Giddapahar Darjeeling Extra Special

This the last of this tea, and I’ve decided I like it a lot. Today I’m getting lots of peaches and almonds, with an easy going astringency that lends itself to the nuttiness. The finish is sour and fruity-sweet (like citrus), with some floral fluff. The astringent wave retreated after I was more than halfway through the cup.

It often takes me a while to “acclimatize” to this tea’s woody (sometimes grassy) astringency, but once I do I’m able to pick up on the creamy floral notes- those are fantastic. The whole experience reminds of Wanja’s extremely astringent, surprisingly floral, OP Black. The stuff is nippy but there’s a lot of personality underneath.

Edit: Second steep of over five minutes has almost no astringency. It’s floral, sweet and rich. This is a fantastic cup.

Second Edit: Sometimes the first steep had a vegetal seaweed note that I wasn’t super keen on. It was completely absent this particular session and I have no clue why.

I’ve been drinking my best teas lately, the ones I usually keep for special occasions.

Why wait?

As I’m going through lots of changes in my life, I realize the way I drink tea is also changing. I no longer want to have over 150 teas to choose from in my cupboard. Don’t want to be a tea hoarder anymore. I want to fully appreciate and take time with what I choose to buy. I no longer want to be disappointed when I remember a certain tea and realize it’s not fresh anymore cause I forgot it was there for the last 12 months!

Doesn’t mean I wont experiment and try new stuff, I’m too curious about tea for that. But I’ve been selling myself short by having too much…Never thought I’d say that!

Now the tea.

Just as its name leads you to believe, this tea is special so I am not saving it, I am drinking the life out of it!

I know I went heavy on the leaf, but this first flush has a lot of character, and that’s a very good thing. Nice golden colour, and fruity aroma. It is packed with taste, mostly peaches and sweet apples at first.

I get a nice fresh citrus astringency that I’m very fond of.

As a blind test, I would have guessed second flush because it’s so fruity. Then, the flower-power hits me, and I am reminded that it is a FF. It’s like a mix, best of both worlds!

The second steep was just as tasty, but less sweet, a little more astringent.

I have several other Darjeelings to review from Butiki, as the Darjeeling sampler was part of my last order.

Story…

Sorry I’ve had to neglect Steepster and all its lovely people lately…

Funny how life can take you on a ride. Mine just took such a turn, I will be forever changed.

The last 3 weeks have been hell. I’ve had to isolate myself to cope with what was happening.

I have thrown myself into exercising. This past week, I pushed my body to its limit by doing intense workouts. I just discovered HIIT (high intensity interval training) I am now hooked.

I also biked for 12 long hours yesterday, cross country trails. Meaning, hills, hills and more hills.

My new motto: exorcise with exercise! Yes, my back, my tooshie and my legs are killing me! But physical pain helps put my mind to rest… So as long as my body is allowing it, I’ll keep pushing for a while.

Aside from doing crazy workouts, I’ve kept my sanity by drinking lots of tea as usual.

And now I will catch up by reading my dashboard, as I’m sure your reviews will cheer me up :-)

I love this tea! Ever since it has arrived, it’s the only tea I drink. First Flush Darjeelings tend to be on the caffeinated side and this one is no exception. I feel a bit more alert after drinking this tea. It tastes so very fresh, since it was harvested earlier this month. Today I went pretty heavy on the leaves. I like this a bit on the heavy side with more astringency. The first thing I’m noticing today is maltiness followed by sweet almond and juicy peach notes. Those notes give way to strong jasmine notes. The jasmine is so strong that it almost tastes like a scented tea though the jasmine notes do not last long before hay and woody notes appear. There is a fantastic lingering sweetness. With the heavier leafing, I’m not tasting the lemon notes or the blackberry notes that I had previously tasted. Still, I enjoy this very heavily leafed. This year we added two additional 2013 first flush Darjeelings. This was my favorite of all the Darjeelings I tasted and that was quite a few. We also added another Darjeeling but I wanted something that would be less sweet than this and that’s why we also went with the Thurbo Estate. Both are phenomenal teas.

So I’m trying this one more time because I really didn’t like it the last time I had it. It tasted like a sea-weedy green tea to me. This time I used less leaf and steeped it at a lower temperature it was better.

There are dueling flavors going on in this tea. The first is a vegetal, creamy quality that tastes like a green tea. As it cools, this develops a little more of a nutty flavor. The second flavor is a very bright, tart, almost coppery tone. It is a distracting flavor and almost makes my mouth pucker each time I sip.

These two qualities kind of fight for attention in my mouth, almost always ending in the coppery flavor winning out in the aftertaste.

Although I like it better than the first time I tried it, this just isn’t my tea. Off to Rosehips it goes! :-)

This is a sipdown.
Its a light and delightful darjeeling, and makes for a very refreshing afternoon tea. I should have had some buttered toast with this.
This is very good. Its gone for now, but it may find its way back to me soon enough!

Treat it as a green, and I like it a whole lot better.

Although I steeped it cool, and for a shorter length of time, and a lot of astringency is making itself known as the tea cools.

Anyways, this is nice. My brother really REALLY liked it as well. But he probably brewed it with water at a rolling boil, for 5 minutes. Oh, those coffee drinkers… ;)

So I’m pretty sure darjeelings aren’t my thing. Similar to most green oolongs, there’s a distinct flavour in a lot of them that I don’t enjoy. Stacy sent me this sample, and afterwards apologized because she realized that this wouldn’t be a tea I’d enjoy. That’s what I love about her – she tries to build relationships with her customers. :) I saved this for a day when I could try a few darjeelings at the same time to see how they compare. This one has a sweetness to it that I can get behind, but still carries that same Darjeeling taste. I think it’s the after taste that I don’t like. Well I can appreciate that this is a lovely tea, Stacy is right in that it is not the tea for me. Still though, I’m happy to have tried it :)

This tea also came with me to breakfast. In retrospect, I wish I would have saved this one for later, so I could really focus on the sample, which Stacy sent to me a few weeks ago. I usually like to drink these samples when I’m just sitting around so I can pay attention to them, but it was in my purse, & I wanted more tea, so there it is.

It’s a greener Darjeeling, & the main thing I noticed about it was a pleasant peachy flavor & some nice malt, & some vegetal notes. As the cup cooled a little these were joined by a floral essence, very jasmine like.

Thank you Stacy. This is a very nice Darjeeling.

Another Butiki sample! I don’t usually go for Darjeelings but this one sounded very intriguing. Of course it will, since it is from Butiki and they sell some special teas. The blend looks like a black tea with some green leaves mixed in.. which I don’t usually see in a black tea. I tried to follow Butiki’s steeping parameters and I waited for the water to cool a while, since the instructions say 190 degrees which seem a bit low for a black tea. This one has a VERY light color in the cup — it’s a very light yellow. I had to check if this was a black tea. The first thing I notice is the flavor is very smooth. It kind of smells like lemon before I even taste it, then it tastes like peaches. The lemon was more noticeable on the second steep. This one is a bit difficult to decipher. Maybe it is too mild for my palate. It’s definitely the lightest black tea I’ve tried and I definitely like my black teas tougher than this! Darjeelings aren’t really my thing but I wish I had more to say about this one. But this is probably my least favorite from the MANY I’ve been able to sample from Butiki, probably because Butiki blends are usually bursting with flavor.

Finally tasting the last of my birthday green tea samples from Butiki! If I didn’t know what kind of tea I was drinking, I would assume this one is a type of black tea, based on the earthy malty flavor. But it doesn’t end there! There is a sweet, bright floral or fruity note to this tea as well, especially the more my cup cools. Very complex and multi-layered. I’m glad I got to try it. Thanks Stacy!

I’m looking forward to re-steeping it a few times as I work today. It is no fun to be stuck at work on the Friday after a holiday! This tea is nice and energizing though, and the boss brought us donuts :)