Mokalbari Assam

This is a cup of cheerful. The sweetest, fruitiest, perkiest Assam I can remember having in a long while. Also a good and easy steeper; meticulous time management not required. Even better.

Thanks again for the samples! This is the final tea I’m trying from Single Origin Teas and all of them have been buy-worthy! I steeped one heaping teaspoon for three minutes. I may have let the water cool too long – but it was still hot while I sipped it for the first sip.. so not very cooled! This has a very distinct grassy and hay-like flavor. Maybe I’ve been drinking too many chocolatey teas lately, so the grassy notes in this one are more noticeable! A bit malty and it has a bit of a bite to it. The flavor is not dark or light… a nice middle ground. The second cup was ruined – five minutes just after boiling and the cup was oaky. My fault!

Today was a lovely tea day! I received my small order from Butiki and some teas I bought that I’ve been dying to try from QueenOfTarts! I REALLY need to work on some sipdowns. sigh.

I let this one leave my cupboard for awhile but no longer! I find I have slightly more descriptors for it than I had a year ago (and wow, how time flies!).

This has a honey smell of hay, molasses and oats. It smells like horse feed. I used to love that smell… It was my one of the things that made getting out in the freezing winter to feed the horse worth it (other than the horse, of course!). So this tea brings back memories of a very long time ago it seems.

The flavor is malty with molasses and honey both. A wonderful Assam.

I got this one sent to me as a free sample from the company (along with a few others) and since I was wanting something unflavored, I grabbed this off the top of the pile.
I’m not really sure of a dry leaf smell because I’m not sure how much cross contamination scent there is (the packages are just plastic lined paper bags with a little viewing window. Nice to see the tea, not so good at keeping the scents to themselves), so I’ll skip that.
There wasn’t any sort of brewing instructions on the website or package, so I just went with 1 1/2 tsp @205* ish for 3 min. It’s my standard formula for black teas. Though usually I use just 1 tsp, not really sure what possed me to use more. /shrug/
As soon as the water hit it, it started turning reddish and got really dark red by the time the 3 min was up. Nice malty scent in the cup, maybe with a bit of fruity-ness, but that might be my imagination since I couldn’t pin that down again.
My first sip was malty, and slightly astringent (the astringency got stronger the cold the cup got) but unfortunately it was also mildly bitter. Actually so much so that I couldn’t really concentrate on anything else. I’m not sure if it was because I steeped too much/for too long/too hot so I’m holding off on a rating until I try a couple different things. I’ve still got quite enough of my sample left that I can experiment alot, so I’ll give an update with my next try.
Overall it’s definitely a promising tea. And reasonably enough priced that if I do find that magic steep combination that clicks for me, I’d consider keeping this around.

This is another sample from TeaSipper, Thank you!

This is a tasty assam! It is malty, slightly fruity and on the bright side of the flavor spectrum. It isn’t as strong as the assam I had from Butiki yesterday. It is a bit more of a lighter cup and the fruit notes shine a bit more than the malt. It is a more mellow assam, which for me is a good thing. I could easily see myself purchasing this one.

Edit: As this cooled it was still so smooth and almost creamy. I really want to try my last tsp with milk and sugar. I don’t usually add stuff to tea, but I think this tea would be really tasty with some additions because it is really good on its own.

Good morning Steepster…
This is a sipdown for me this morning. Kind of sad since I don’t have a lot of assam teas in my stash right now. I might be re-ordering this one soon. It’s robust with fruity and malty notes, and just a bit of tannin. Definitely good for a morning brew with lots of soymilk and sugar. The price is fairly reasonable as well.

From the (Mostly) Unflavored TTB

This is a nice tea, but I probably wouldn’t order it. It’s not spectacular. It’s got a touch of sweetness to it, which is nice, and it’s not overly malty or astringent, and it definitely wasn’t bitter.

As it cooled, I got almost a sweet potato taste from it, which surprised me. I wasn’t expecting that as all. I think that’s the first time I’ve really gotten that sweet potato taste from a tea that people talk about all the time.

(The tea had cooled quite a bit by this point as my husband decided we were smoking pork today, and I was rushing to get it ready to go while he was outside getting smoke going in the modified Weber kettle.)

I think people who drink this kind of tea more would appreciate it and get more flavors out of it.

I got a whiff of molasses as I poured, but couldn’t find it in the cup. I’m not a big fan of Assam, but keep searching, hoping to find that special tea that lets me love Assam. This one is close, but not quite there.

I tried this as the first tea of the morning on the first full day of the unflavored TTB. Sort of a high end English Breakfast? It is powerful enough, but not overwhelming. Very smooth, malty with hints of fruit, and on the tannic side; almost at the point where I want to add sugar (which I normally would with breakfast tea, but not with fine teas – I’m still trying to decide which side of the line this one falls). The finish is excellent: long and complex, and I think the molasses may make a subtle re-appearance. In the end, I couldn’t quite love it, but I liked it a lot. We’ll just remain friends.

Drinking my last bit of this. This is one of the only Assams that I drink straight. There is a nice fruitiness to it that adds some sweetness. It is also full of wonderful malt notes as well as caramel. The last time i had this I noted that it was a touch astrigent, so I lowered my water temp, and that fixed it. No dryness, just a nice smooth sip.

I’ll definitely pick up more of this at some point. It’s a very reliable and tasty Assam.

(From the UTTB.)

This is everything I imagine when I think of an Assam. It’s bright, vibrant, and a little fruity with a touch of caramel sweetness. It’s cheerful! The first cup was more bold and drying on the tongue. Not very astringent, but definitely drying. I’d say it’s a medium-bold tea. The second cup mellowed out a bit to allow some of the sweet caramel notes to peek through. (Wasn’t getting much in the first.) I think it’s a good breakfast tea. I prefer my calm-chocolatey-floral-sweet evening teas, but this was still quite nice! I drank it straight but it could definitely stand up to some milk and sugar.