Wah (Spring) Kangra Green Tea

This is probably the first green tea from India for me. I got it from Skysamurai through the Discovery Teabox and it was actually sold by Yatra Tea, but I am pretty sure it’s the same tea and I don’t feel like creating another entry for it, especially considering that Yatra Tea don’t seem to sell it anymore.

Anyway, with regards to the tea, the dry leaf smells like strawberry plants and there are even more similar notes in the wet leaf smell — like thistles or blackberry plant. The smell has the hay like quality of young sheng in fact. Once the leaves cool down, I also get the smoky aroma.

The taste is also slightly akin to a young sheng, but less bitter and more woody and robust. Some notes that come up are conifer (maybe spruce?) twigs, rhubarb and thyme. Aftertaste is a little spicy and sweet. Overall, it’s a pleasant taste I would say, not quite what I would expect from a green tea though.

This is delicious, I personally don’t understand why all India seems to be known for is Darjeeling black tea. Teabox’s greens have been incredible. The dry leaves smell a bit like a gunpowder; you can definitely tell it’s smoky, but its not .. central to the tea like the site says. The leaves smell just as the tea tastes, which I quite like. It’s woody and a little earthy, it has a bit of a rocky taste even haha, its like I’m exploring the forest. It does have that smokiness, but like I said, it’s well balanced with the woodland notes. It has a moderate astringency and at least the cup i’m drinking right now is a bit bitter.. but it was the last one in my sample so there were some smaller leaf bits and i think that’s probably why. But then again, the bitterness isn’t bad.. it’s actually quite nice. It’s got that addictiveness that I looove in teas, where i just cant stop sipping it until its gone, and it’s really rich and smooth. If you have yet to try a good Indian green I’d definitely recommend this one :) a great price too, $11 USD for 100 grams

This was a nice green tea but it was a little bitter and dry tasting. I know that it is said to have a smoky taste but it didn’t really blend all that well with this tea- but overall it is a nice quality leaf.

This tea is very interesting. It’s smoky like a gunpowder green tea, but smoother, with just a hint of pleasant bitterness. I just read that they use Chinese plants in India for this tea, so that makes sense, because it kind of tastes like a cross between gunpowder green and Darjeeling. Teabox said to steep for 4-5 minutes, but I limited my first steep to 2 minutes, then increased by a minute for the second and third steeps, and another minute for the 4th steep…it easily held up to 5 steeps, impressive! Very good tea, enjoying my first Kangra tea experience!