To do proper justice to this tea I had to clear myself of the misconception this is a black tea. Seller makes pointed references to Darjeeling, but I did not take enough notice, for some reason was expecting and treating this as a chinese black tea or say an assam. Nope. Not at all. But I have very little experiences with Darjeelings as well, some of this tea has been spoiled so far while I tried to figure it out. And for me it´s not too much leaf, cautiously hot water (80 to 85 would be my estimate) and some 4 minutes.
If you do that, it´s quite unlike all other teas (except you know, those famous darjeelings which I do not know well enough) and really quite extraordinarily lovely. Light, very light color, delicate flavour (seller mentions hazelnuts and cacao. Me nope, raisins, wine, maybe wine must), a bit of astringency underneath – I usually dislike all astringency but here is no flaw but part of the loveliness.
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I am the same way with darjeelings… I have to remind myself that they are very different than the black teas I am used to!
i second that! black teas that aren’t black teas at all :)
I think part of the problem was that I wanted to buy a plain black tea and this was listed (sensibly, canonically) in that part, so I bought it and was mentally categorizing it as a simple black tea. Ah, it has taught me better. It is really really lovely though, as long as I remember what it is truly is.
Sometimes it’s difficult to categorize a tea. I’ve tasted some Darjeelings that were closer to a green tea than a black tea. This caught me by surprise and I had a hard time rating the tea.
A very intriguing review – a light and delicate black tea with astringency, hmm! From what I hear, there are quite a few interesting Nepalese teas. The only black one I had was MF’s Red Himalaya, which was nothing like a Darjeeling, and nothing like what you describe. It was like a cross between a robust Yunnan black tea and a puerh. Bittersweet and earthy at the same time, but completely unlike any puerh, and quite intoxicating. Unfortunately, I only had a tiny sample available…
I have flirted a bit with Red Himalaya based just on the packaging. Sounds pretty interesting as well, though you are right, totally different to this one.
I only had another Nepal tea, Davids Tea Nepal Black which was more like a chinese black and pretty different – maybe part of the reason while I kept misbrewing and misunderstanding this Shangri-La
I am the same way with darjeelings… I have to remind myself that they are very different than the black teas I am used to!
i second that! black teas that aren’t black teas at all :)
I think part of the problem was that I wanted to buy a plain black tea and this was listed (sensibly, canonically) in that part, so I bought it and was mentally categorizing it as a simple black tea. Ah, it has taught me better. It is really really lovely though, as long as I remember what it is truly is.
Sometimes it’s difficult to categorize a tea. I’ve tasted some Darjeelings that were closer to a green tea than a black tea. This caught me by surprise and I had a hard time rating the tea.
A very intriguing review – a light and delicate black tea with astringency, hmm! From what I hear, there are quite a few interesting Nepalese teas. The only black one I had was MF’s Red Himalaya, which was nothing like a Darjeeling, and nothing like what you describe. It was like a cross between a robust Yunnan black tea and a puerh. Bittersweet and earthy at the same time, but completely unlike any puerh, and quite intoxicating. Unfortunately, I only had a tiny sample available…
I have flirted a bit with Red Himalaya based just on the packaging. Sounds pretty interesting as well, though you are right, totally different to this one.
I only had another Nepal tea, Davids Tea Nepal Black which was more like a chinese black and pretty different – maybe part of the reason while I kept misbrewing and misunderstanding this Shangri-La