Vahdam Teas

First up today we have Earl Grey by Vahdam tea, and we all know anything thats good enough for Captain Picard is good enough for me. I started by heating the glass pot and putting the dry leaf and giving it a sniff. I smelled tea in general, but I really got a strong smell of a very citrus orange. Ive never had bergamot, but I have seen it described as a cross between a lemon and an orange, and thats pretty close to the aroma I got.

Brewing it for 3 minutes in a glass pot. This is still a bit strange to me as Chinese blacks you never brew in glass because of the heat retention, but in England this seems to be the classic way to brew tea, so when in Rome. 2 grams in 180 ml, I also went western style with this.

I got a really nice aroma on opening the pot, and tasting the tea, there was surprisingly little bitterness and the tea was thicker than I expected for a western brewed tea. The flavor is very nice, orange and citrus blending with a bit of malt and chocolate flavors that you usually get in Indian tea.

Im impressed with this tea, and the caffiene level is whoooo…. so yes its a nice morning cup of tea to wake up and the orange gives it a nice morning feel. I think this one might be going on my reorder.

I highly recommend this to anyone who likes Earl Grey, a squeeze of lemon in their tea, or just wants to wake up in the morning really fast.

This is a tasty black tea, malty and somewhat chocolaty in nature. As I recall it didn’t cost a lot. It is not quite so malty as I find the average Chinese black to be but less like a Darjeeling than a Chinese black.

I steeped this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes.

Having spotted their sale for new customers, I decided to try a few of their tea, as Id like to get a little more acquainted with Darjeeling tea.

First up with have Lopchu Golden Orange Pekoe, second flush.

I started this by brewing 2 grams in 180ml of water at 200 degrees, as per some steeping advice Ive gotten on brewing Darjeeling tea. The firs thing I noticed is on opening the lid is the most intense chocolate and earth aroma. I mean wow…

Giving it a few seconds to cool off a bit and pouring it into my gong dao bei, I poured the tea into tasting cups and sampled it. Im very impressed, chocolate, spiceyness on the tongue, malt, mineral and a bit of creaminess.

After watching some videos on brewing Indian and Ceylon teas, it seems its traditional to slurp a bit more than you do with Chinese teas, so when in Rome or in this case Darjeeling, the slurping began. This actually did seem to intensify the flavors a little, the chocolate was just like wow, and the tingle of the spice stayed on my tongue. Also I think I caught a little bit of what Darjeeling is known for the muscatel flavor, almost abit like dark fruits but I cant quite place it, Im going to chalk that up to my inexperience with these kinds of tea.

It did have that nice aftertaste you get with the higher quality blacks and dark oolongs, this is one that will probably find a home in my cabinet even after the samples are gone, especially since we are only a short time away from the 2017 second flush.

This is a nice tea, but it tastes more like a black tea than any oolong I am used to. There are no grassy or vegetal notes. Certainly no roasted notes. If anything it has a malty and slightly sweet characteristic that tastes like a Darjeeling second flush black tea.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes.

This is a nice tasting black tea that has little bitterness, a slight malty flavor and a subdued sweet note. It is very good.

I steeped this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes.

Got a free kg of this tea from Vahdam teas today in their 500cups contest. I had hoped for ten different teas but they sent a kg of the same tea. This tastes a little different to me this time. It is still good but I am noticing some grassy notes to it. Not something you expect from a black tea but in my mind first flush Darjeelings are not black teas. They are definitely processed differently. I think in fact that First Flush Darjeeling should be considered a seventh type of tea. They are that unique to my senses. I have drank all of the six types of tea and these don’t taste like any of them. I don’t know that I can finish this amount of one black tea but I will certainly give it a try. The only black tea that I can remember buying anywhere near a kg of would be the pressed black tea cakes from Yunnan Sourcing. This is overall an excellent tea.

I steeped this tea one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes.

This is a very nice tea from Vahdam Teas. It has a very light color to it and there were a lot of green leaves. There are some notes of malt and some sweet notes. The sweet notes might be described as fruity. It is good stuff. Need to try this as a cold brewed iced tea.

I steeped this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes.

This the 2017 Harvest.

This is a refreshing and subtle tea. The leaves are light, thin, and vibrantly green. I can pick up a deep umami scent along with sweet nectar, lilac, lily, okra, butter, and a nutty background with a light scent of unripe tree fruit. This is a complex and wonderful aroma with many layers. I grabbed my tetsubin and began steeping. The steeped leaves are just as vibrant as they are when dry and they emit a fresh green tea scent alike high quality longjing. The liquor is pale jade and thick with a first taste of fresh greens and the image of spring. The oily brew is alike a bud heavy green tea taste as well as a the silkiness of Anji Bai Cha. The finish is sweet with a soft bitterness of notes of green bean and a light sunflower finish. The tea bears a hefty price tag, but it is quite a treat. The drink is refreshing and nourishing with a “happy body” feeling. I sipped this outside on my porch during a surprisingly warm day. The brew was wonderful and put me in a laid back mood fitting for music, books, and conversation. I really enjoyed this, and I am glad that I was able to brew some up.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSwVnoEATb2/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel&hl=en

I love the teas from Okayti! This is a classic aromtic liquor and very fresh! It leaves you wanting for more :)

GCTTB

Another darjeeling. I think i preferred the other one to this but admittedly, i can still taste the previous tea in this cup, so not a fair assessment. I’ll hold off rating this one as a result, but i do get a bit of a drying sensation to this one, which makes me less inclined to love it.

This is the 2017 harvest.

I am very excited for this year’s spring teas, for I have a hunch that this will be much better than 2016. This will be my first tea of the spring teas, and this will be a first from this company as well. I usually get my Darjeeling from a few other places, but I have been hearing good things about Vahdam.

I am a huge fan of Upper Namring estate. Their teas are always crisp and refreshing with good fruity sweetness and a short bite. These leaves were small and slightly curled with fresh scents of flowers and sweet tree fruits. I take another inhale to bring about brown sugar and honey butter undertones. I grabbed my tetsubin and scooped in what I had. The brew is sweet and rich. A base of pine notes brings unripe mangoes to the palette. The tea finishes with a light bite that cleanses the palette and sweet succulent aftertaste. The liquor is aromatic with heavy honey roasted almonds and sugar crusted papaya. The taste continues to be smooth and rich with a great complexity of heavier molasses/brown sugar maple tones and higher softer florals/fresh white flesh fruit. This was a great Darjeeling, and a wonderful start to a joyous season!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSemGRyA4LS/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel&hl=en

Sticking with western brewing today as it takes less of my time while I am building a new display cabinet from Ikea for holding tea and teaware. This is a fairly nice black tea. Not as tasty as a first flush black tea but much stronger. So far all thye teas I have tried from Vahdam Teas have been good. This one is not bitter or astringent but I am not sure how to describe the main note. This one is strong enough that you could add milk if you wanted.

I steeped this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes.

Now this one from Vahdam tastes like a black tea. It is strong and robust with notes of malt in there. There is a little bitterness but not much. This is one I could see adding milk too but I did add sugar. I won’t go as far as to say I found chocolate notes. It is not as good as their first flush Darjeelings but still good. Of course this is a Assam so I expect it to be stronger. This is a good one to buy if you like a nice strong cup of tea.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes. I think it would have been better with a 2 minute steep.

This is an excellent tea. It has got a fruity note to it. It is a much lighter brew than the average black tea. It has no malty tones nor any astringency. I really can’t think of this as a black tea but it certainly does not taste like a green either. In my opinion first flush Darjeelings are a type of tea of their own.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes.

This is a tasty and somewhat malty breakfast tea. It is not as strong as an Irish breakfast tea I think but somewhere around the strength of an English breakfast tea. I am fairly sure this is a blend of teas but the website doesn’t seem to say. It is very good and not so bold as to need milk.

I steeped this twice in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water. I steeped for 3 minutes and 5 minutes.

When I grabbed this to brew I thought I was grabbing a black tea so I brewed it at a bit higher temperature than green tea normally gets. Doesn’t seem to have effected it though. This is very good tea but it doesn’t taste like a green to me any more than the first flush black tasted like a black. I am somewhat at a loss to describe the flavor of it. Sweet but not bitter. Not vegetal or particularly grassy like a green. It is just very tasty.

I brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes.

While this tea is a little bolder than the first flush I drank a few minutes ago it is not a real strong black tea but still a somewhat lighter taste to it. It had a sweet note with only a little bitterness and no astringency. There were fewer green leaves as in the first flush but there still were some. I don’t know if this tea is 100% oxidized like a regular black tea. It is quite good.

This is a very good tea that I would buy again for sure.

I steeped this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes.

Drinking this one now. It is quite good. It has a very light flavor to it and is not a dark a brew as the average black tea. There were a fair amount of green leaves mixed in with some black leaves. This as I understand is common with Darjeeling first flush. This tea has a natural sweet note to it an really no bitterness or astringency. This was my first direct order from India and it was lightning fast at about three days from when I put in the order. They shipped via Fedex and it was delivered before 10:30 this morning.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes. I should note that while this has a lot of green leaves it does not taste at all like a green tea. In taste it is really somewhere in between a black and green with it being closer to a black tea.

GCTTB

Quite enjoying my cup of this one. The flavour seems to modify every few minutes as it cools, alternating between stone fruit, muscatel, and soft tones of honey. The tea writeup claims dark chocolate, but I am not quite able to target that flavour in my sips. Clearly, more practice with darjeelings is needed.

Thank you, Mackie, for adding this one to the box.

A distinct fruity flavour unlike the dominating floral flavours of First Flush Darjeeling, it makes for the perfect late afternoon companion. More so if you are stuck with a never-ending presentation. Its mellow flavour calms the mind while alerting the senses, the perfect cuppa to see you through a long day.

Must have! Highly recommend it.

Jungpana is one of the few estates in Darjeeling that never fails to live up to the standards each year. Their definitive muscatel essence sets it apart from the other lighter-bodied First Flush teas. I particularly relish the burnt wood aftertaste.

This tea has a slight chocolate-y taste, though it’s subtle. Vadham’s description says “muscatel” but I’m getting far more cinnamon-y and rich flavors rather than fruity. It tastes very brown and earthy to me. I might try to steep a bit longer next time.