4 Tasting Notes
One of the three samples I received with my Teabox order recently was this particular black tea. I have had plenty of Darjeeling teas, and have enjoyed the light and delicate taste of spring teas. This tea is just that – light and delicate.
The moment you steep the leaves, the air around you start smelling fruity, like the fruits aisle at whole foods. I could make out mangoes, sweet and pulpy, in the aroma and i wa excited to taste in the liquor. Surprisingly, the liquor tastes more floral than fruity (in a good way).
This tea evokes the feeling of sitting by the window sill, on a spring morning, with the bright aroma of garden flowers all around you. It has restraint, a lot of it actually, and I wished the tea had more body. It falls short of spectacular on just that count.
Preparation
I wasn’t sure what to expect from a white tea from the south of India (I hadn’t really heard of Nilgiri teas until a friend recommended it) and did not really have high expectations, to be honest. This tea, however, surprised me.
It’s a sweet cup and bold one at that. I could relish luscious notes of pineapples (or maybe it was mangoes) throughout the cup and the sweetness is palpable. Compared to other white teas (be it Bai Hao Yin Zen or the ones from Darjeeling), this particular white tea has a bold and imposing personality marked by discernible flavors of yellow fruits.
What also stood out for me was how well balanced the cup felt, despite its rich fruity profile. There is a distinct vegetal undertone to this tea, but it is balanced beautifully by sweet note. I have never quite come across such a flavor mix before in a white tea. Like the description says, I think it’s ideal for someone who is new to white tea because unlike the Chinese white tea or Darjeeling white tea, the flavors herein pop at you far more clearly, and you don’t feel like you are drinking hot water (which happened when I first sipped a white tea).
Flavors: Mango, Pineapple, Vegetal
Preparation
I recently order myself a whole selection of Nilgiri tea samples from Teabox and I started with this one. And what a start it was.
It has an impressively sweet, rounded flavor profile and that’s the first thing you notice about this tea.There is the sweetness of fruits in the attack and middle, followed by a sweet floral note that comes through towards the end. No astringency what so ever! I guess it brought to me the memory of wild flower honey and what a happy feeling it was. I tried steeping the leaves in water that was heated to about 90 degrees Celcius, but the flavors weren’t as sweet and succulent. Guess, I’d be saving this for winter because i loved how full of tropics this tea felt.
