Nepal Guranse Spring 'Hand-Rolled Floral' Black Tea

This tea was kind of dismal for me. Thanks anyway derk
Prepared western in my classic set-up, 2 tsp and 300 ml and I let it steep for 3 minutes at first. It was pretty much bland, so I let it steep more, for next two minutes.

It wasn’t much better to be honest, but some florals started to appear, but weakly. I have same experience as Bluegreen, though I was able to finish the cup. It was just like some heavily underleafed Darjeeling in very short steeping, though it was quite long one. I am surprised to get so different experience than eastkyteaguy had. Or it has suffered by age? It’s from Spring 2018, so not that old!

I guess I will brew the rest gongfu to make stronger brews.

This is a nice Darjeeling-type tea. It’s quite green. and aromatic – in fact, its aroma was the strongest point for me with intense meadow, hay and fruit fragrances. Prepared gongfu the taste was similarly intense, sweet and floral, with a typical Darjeeling profile. Muscatel was not too prominent, but flowers and stone fruit notes came out quite strong. Eastkyteaguy and Leafhopper identified individual flavors well enough, so I will not go in there.

The disappointing parts in my experience is that the complexity of taste fades quickly – I could not get many quality steepings. Oh, and also it was quite horrible Western style: just a bland undifferentiated sweetness that turned me off enough that I could not finish my cup (which is rare for me). It probably requires a very high leaf-to-water ratio to shine.

Wow, this is a delicious tea. Leafhopper and eastkyteaguy captured its essence with ease so I feel like this tasting note is redundant.

The tea is incredibly clean and has a satisfying full body edging into creaminess with a tangy citrus quality in the finish. Wonderful aroma. As for the taste — dried tangy apricot and citrus/zest fruitiness, orange blossom, rose, geranium and dandelion florals, roasted almond nuttiness and cream abound. Straw and grass, wood, malt, hints of pungency like green bell pepper and curry leaf. Tinges of both spice and spearmint cooling in the back of the mouth. Two infusions.

Substantial, light and refreshing. A beautiful tea!

Song pairing: Stone Temple Pilots — Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPJUUFta7A0

Eastkyteaguy’s review convinced me to get this tea, which, given my love of floral and fruity offerings from Darjeeling and Nepal, wasn’t difficult. I steeped 4 g of leaf in 355 ml of water at 195F for 5 minutes, plus another long infusion.

The dry aroma is of spice, dried fruit, nuts, and wood. Whoa! There’s a lot going on in this tea. I get dried apricots, tangy lemon and orange, rose, other flowers, roasted almonds, malt, grass, and mild background spice that is indeed chili-like. There’s no astringency, just a long aftertaste. The second infusion emphasizes notes of nuts, toast, cream, malt, and grass.

This is a unique, complex, and highly enjoyable first flush that has more going on than I can put into words. I didn’t get any muscatel, but I found citrus, stonefruit, and lots of florals, not to mention the intriguing spiciness. This is definitely a tea that repays careful savouring.

This was my most recent sipdown as I finished what I had of this tea a couple days ago. At this point, it should perhaps come as no surprise to any of my readers that I found this to be an impressive offering. Seriously, What-Cha does a great job of sourcing Nepalese teas. I have gotten to the point where I will just blindly purchase any Nepalese tea Alistair decides to stock.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. For the session detailed in this review, I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf material offered up aromas of malt, straw, grass, chili leaf, and wood. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of Muscatel, lemon zest, lime zest, green bell pepper, and hay. After the infusion, I found that the liquor offered aromas of apricot, roasted almond, butter, rose, and orange blossom. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of apricot, straw, malt, cream, butter, chili leaf, grass, straw, hay, dandelion, marigold, orange blossom, white peach, Muscatel, toast, lemon zest, lime zest, roasted almond, green bell pepper, and wood that were underscored by hints of wintergreen, spearmint, and rose before a smooth, slightly citrusy, malty, and vegetal fade.

This was a very high quality tea, one that yielded a highly aromatic, tremendously satisfying, and impressively textured tea liquor. Some of the Nepalese teas I have been trying lately have been a bit thinner and slicker in the mouth, but this one was smooth, silky, and luscious with a little more heft than I have been getting out of many recent Nepalese and Darjeeling teas. I would have liked to see a little more integration and balance with regard to some of this tea’s many aroma and flavor components, but overall, I found this to be an incredibly enjoyable offering. In terms of aroma and flavor, this tea was very comparable to some of the better first flush Darjeeling black teas out there, but honestly, I think it may have been just a tad better than a lot of the ones I have tried. Here’s hoping What-Cha continues to source teas from Guranse. I’d like to try a few more of their offerings.