Tea grown in the Netherlands! It's real! Earlier this month we visited Het Zuyderblad near Eindhoven. The tour was very informative (NB it was in Dutch). We encountered live tea plants for the first time, I think, and there was a nice cosy tasting session in their elegant converted barn space.
And here's the tea itself. In this case a black tea (I think they also produce a green): very high quality black tea, reminding me a little of Yunnan Hong cha (the golden taste is there, muted but confident).
Here are my home tasting notes:
I followed the instructions: a mug with 2 grams of tea, 100 C, 3 minutes. The tea has a good rich brown colour. The scent is a really clear "Maltesers" smell---which as Brits know means malty, sweet and chocolatey. The taste follows through on that: a lot like a "Yunnan gold" it's bright and malty, sweet, with just a touch of cocoa, while also rounded and medium-bodied. I like it - a satisfying single-origin black tea."
Second brew: 100 C, 8 minutes. malty but in a more gentle biscuity way. Good, though a touch thin for my taste, even though I gave it 8 minutes. It's fine to make a second brew from it but I might tweak the settings next time.
Third brew: I only did this as an experiment. Of course it's very thin, too thin for a normal drink, but what's noticeable is there's no astringent flavour at all (which I would usually get from over-brewing a black).
Availability: it's NOT EASY to get hold of this tea. I don't think they currently produce enough to sell it regularly. You might need to go to one of their tea tours.