Nepali Tea Traders

This was a nice, robust black tea: malty, mineraly, tannic, with a touch of sweetness in the later steeps.

The nicest thing about this tea is that no matter how much I steeped it, it never got bitter. The flavor was strong, but the brew stayed smooth.

This would make a nice breakfast or every-day-with-meals tea. It’s also nice for a beginner, since it seems to be difficult to ruin.

I need this in every morning. Superb Taste……

Thanks for sharing this one with me variaTEA this is my first chance to try tea from nepali tea traders (i think, unless my tea sister has sent some my way previously) and it was delicious! a very smooth cup, with a bit of maltiness and some sweetness. a little bready but just a great cup of tea to start the morning off. I’d pick up more of this for sure.

The leaves here had a very soft texture, and were a medium sage green colour with the occasional white fuzzy tip. The texture was reminiscent of grass clippings: tangled, curly, piled up.

The aroma is what really sets this tea apart: it smelled very much like a Bai Mu Dan tea, with notes of flowers, peach, and pears. There was a slight mustiness underneath, but that just enhanced things.

I used the full packet of dry leaf but brewed it with 1 litre of cold water rather than 2.

Of the white teas I’ve tried by Nepali Tea Traders so far, this was by far the sweetest and most delectable. Floral, soft, and mouth-coating. This one is a winner.

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2016/06/iced-tea-nepali-tea-traders/

(PS: I’ve redesigned the site. Take a look!)

The leaves on this tea are a pale spring green with some white fuzzy tips. Overall, they’re beautiful, picture-perfect spring buds. The aroma is sweet but vegetal, like spring peas — somewhat nutty, like a very light dragonwell tea, but also somewhat floral.

I took the entire packet and cold steeped it in 2 litres of water in the fridge for 2 days. The resulting brew was a pale clear yellow, lighter than straw, and very refreshing: it tasted nutty, like the aroma of the dry leaf, but there was also a vegetal note underneath. It was very soft and clean in my mouth, and went down smoothly — no astringency or strong aftertaste.

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2016/06/iced-tea-nepali-tea-traders/

(PS: I’ve redesigned the site. Take a look!)

I bought this last year as part of Amoda Tea’s Black Friday sale. It was sitting in my cupboard all winter. When I saw that Nepali Tea Traders sent me a white Sandakphu tea to sample, I thought it would make sense to review them at the same time.

However, that plan didn’t come to pass very well — I finished the white tea before I had a chance to drink the black, so I couldn’t do a side-by-side comparison. However, I will say that the texture of the two leaves appears very similar, with that piled, tangled look.

The dry leaf here smelled sweet and woody, kind of like cherries. I decided to have this one hot rather than cold, so I brewed a heaping spoonful with boiling water for 3.5 minutes. Brewed, the flavour was fruity, woody, and somewhat haylike. I also got a sensation of malt and cola, I think.

The profile here was fairly similar to other Nepalese black teas I’ve had in the past, with a faint sour note underneath the wood. I don’t remember detecting such a sour note in the white tea, which is interesting.

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2016/06/iced-tea-nepali-tea-traders/

(PS: I’ve redesigned the site. Take a look!)

Curled, tangly leaves with a mix of green and white tips. I also noticed some brown twigginess. It smelled mild and nutty but for some reason I just wasn’t a fan of the nuttiness of this tea once it was brewed. I used only 1 L of water to make the flavour stronger, but I think that wasn’t the best strategy here.

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2016/06/iced-tea-nepali-tea-traders/

(PS: I’ve redesigned the site. Take a look!)

Sipdown!

This was one of my go-to teas to drink before leaving for work in the morning because it requires such a low brewing temperature. Cooler tea = I can drink faster = I can leave for work on time.

That said, while I appreciated how soft a flavour it is, I really wish that the orange peel was more prominent.

Nepali Tea Traders sent me some of the base green tea to try on its own, so maybe that will be my new morning go-to until I finish it off.

This blend contains orange peel in addition to jasmine. I’ve imagined for a while that orange and jasmine would be a match made in heaven, so when I saw that this tea was part of the Amoda sale, I had to give it a try!

The thing that I was immediately struck by when I first opened the envelope was just how visible the jasmine was in the blend. Mixed in with the dark green strands of leaf and chunks of dried orange peel were whole flowers. Huge!

However, the leaf didn’t smell like the perfumed onslaught I was expecting. Instead, it smelled mild, slightly vegetal, and slightly floral.

This lightness and gentleness held up upon brewing. I took a big heaping spoonful and steeped it for 2 minutes in 70°C water, as directed on the package. I was worried that this would lead to a weak, nothing-flavoured tea, but I was mistaken — the resulting liquid was a pleasing orange-yellow colour that signalled good things.

And, yup, the taste was just like the dried leaf — mild, gently sweet, and with a texture and softness in the mouth that reminded me of baby powder (in a good way). The jasmine flavour here is wispy and feather-light. Surprisingly pleasant! I didn’t get any orange, but I’m still in love with how gentle the whole thing is.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/04/orange-ginger-jasmine-oh-look-amoda-teas/

Apparently I forgot to log this so I am back to 99 teas but still under 100. Yay! This is a smooth tea with a dash of malt and some baked bread notes. It’s a little bit brisk but not overly so. Alright, but nothing special.

Moderate to high maltiness, higher as it cools. Sour but not bitter notes in the finishing tastes, maybe a bit of tobacco but not smoke. Astringency is moderate. A good, bright tea. I don’t know if I’ll replace when it is gone, but if it were on sale or had no shipping… I’d seriously consider it.

Very light for a black tea; it looks like a green. Taste is mostly malty with some grassy and citrusy flavor as well. Makes me think of a first flush Darjeeling.

Leaves are small with lots of leaf fragments. Maybe not the best candidate for gaiwan brewing. As I resteep it seems to be getting more bitter over time, possibly due to the state of the leaves.

Sweet but not particularly interesting.

I have a strong affinity for teas from Nepal, some of the most overlooked teas in the world come out of this region. Several of the very best green teas I have had have come from Nepal. This is a very lightly oxidized Darjeeling-style tea. It has many of the excellent flavors found in its more expensive counterparts, but overall it is not quite as complex. Still a delicious tea I would buy again.

I got this sample from Good Tea Leaf. I hadn’t heard of them before, but apparently they offer samples of tea from various tea vendors for a discounted price once a month. This one came from Nepali Tea Traders. Now, I typically try not to drink tea after about 9 but I just got home from work and it was such a snowy night here in KC that I couldn’t pass up a little tea time. I chose the white tea for it’s relative lightness, and lightness is exactly what I am getting.

I put 7g in my gaiwan and gave it a quick rinse. The little buds and leaves smell very mildly of dried grass with a touch of sweetness. A 10 second steep and I can barely make out any flavor profile. 15 seconds gives me a touch of the same sweet grass as before. I went ahead and skipped to 30s, 45s, a minute… still just sweet grass, maybe a touch of something citrus. When I reheated my water and gave it a longer steep at a highter temperature a decent amount of astringency came out. I will use the rest of the sample to brew this Western style.

Overall I wouldn’t buy this tea again, there are just too many good white teas out there. I also wonder when this tea was picked. A quick scan of the original website didn’t give a production date, and if this is a 2014 or before much of the original complexity could very well be gone. That said, I WOULD order samples form Good Leaf Tea again. Quick shipping and an overall good experience.

This was a free sample from Napali Tea Traders. Thank you! This is one of those just good black teas. Nothing fancy, nothing that stands out, but just solid. It is smooth, and slightly caramely/malty. Not really any astringency. Prior to getting into loose leaf tea it is what I wold have been referring to when I said I will have some tea.

I received this as a courtesy sample along with the free sample of Himalayan Chai. Thanks, Nepali Tea Traders!

Brewed in an infuser mug. Followed the website’s direction.

The dry leaf is pretty, up close. The leaves are short and curly, and are mostly very dark green, some red-tinted brown, and a few white with hairs. I also like the look of the wet leaf: uniformly chocolate-like, some broken, others whole. I never had a Nepalese tea in general, so I went in expecting nothing. This oolong resembles a first flush Darjeeling. The overall aroma smells of white grapes. The liquor, which becomes juicier as it cools, has a muscatel taste. Amber colored and smooth, light in body and in flavor intensity.

Enjoyable, but I’d waiver on a purchase. I like my fruity/muscatel teas to be punchier. I’d have to increase the leaf-water ratio. However, if offered a cup, I wouldn’t refuse.

Another from VariaTEA and yes…it’s an early grey. But this is a muted, orange-ish sort of tea. it’s less earl grey and more…weird orange black tea. Not a fan…was hoping from something different with the vanilla addition in this one.

This was part of the Amoda Nepal tasting box. $5 of the price of the box went to benefit the victims of the earthquake this year, so it gave me a “good” excuse to buy more tea. I’m really liking this tea a lot. The flavorings are mild, and you can still appreciate the base tea, which is fresh and vegetal. I’m looking forward to tasting this tea again when I’m not painting my nails (the citrus from the nail polish remover I’m sure is overwhelming some of the aromas and flavors that are there.)

Unrelated: I’m newly obsessed with the Hae Min Lee case since discovering the Undisclosed podcast. I anxiously await the second season of Serial and the results of the testing on the forensic evidence (will it be made public regardless of the results?)

I ordered a sample of this from Amoda tea right before they sold out. The vanilla bean is the star of this blend. It is super fragrant in the dry leaf, and truly vanilla bean in flavor (not vanilla flavoring, not cream or frosting flavored). The black tea is rich and smooth without being too overpowering. The orange notes are just present enough to confirm this is an earl grey, but the citrus definitely takes a backseat to the herbal vanilla. I don’t drink my tea with milk or sugar, so I am getting the most robust take on this blend. I bet this would be decadent and comforting with a dose of milk. I will be eager to see when this ends up back in stock, it’s the suavest earl grey I’ve had the pleasure to drink.

Thank you to Nepali Tea Traders for the sample! I suspect this is the same tea used for the base of their Masala Spiced blend. It’’s delicious. Apparently Nepalese blacks lack the astringency of most other black teas and don’t hurt my stomach. This one is mellow and bready with a faint apricot note. In later steeps, a strong honey note comes to the fore. I’m truly displeased that this is a sipdown. Once I get my cupboard under control, this goes on the keep-in-stock list. Though it seems like I’ve been saying that for years about various teas and my cupboard is still a mess…