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This black tea is all about chestnuts. I’d say it’s a single note black tea, but the chestnut changes from nutty and mellow to a sharp (but not unpleasant) astringent aftertaste. If you do not like rich nutty flavours in your cuppa, this would be a hard pass. However, if you’re a chestnut fan, you have hit the jackpot. I cannot recall another tea with such a strong and distinct chestnut note. Make of that what you will.

Though it’s perfectly satisfactory and certainly as advertised, I’d have preferred another note to counterbalance the tea- perhaps a cacao or rum. This one is rather one-dimensional but the quality of the tea and flavouring make it a pleasant sip.

Interesting note: most Americans are not familiar with the taste of chestnut, as a deadly fungus from foreign timber started killing US chestnut trees in 1904 and eliminated virtually every native chestnut tree by 1950. As a result, is not at all common to see chestnuts in the US, though you can buy roasted ones in NYC as a sort of nostalgic treat.