Yet another review from the backlog, I finished this tea about a week ago. If memory serves, I finished this one the same day I finished the Nepal Golden Tips Black Tea from What-Cha. Amazingly, the backlog is getting small. I should only have about four or five more reviews to go after this one. Anyway, time to get back on track here. I found this to be a very nice second flush Darjeeling.
I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped about 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. No subsequent infusions were attempted.
Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material emitted aromas of wood, fruit, flowers, and herbs. After infusion, I detected aromas of wood, toast, malt, orange blossom, and Muscatel underscored by hints of rose, violet, and herbs. In the mouth, I found pleasant, well-layered notes of malt, cream, butter, roasted almond, wood, toast, herbs, straw, Muscatel, and orange blossom balanced by quite subtle impressions of chocolate, rose, violet, nutmeg, and golden raisin. The finish was smooth and mellow, offering lingering notes of roasted almond, herbs, malt, cream, Muscatel, and orange blossom.
It seems that the teas produced by the Gopaldhara Estate never disappoint me these days. I greatly appreciated how complex this tea was. It had so much flavor, yet remained very smooth and balanced. Though I would have liked to see a little more pronounced of a Muscatel presence, this tea was still very good. I imagine it would please most fans of second flush Darjeelings.
Flavors: Almond, Butter, Chocolate, Cream, Herbs, Malt, Muscatel, Nutmeg, Orange Blossom, Raisins, Rose, Straw, Toast, Violet, Wood
