Viable Hops?

So a german neighbor gave me a baggie of dried Tettnang - probably no more than 2oz. They're in a ziplock, but the air hasn't been evacuated from the bag, nor have they been in freezer storage. They don't smell like the hoppy-goodness you'd expect, but they don't smell bad, either - really no smell at all.

It doesn't seem there'd be much benefit to using these in an upcoming batch, but would it be detrimental? I kind of want to use them as an homage to her in the first place, since she did give me a Tettnang rhizone with a bunch of bines already 12" long.

just try it out with hot water.. brew a hop tea.. you'll know if the bitterness and aroma are still there.

More info: As far as i know, the whole hops this woman gave me are from 2007 and she sun dried them.

I gave the hop tea a try tonight. I threw about 10 cones into about 2 cups of tap water and boiled for 30min. The aroma was similar to a normal lipton tea bag. The bitterness is definitely there.

What concerns me is that the water turned a medium amber color. If i were to guess, it'd be similar to an amber ale in color. I've never worked with whole hops for brewing - only pellets. Does boiling whole hops typically impart a medium color/tint to beer like this? What would cause this, if not? In the baggie, i can see what i can assume is the loose powder from the cones that has shaken off, and that appears similar in color to what the water turned out to be.

Can anyone who uses whole hops give their $0.02 on the result i saw?