Goomtee Special Summer Chinary Black Tea (2017)

Here we have yet another sample from Teabox. Prior to trying this tea, I had never tried a second flush tea from the Goomtee Estate. I had one of their first flush teas earlier in the year and was not particularly wowed, but as I tend to like second flush Darjeelings a little more than first flush Darjeelings, I figured this tea may be more up my alley. As it turned out, I was right about that. This was 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. I did not attempt any subsequent infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material produced woody, toasty aromas with a hint of fruitiness. After infusion, I detected a mix burnt wood, plum, Muscatel, toast, herb, and rose aromas underscored by a hint of something like chocolate. In the mouth, the liquor produced flavors of roasted nuts (almond and chestnut), burnt wood, toast, malt, cream, chocolate, herbs, raisin, plum, Muscatel, dandelion, violet, and rose. The finish was light, pleasant, and smooth, offering lingering traces of malt, toast, cream, roasted nut, and Muscatel flavors backed by faint impressions of herbs and chocolate.

Although this second flush Darjeeling black tea was not quite as heavy on the Muscatel aromas and flavors as some others, it had a lot to offer. All of its aroma and flavor components worked well together, it had nice body and texture in the mouth, and fortunately, I did not find it to be all that astringent. Overall, this was a very elegant tea, and compared to some of Teabox’s other second flush offerings, it was very reasonably priced. Price point to value, it actually had more to offer than some of Teabox’s higher end second flush teas from the same region. All in all, I cannot find anything all that negative to say about this tea. I would recommend it highly to anyone with an interest in second flush Darjeelings or Indian black teas in general.