Nepal Black (Organic)

(DavidsTea 2022: 86)

Taking advantage of my mom’s tea collection (mostly supplied by me) while visiting, so a few teas outside the alphabet challenge. Unfortunately, should have read reviews before I steeped this so it wasn’t so astringent, but I did enjoy the richness when I could taste it behind those tannins!

I managed a DAVIDsTEA a long time ago and I made my staff do regular straight tea “tastings” to keep our tastebuds up to speed, and I suppose the many years that have gone by between my last “tea tasting” are catching up to me.

This is a nice throwback to when my assistant manager at the time would be asked to recommend a straight black — she would always enthusiastically point out Nepal Black, and for good reason! The tea isn’t too astringent, is hard to oversteep, and has some gorgeous honey notes. It’s a little chocolatey and little sweet, but is absolutely perfect first thing in the morning. And, apparently it makes me really nostalgic to my old DT days!

Nepal Black has a very interesting, rich, full-bodied flavor. It has a strong honeyed note that makes me think of honey poured over bread. Mostly honey with hints of wheat, hay, earth and dark chocolate. Something of an exotic spiciness to it as well. It’s like the deepest, darkest honey ever. Very rich and golden. I only steeped this for about 2 minutes and it brewed up to a dark gold-copper color and was wonderfully flavorful with no bitterness. I didn’t think that I even liked plain black tea, but this needs nothing extra and I think I need more…

Steeped with cooler water. A bit of a sour after sip. Wonder what is up with that?

In my short tea drinking life, this has been my favorite tea. I haven’t been able to find the subtle chocolate flavor that this tea suggests in anything else so far.

For the price ($10/50g) it is exceptional. It’s a medium flavored black tea that is very malty, and a little musty (as though it was a pu-erh, or had been aged). Despite me brewing it with nearly boiling water, and steeping it for about 2.5mins, there was no bitterness or astringency at all.

Evol sample, thank you!

I wondered if this was right since the tips were more gold making me wonder if it was a union, but the dry cocoa powder and peach seed smell of the leaves make me feel otherwise. Like I said before, Nepal needs more love. This is a good case as to why and was a good pick for me.

I brewed gong fu and the qualities were closer to a Yunnan black in a mega powdery cocoa mouth feel and taste with a dried and roasted fruit finish. It reminds me of a Darjeeling in the dryness, but since I’ve had Nepalese teas before, it’s really a Nepal dryness that I associate with the terroir. Picking up a bit of a honey aftertaste as well. Malty overall, and a bit dry, but very pleasant.

Another mug of tea, which tasted like liquid honey, from earlier in the month.

I remember drinking the mug but not the context of when I was drinking it – now that I’m done with adventageddon I have a small queue of cups of tea that I had over the month outside of advent teas that I’ll have to work my way through…

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

This is a nice black tea – but it reminds me of Honey Black, as in there’s a nice sweet honey note to it. It would be good with milk too.

Nice black leaf tea with a good amount of golden tips. The aroma was definitely pleasing. I had this brewed at the store. It waa was a little remaniscent of Oolong Supreme. Different from a ceylon. Two steepings each 3 minutes. I would have it again.