This was one of my sipdowns from April. I finished what I had of this tea a day or two after I polished off the last of the Jun Chiyabari Himalayan Tippy Black Tea that I also bought from What-Cha. Like so many of the other Nepalese teas that What-Cha offers, I found this one to be an incredibly strong offering.
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 conduct any additional infusions.
Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf material produced aromas of hay, grass, fennel, and pine. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of almond, malt, green bell pepper, honeysuckle, marigold, and orange blossom. After infusion, I picked up aromas of lemon rind, orange zest, white grape, and butter. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of almond, pine, fennel, grass, hay, straw, green bell pepper, toast, lemon rind, malt, honeysuckle, oats, marigold, white grape, orange zest, pear, green apple, and orange blossom that were accompanied by hints of butter, nutmeg, sour plum, and sour apricot.
Much like the other first flush Nepalese black teas I have tried, this tea was very similar to a first flush Darjeeling black tea in terms of both aroma and flavor. What separated this tea from some of those teas for me, however, was its lovely and consistent floral aromas and flavors, the thicker, silkier texture of its liquor, and the more limited bitterness and astringency that it displayed. This was a tremendously enjoyable first flush black tea overall. I imagine that fans of first flush Darjeeling black teas and Nepalese teas alike would be into it.
Flavors: Almond, Almond, Apricot, Apricot, Butter, Butter, Fennel, Fennel, Floral, Floral, Grass, Grass, Green Apple, Green Apple, Green Bell Peppers, Green Bell Peppers, Hay, Hay, Honeysuckle, Honeysuckle, Lemon, Lemon, Malt, Malt, Nutmeg, Nutmeg, Oats, Oats, Orange Blossom, Orange Blossom, Orange Zest, Orange Zest, Pear, Pear, Pine, Pine, Plum, Plum, Straw, Straw, Toast, Toast, White Grapes, White Grapes
