It's good to know that there are still pockets of expertise producing
teas to the old standard.

The general poor quality of Iranian tea now available reflects the
virtual demise of the once flourishing local industry - caused
primarily by the inept management of the State Tea Organization that
(like Soviet Russia) concentrated on quantity rather than quality and
thus has pushed half a million tea farmers further into poverty. Last
time I looked at it (2005) there was 80% of the crop stored unsold in
warehouses and no payment made to farmers, while tea is openly
smuggled in from India.

Nigel at Teacraft

On Dec 30 2007, 2:00*am, "Gyorgy Sajo" wrote:
As I opened the bag, the rich, sweet and malty scent of the dry leaves hit
my nose immediately. It had a promise of a tea of great body. The heavy,
luscious scent reminded me both of some very nice Autumn Flush Darjeeling
teas and of some better Ceylon black teas. I must say, surprisingly, because
the small black broken leaf particles did not look very promising. I
prepared the tea with boiling water and let it steep for five minutes. The
taste confirmed my positive expectations. It was malty with a huge sweetness
and it resembled quite a lot an Autumn Flush Darjeeling with heavy scents of
fallen autumnal leafs. I would describe it as a full bodied tea with very
lasting and pleasant sweet aftertastes. My brother had some interesting
associations when drinking this tea: its round, velvety taste reminded him
of warm milk. All in all a quite interesting, unique black tea.