Gunpowder green tea is believed to have been produced for over 1000 years and was named by the British due to the leaf's resemblance to the gunpowder pellets used in their cannons. Gunpowder green has a strong and lightly smokey vegetal taste and dry, astringent finish. It makes a refreshing afternoon tea, and it may store longer than other greens because of its compressed shape.
I once read somewhere that Gunpowder green was one of the favoured teas of Winston Churchill - the other being the very smokey Lapsang Souchong. With that, please enjoy this famous 'tea exchange' between Winston and Lady Nancy Astor:
"Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I'd poison your tea.
Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it."