I’d never heard of the Indian state Arunachal Pradesh until buying tea from Ketlee. It’s been fun to look at maps and read about the histories of all these tea-growing states within India. Arunachal Pradesh is a part of that northeastern appendage of India that is bridged to the subcontinent via a region in West Bengal bottlenecked by the countries Nepal and Bangladesh. Borders, arbitrary. It’s all a part of that swath of Himalaya mountain range.
This tea has similarities to black teas from other mountainous Himalaya regions like Nepal, Sikkim and Darjeeling. There’s no way I’d be able to differentiate where it was grown based on its characteristics. (How many of these other Himalayan teas are passed off as Darjeeling?) It doesn’t bare much resemblance to teas from Assam. Could that be a result of variety? — sinensis vs assamica? Which is the more commonly grown variety in the lowlands of Assam?
Anyway, it’s a medium-oxidized black tea closer to the fuller end that has a soft aroma of cocoa-vanilla with a strong wafer component. The taste is tangy at first with a citrus tone, the experience mild, almost diluted using Ketlee’s gongfu parameters. Notes of toasted wheat bran, wafers, peach and chocolate. Juicy swallow gives way to a growing drying mouthfeel and a returning aroma. Second infusion has a more pronounced aroma with red cherry and peach balanced by rose and something spicy, leafy and sharper like marigold. Taste is about the same though turning toward dry leaf and hot hay. The tea just kind of fades out after several infusions.
It’s nice and delicate tea but for my preferences, I’m going to have to find some different parameters to draw out the qualities that Ketlee appreciates.
Flavors: Cherry, Chili, Chocolate, Citrus, Cocoa, Dry Leaves, Drying, Floral, Flowers, Hot Hay, Peach, Rose, Smooth, Soft, Tangy, Vanilla, Wheat
Preparation
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Wait, is Darjeeling from Sinensis sinensis and not Sinensis assamica?
afaik from my armchair in america
Google says it is! Why did I pigeonhole all Indian as Assamica?
Now I want to try a little of this! And then more, and more, and more… Saving it into wishlist and… let’s check Ketlee.in teas. However, it is outside the EU, darn.
Wait, is Darjeeling from Sinensis sinensis and not Sinensis assamica?
afaik from my armchair in america
Google says it is! Why did I pigeonhole all Indian as Assamica?
Now I want to try a little of this! And then more, and more, and more… Saving it into wishlist and… let’s check Ketlee.in teas. However, it is outside the EU, darn.