This is interesting. Sweet, almost like honeysuckle nectar in water. The needles are unopened leaf buds, possibly flowers.
The color is all but clear, and the aroma is very light; it's hard to tell you even have tea until you taste it, and then it's very delicate.
I paid the same for this as I did for the other one: $8.95 for 10 grams (although iirc the 54-gram tin was more expensive than just double this price). I got three solid
6-oz infusions out of 2 grams, and didn't try for a fourth, though I don't doubt an extra 30 seconds or so of steep would have done well if I'd tried. No doubt the rolled up layers of leaves make it diffuse its essences more slowly than ordinary tea. It makes me wonder what crushing or chopping the leaves beforehand might do for it.--Blair "And what color it's turning my teeth..."