Jun Chiyabari Estate Nepal Tea

This was an exceptional cup. Light, fruity, fresh, with some floral overtones. Light yellow liqour. Really pleasant. I may have to buy a tin of this.

This was one of the highlights of the last few years of tea drinking—a truly memorable cup. Like a darjeeling on steroids, fruit, sugar and herb notes were powerful without being overwhelming. The dry leaf was a thing of beauty in itself. While I’ve had a couple of ordinary teas from this fledgling estate, when they get it right, they can produce some of the best teas in the India/Nepal region.

I love the very faint apricot and fennel notes. Really good tea.

I finished all my Nepal Tea samplers, but my “trip” to Nepal this month isn’t quite over yet, as I found a few other samples of Nepali tea in my stash. This one came from Meowster’s cupboard destash many a summer ago. Thanks Meowster!

Steeped 2.5g in 195F water for 3 minutes. The brewed aroma is very floral, with a strong sweet spices scent (like cinnamon) thrown in. Perhaps a hint of toasted bread slathered in marmalade, as well. The flavor hasn’t held up as well in this very old tea as the aroma, as I’m not really tasting any of those things. It mostly tastes of dry autumn leaves, with a hint of cinnamon spice and graham biscuit. There is a subtle apricot note, as well. I can’t help but feel there was probably a lot more notes in this fresh.

But it is servicable morning black tea, despite the age.

Thanks so much for that awesome swap, Meowster! I think I’ve only had one Jun Chiyabari before and it was the most delicious, multi layered, complex flavor combination of any tea I’ve ever had (this was from a long ago harvest from SingleOriginTeas.com but it was also the tea that changed flavor the quickest). Now this tea might not be on that level, but every sip was delicious. It’s the most scrumptious of a Darjeeling type flavor. This golden brew has notes of peach along with the muscatel, and I’m pleased to see the description also notices the peach. It’s just a tough tea to describe, you just have to DRINK IT and taste the complexity. I will certainly savor the last few teaspoons I have!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug// 21 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 15 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

I can understand how people would love this tea, but it just wasn’t for me. I guess the flavors that just predominate for me are earthy and mossy. I really didn’t get the fruity notes at all, though now that I think about it there was faint liquorice flavor. And the liquorice is definitely more pronounced when smelling the dried leaves. I tried this tea again and again wanting to like it more, but I just didn’t. For me it is good, but just not spectacular. I predominately drink green and black and this just wasn’t one I liked though it seems like a high quality tea. The taste is like a somewhat less toasty and smoky formosa oolong, but definitely similar in body. There is a bit of fennel and mint and its very smooth. It also stands up to quite a few steeps, which is nice.