Nepal Black (Organic)

The leaves are long, wiry and dark, with twists of gold like the picture (although they aren’t nearly so bright).

It smells nice, and brewed to a nice red. I got a faint hint of fruit in the taste, but mostly a Ceylon tea taste. Oaky, I guess, although I don’t really know what that means. Perhaps smoky in that it almost seems salty. Ceylon in the front, sort of savoury. Almost, /almost/ like fruit at the edge, or the beginning.

I realized when making this, that Davidstea puts the same steeping parameters on all its tea. Well, that explains a lot. I’ll be ignoring those from now on, I suppose.

Sometimes there are no words. Just a nice cup of tea, that just defines what tea is to you, and it feels like coming home to an old friend.

Mmmm.

Backlog 3/25/14: This morning, courtesy of Natalie & DAVIDsTEA, I brewed Nepal Black Western style: 8 oz / 1.25 tsp (2.3g) / 205*F / 4-6 min. without sweeteners, milk, or cream.

I was truly looking forward to reviewing this year’s Nepal Black as I was very impressed with last year’s crop.

Note: The brewing instructions have changed since 4/10/13 when I last reviewed this tea: 1.5 tsp. / 208*F / 4-5 min.

Leaf: Both fine & thick, twisted, dark chocolate brown with some amber, mostly short, with several as long as 3.5 mm
Fragrance: Mild notes of pipe tobacco
Liquor: Clear medium copper
Aroma: Mild earthy
Flavor: Malty

4-min.: Moderately full-bodied, I then let it steep an additional min.
5-min.: A rich, smooth, full-bodied malty tea with a hint of cocoa and a mild sweetness. Unfortunately, the obvious honey aroma & flavor of last year’s crop is not apparent this year. There was no hint of bitterness or astringency.

Re-Steeping:
6-min: Not yet full-bodied.
7-min: Same
8-min: Same
9-min: Same
10-min: Same – Did not re-steep well – light to medium bodied at best.

Compared to last year’s crop:
“*Re-steep*: 5-min: Truly as good as the first cup – Excellent!
2nd Re-steep – 6-min: Nearly as good & still enjoyable! After three cups, there is a wonderful delicate natural sweetness that lingers long on the tongue. Well done!”

Today, 4/1/14, I brewed another cup – 8 oz / 1.5 tsp (3g) / 205*F / 5 min.:
The increased leaf (same as recommended last year) produced a more rounded full-bodied enjoyable cup. However, the honey flavor is still not present and the increased leaf did not significantly improve the re-steep flavor/body.

Impression: This year’s Nepal Black is not the equal of last year’s crop.

Thanks to Natalie & DAVIDsTEA for their gracious sample of this very fine Nepal Black.
Method:
RO water re-mineralized with an Aptera filter http://steepster.com/teas/teaware/39532-puregen-aptera-alkamag-water-filter
http://steepster.com/teaware/teavana/39311-perfect-tea-spoon
http://steepster.com/teas/teaware/37731-my-weigh-durascale-d2-660-digital-scale
Brewed western-style conveniently in a tea mug with a brew basket http://steepster.com/teas/teaware/29177-finum-brewing-basket.
http://steepster.com/teas/davidstea/36677-thermometer-and-timer

Another foray for me into the world of non-flavoured black teas :)

This reminds me of orange pekoe oddly enough. It’s mild, both in scent and in taste. That’s not a bad thing at all, just unexpected. One day, I’m going to have to make myself a taste test bar of different black teas. Well, once I have more than 2 black teas in my cupboard. As of right now, I think I like my darjeeling a little bit better.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other straight black teas I should try? Or better yet, does anyone want to do a tea swap with me so I can try other black teas? I have tons of flavoured teas to share :)

I went to David’s for a bunch of fru-fru teas and decided that it was time to pick up a straight black to go with my Orange Pekoe. I smelled this one, decided I wanted it and bought 50g because I couldn’t justify spending $22 on tea that day.
I’ve already tried it and it was INSANELY sweet. I put in milk and honey and all I could taste was the honey. So I’m trying it this time with just a splash of milk.
The smell reminds me of the days of the honey latte when I worked at Starbucks. And those honey stir sticks. I don’t know if I like that or not. But mmmmm… This is one tasty tea! It’s rare that I can find a black tea that I don’t automatically want to pitch a crap-ton of sugar into, so this’ll be good for the waistline too. Bit of an interesting aftertaste (like a tinniness, but in a good way. The coldness, but not the metallics. Maybe? It’s been a while…). I’m going to try doing a second brew with this bag too, since I’ll be working late tonight.
Woo!

This tea is really “light” and it has a certain degree of fluidity in mouth.
This one really has really a honey-like feel into it.
There is also some woodsy notes.

But the taste is quite simple.
Nothing extraordinary in this one.
It’s just an expensive everage black tea.

Thumbs up : Sweet honey feel.
Thumbs down : The price, you’re better buying their Orange Pekoe.

I just fell in love again…Wild Black Yunnan being my first love, now meet Nepal Black from David’s tea. It’s a totally satisfying black tea like Wild Black Yunnan but has an added sweet honey after taste that increases as the tea cools and has no bitterness whatsoever. Overall, this tea is simple yet amazing. A definite keeper until no longer available (and I hope that won’t happen, ever).

I found that I really liked this tea – it was a little close to a Darjeeling, but not too much.
I was looking for a nice mild black and I definitely found it in this one. Very mild but not watery, there is not one flavour that stands out strongly which is nice. It did steep up a little sweet as well. A great simple black for mellow afternoons, though I think this would be good any time of the day, really. I’ll be returning to get some of this for my tea shelves.

**I’ve changed this review 4 times! gah! no more!

First off, Jun Chiyabari isn’t a David’s Tea exclusive.

Okay, that aside, I really like the Jun Chiyabari tea estate, or at least what I have tasted before. This one is very sub-par from what I am used to. Still good, but didn’t have the complexity that I’ve been tasting from the estate. Maybe David’s Tea just bought a bad batch? (Maybe that’s where the exclusivity comes in….because I really love the Jun Chiyabari garden).

It has this smokey tanned leather taste, with an aroma that just smells bitter, it does develop into a sweetness that reminds me of most Yunnan blacks. But this isn’t what I’m used to from Nepal? I don’t know. not my cup of tea is what it boils down to.

This is next on my list to buy! I tried a cup on the weekend and it was lovely. It was suggested to me by the person working there, and I really enjoyed it. I had it without milk or sweetener, but because most straight teas I prefer that was and because she said that it already had a sweet, honey like taste. I could definitely taste the honey but it wasn’t overly sweet – I definitely wouldn’t add anything to this one through.

It was way too hot to drink at first so I took the bag out after a few minutes and did some shopping! By the time we went back to the car it was still very warm and I was able to taste it a bit more clearly. I am still looking to try some more straight black teas, but so far this one was my favorite.