I just received some tea today. The form of the tea came in chunks of broken up bricks. We know it is black tea, but I am not quite sure if it's Pu-Erh or not since it was a little present from a relative.
When I was breaking the tea up into smaller pieces for brewing, I noticed small white particles on the leafs. The leafs themselves do not fall apart, but there is no aroma coming from the tea brick. Old tea perhaps?
My first taste of the brew reminds me of the flavor you get from mushrooms, slightly unami. Then I started tasting an earthy flavor, but in the back (i don't know if my mind is being bias after seeing the white particles on the leaves) I taste a slight moldy flavor. I might be getting it confused with the earthy flavor though, not sure.
I am curious about two things, are the white particles on the leaves normal? the particles are like spores, small individual white spheres.
Is the unami flavor flavor normal?
I am a bit of a noob, so please educate me
Thank you!!
