I like to shop in Asian groceries where I live in New York, though I
don't rely on them for most of the tea I drink. Occasionally
something catches my eye, though, and I take a chance on it.
Yesterday at an Indian grocery I bought Three Rivers Kashmiri Tea at
$2.99 for 150g. I confess I hadn't known Kashmir produced tea. It
was packaged in the kind of clear plastic jar that in the US seems to
be used mainly for instant coffee but sported a pale pink top that
would look out of place on a US supermarket shelf. The clear plastic
showed that the tea was whole-leaf; that, I suppose, nerved me for the
purchase.

It's a medium body tea with a manageable amount of astringency and
bitterness. What's really unusual about it is an intense aroma of
apple, probably with a tinge of fermentation as in hard cider. This
aroma carries over into the cup as by far the most prominent element
of the taste. This tea probably isn't for everyone but I'm delighted
I bought it.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html