Glendale Estate Twirl Nilgiri

This is such an intriguing tea. The dark spindly leaves look like a black tea when dry, and they smell sort of malty and breadish like a black tea. But the wet tea smells malty still, but also bright and fruity, like apricots and lime zest. And the leaves have unspindled, and have become light to medium green whole leaves, reminding me of green tea or a green oolong.

And the taste is a mix of malt and honey, apricots and water chestnuts, and a bit of citrus. It might sound like an odd mix, but the different notes come out to play at different times and blend with the other notes to create a very complex and interesting cup.

I can’t even describe what I’m tasting, but this is my best attempt to.

Wow, this handmade tea is special! Incredibly complex it has the bright light citrusy, top notes of many darjeeling’s, a bright green floral mixed with a faint eucalyptus menthol (possibly from the plantations grown in this region), lemon thyme and cinnamon and pepper, with sweet potato, roasted cashew, cream, honey, and wood tinged malt, mixed with a savoury vegetal, and light cocoa notes underneath.

The long dried leaves are long, loosely twisted, and wiry, ranging in colour from medium to dark brown with scattered silver green, gold touched downy tips. They smell very bright and inviting with hints of citrus, sweet potato, hay, and green citrus flowers.

Using 1 TSP/225ml at around 95 °C I had a bright light copper orange tea that smelled of muscatel like tones, sweet red grapefruit, sweet potato and honey. As it cooled a nutty cashew like tone also appeared.

This tea tasted incredibly well rounded with its bright, light and fruity, citrusy top notes, blending well sweet potato, honey notes underneath. These notes lie on top of a deeper slightly woody note that lies on top of a slightly vegetal, slightly mineral light malt note.

As it cools a slightly lemony green floral blends with the fruit, a cream and roasted cashew note blends with the sweet potato and honey, with the honey intensifying, and a hint of cocoa blends with the lower base notes, it also becomes more buttery and smooth in texture and develops a feeling of greater density.

The tea has a mild to moderate astringency, a good balance of flavours, and a moderate level of caffeine.

The aftertaste has a good blend of honey and spice, with notes of lemon thyme, menthol, cinnamon, pepper and cocoa mixed with a tang of citrus.

This teas price is a result of the low yield of its style of plucking, its hand processing, and the general quality of the finished product which is unique and special.

It is absolutely delicious!

Special thanks to Capital Tea Ltd for this sample. The tea is available in 20g and 50g packages here: http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/product.php?productid=242&cat=0&page=1

For more information on Glendale estate go here: http://www.glendale-tea.com/about-glendale.html