I’m so happy to be back on Steepster. Even though I have not been drinking a ton of tea in the past six days, I still have quite a few notes from the last two weeks that I need to post here. This will be the first. I finished a 10 gram sample pouch of this tea either at the end of last week or the start of this week. Compared to the Giddapahar Classic Summer Chinary Black Tea I reviewed back in the fall, I found this to be a much smoother, more appealing tea overall.
I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.
Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material emitted date, raisin, plum, chocolate, and wood aromas. After infusion, I noted emerging earth, malt, caramel, Muscatel, and slightly minty herbal aromas. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of malt, brown toast, earth, wood, roasted almond, caramel, rose, chocolate, black cherry, date, raisin, plum, Muscatel, and herbs with occasional hints of nutmeg. The finish was pleasantly earthy, nutty, woody, and malty with hints of black cherry, rose, Muscatel, and herbs.
Another excellent Darjeeling black tea, this tea was both quite complex and tremendously drinkable. To be completely honest, it was the sort of tea that made me wish last year’s harvests had not been cut short because it was shaping up to be a fantastic year all around. If you are a fan of second flush Darjeeling black teas, this one is well worth a try.
Flavors: Almond, Brown Toast, Caramel, Cherry, Chocolate, Dates, Earth, Herbs, Malt, Muscatel, Nutmeg, Plum, Raisins, Rose, Wood
