black tea recommendation / HARNEY & SONS, AMBESSA - SAFARI BREAKFAST

Here is today's black tea recommendation.

Isn't the name bit too long?

You might have heard of the brand "HARNEY & SONS" as it's quite popular brand.

Then why isn’t the brand name clearly shown on the front?  And what is "AMBESSA"?

I was also unfamiliar with this, so I did some research on it.

I found out that AMBASSA means lion in Ethiopian.

And the name "Marcus Samuelsson" printed right below is the name of globally famous Ethiopian-born chef.

AMBESSA is the new brand created by HARNEY & SONS in collaboration with Marcus Samuelsson. 

Just like Toyota has created new brand Lexus and approached new customer base, it looked like HARNEY & SONS also tried to do the same by collaborating with the chef.

Since they used Ethiopian name and chose Ethiopian chef, I assumed there has got to be something about Ethiopia in this tea.

It is indicated on the box that they used Ethiopian origin tea leaf.  Ethiopia is very popular for coffee production so I was expecting healthy taste since it is a place of barren land, people with pure minds and unpolluted nature.

And I was thinking, "Will it taste as intense and strong as coffee?"

But there wasn't any particular smell while brewing.

It smelled more like green tea's soft leaves instead of black tea's unique scent. 

I was very amazed that this was black tea as the taste was surprisingly soft when I held tea water in my mouth. 

At first, it felt as soft and sweet as Sungnyung (a traditional Korean infusion made from boiled scorched rice).  But soon after, I started to taste strong bitterness just like an aftertaste of espresso.  It lingered in my mouth for a while.

I think I also felt little bit of spice at the end.

It is very interesting tea that has three-dimensional flavors.

As the name "SAFARI BREAKFAST" says, I was able to feel both 'Africa' and 'breakfast' from this tea quite well.  It seemed strong blending method made it all possible. 

I will make it into milk tea next time and post a review on it.

This tea was very attractive as it made me curious to know its other lineups, and it stamped its brand name "AMBESSA" clearly on my memory.