Yatra Tea Company

This poor tea, so neglected yet so delicious!  SkySamurai sent it over a while ago, thank you!  There are only two search results on Steepster for ‘Wah Estate’ so this tea is a rarity.  This should be a first flush Darj but it seems much more like the green tea it is labeled as.  The first steep was amazing, but the second steep was overdone.  That first steep though!   A perfect green for being from 2017.  All the flavor elements I crave from a great green tea. The second steep was heavy vegetal.    Either two teaspoons is too much or this one likes extremely cooler water.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 46 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 min after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep

I had this sweetened with milk, which I’m pretty sure isn’t how it was meant to be enjoyed. I keep automatically adding milk to teas no matter the type by accident. It was unlike other teas I’ve had though. It’s hard to describe. It was a pleasant plant-like flavor. Grabbed from a TTB, so I don’t know much about this one.

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #146 overall / Tea #17 for April
Monday 04/12 — #4 yatra tea company Sakhira estate first flush 2017 black tea 10g. Split tea in half to make two 32 oz hot plain tea for the homemade kombucha jar. Next! :D
#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown #sipdownchallenge

This is a great morning tea. I brew it western style in a relative close fashion to what the company recommends. The first brew is more complex while the second brew is more subtle and sweet. You could probably get 3 steeps out of this however I opt for 2. One for 3 minutes and another for 5-6. I find it to be a good value also at it’s current price point of $10 for 50 grams.

Discovery Tea Box – Tea Three

So, I think this is what I pulled out of the tea box? It was one of several teas from Yatra that simply had the company and estate name. I may visit a couple of the other teas from Yatra because it’s a company that’s new to me, sorta. I say sorta because I HAVE heard of them but I’m not able to order from them here in Canada (no international shipping). I chose this one specifically, though, because it was the only estate of the teas in the box that I wasn’t 100% certain that I’d tried a tea from before.

My first thought trying it was that it was really bland, however progressing through the cup I’d say that it’s less that it was a ‘bland’ tea and more that it’s just really quite mellow and light bodied. Some fruitiness popped out to me; generic red fruit sort of notes and a mild lemony sort of undertone. Couldn’t help but also think of Yuzu, because there was some pepperiness/SUPER mild spice notes in the blend as well and yuzu is basically peppery citrus – but I don’t think this tea really had the ‘punch’ that I associate with yuzu for it to be a super valid comparison. This was also a bit malty, and sort of honey-ish sweet.

Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it.

Put the rest of the bag back in the box, hopefully someone else will get something from it.

Did better brewing this time. Increased leaf, decreased temperature, and this is lasting what feels like an eternity. Very good flavors, reminds me I should try more white teas. Gongfu brewing again, will try at least one attempt at Western style before the sample is gone.

I goofed up my first attempt at this tea by forgetting that white tea does best with lower water, so I boiled the first couple infusions. Took a few for astringency to show up, at which point I had to let the kettle cool off. I was doing gongfu, and probably also underleafed a tad since the tea is so voluminous when dry. This is definitely an excellent tea so I will try it again soon with better parameters.

This tea is so good. Nice and floral and fruity up front. A real pleasant tea to drink. If you like Darjeeling, you will like this. I went with 205F and 2 minutes for my first steep, and it is wonderful. I should be able to get two more steeps out of it at least.

This is a nice tea that is similar to a first flush Darjeeling, except there seems to be no issues with astringency when brewing at high temperatures. Nice a floral and a little fruity. A nice value too.

This is a very nice Darjeeling, but you have to be careful on time and temperature, otherwise you have an astringent mess on your hands. I did 190 degrees at 2 minutes. This gets you a nice floral fruity tea with just a hint of malt to remind you that it is a black tea.

First ever darjeeling – Goomtee Estate from Yatra Tea Company.
So, going into this I’ve never really had Indian tea before so I can only really compare this to Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese teas. I made this two ways – gongfu like I would a Chinese black and as the instructions said: 2.5g to 177ml for 3-4 minutes.
Gongfu – it tasted like a blend of a traditional Yunnan black and a Yunnan Yue Guang Bai white tea but with more fruitiness.
Per the instructions, it tasted kind of vegetal and kind of fruity and the empty cup smelled faintly of gummy bears.

I preferred it gongfu, but that’s probably just what I’m expecting to do when I make tea. All in all, I’m happy with this purchase, especially at half off during a flash sale.