The fish cups are my favorite pieces of teaware (if you couldn't tell by all the photos).

I can't take credit for the find, though. A couple of people on TeaChat have the cups and told me where to find them. :)