Tea Description:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Basilur Tea
Product Description:
Basilur is an expression of the art of drinking tea. Each range of Basilur depicts its own story related to the rich Sri Lankan heritage. Each product is a unique tea drinking experience which transports its discerning tea drinkers to another time and place. Basilur tea takes you through this long journey of tea, with innovative blends and packaging yet, keeping the 5000 year old traditions intact. This Tea Book is a gift from Basilur tea family to the connoisseurs of tea.
Ingredients: 100% Pure Ceylon black tea, cornflower, jasmine buds, blue malva and flavour roasted almond.
Learn more about this product here.
Taster’s Review:
From a tea enthusiast’s and consumer’s prospective, this Tea Book Volume 1 with Black Tea from Basilur Tea has got to be one of the coolest products I’ve come across in a long time! It’s a book shaped tin (LOVE it!) and tucked inside the tin is a 3.5 ounce resealable pouch of almond flavored black tea!
I love the tin. It’s one of the neatest tins I’ve ever seen! It’s visually stunning, and it’s just a really unique way to package tea! It would make a great gift for your favorite tea drinker (even if that tea drinker is you!)
And the tea inside is really good too. The blend is visually stunning with its beautiful blossoms of blue cornflower and white jasmine along with pieces of roasted almond tossed with the black tea leaves. It smells of sweet almond and flower. The brewed tea is especially delightful to the nose. The warm almond notes evoke thoughts of something freshly baked.
The flavor is quite nice too. The black tea base is a Ceylon, and it is a mild, even tempered sort of taste. Nothing too bold or harsh, instead, it’s smooth and brisk and mellow. It isn’t an aggressive or overstimulating type of tea, making this a nice choice for afternoon sipping. (And I can’t help but think that this would be excellent with a piece of almond biscotti!)
While the tea is piping hot, the almond flavor is a little difficult to discern. I recommend allowing the tea to cool to a drinkable temperature (give it about four minutes after you’ve poured the tea), and this time allows the flavors to develop properly. I can taste the almond now! It’s a pleasing flavor, not so strong that it overpowers the flavor of the tea. This is definitely a tea that I’m drinking here, and the flavoring lets you know that the tea plays the starring role in this cup.
It’s sweet and nutty, and I can taste hints of flower in the distance. This isn’t a jasmine tea. While the jasmine blossoms do add a touch of jasmine essence to the cup, it is not a significant enough flavor – in my opinion – to deem this a “jasmine” tea. I think that the jasmine elevates the almond a little bit. Interesting … that was kind of unexpected how the light, exotic sweetness of the jasmine helps to accentuate the sweet, nutty flavors of the almond. I like that.
I found this to be a really delightful and tasty cup of tea. It definitely has a winter-y sort of flavor to it (this “book” is Volume 1 of the winter series), so I can see why they’d include it in the winter series. It tastes best served hot, but it also makes a nice iced tea.
