India Assam Prithvi Small-Holder 'Golden Tippy' Black Tea

I forgot to review this when I drank it, all I remember is it was pretty unremarkable. Then only had half a serving left and combined it with some leftover India Assam Mancotta SFTGFOP-1 Clonal, and it made an excellent iced milk tea with a little bit of dark brown sugar!

Obviously can’t actually rate it based on this but had to make this note to remind myself of this great blend option for later, as I drink a lot of iced milk tea in the summer.

June 2018 harvest.

I only had one go at this old sample forwarded my way, so perhaps not a great assessment. It was a nice Assam, more in line with my tippy tastes than some of the malt-heavy leafy picks. It was bright and dark, tangy and vibrant with a cherry-rose theme: tart cherry candy, rosewood and rose florality, only some malt and a hint of chocolate if I went searching. My only quibble was the lack of a grounding bass note. It was kind of zippy?

This is a reliable Assam with the distinct aroma and taste. The dry leaf aroma was not much to write home about: some maltiness and dry stone fruit. The tea that I prepared in the Western style, though, had a quite distinct fragrance that is hard to describe: wet leather, figs, golden tips… but something else that eluded me.

The taste was pleasant, with the dreaded Assamica maltiness being quite restrained and not overpowering other flavors present: baked bread, apricot, chocolate, plums, honey. This tea was not that far from some dianhongs I had tried. The expected malty aftertaste rounded out the impression.

To be honest, there was nothing in it to wow and excite, but also absolutely nothing offputting and disappointing. Plus some character. This tea is a good choice for a breakfast tea that does not clobber you, but rather offers an opportunity to explore its personality while simultaneously giving you a jolt of energy.

I can attest that this tea is very merciful to fools who manage to oversteep, even when it’s just one damn packet you need to be slightly careful not to mess up, and WTH is wrong with you?! :P I had this for my late afternoon pick-me-up just before the end of work, and it was lovely — strong (heh) and smooth and rich, and now I’m all picked up, and free, free, free! Thanks to What-Cha for the sample; very tasty!

Very pleasant as a breakfast tea. Retains flavor with a little milk. Wonderful malty flavor.

Since I’m staying home from work today, I have been occupying myself with polishing off some sample pouches. I finished this one early this morning. I found it to be a nice, solid Assam.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped around 3-4 grams of loose tea in approximately 8 ounces of 203 F water for 4 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material emitted pronounced aromas of malt, brown toast, roasted nuts, cocoa, wood, and leather. After infusion, I began to pick up on scents of butter, molasses, caramel, honey, raisin, and fig. In the mouth, the tea came at me head on with powerful flavors of wood, caramel, cocoa, roasted chestnut, hickory, black walnut, leather, brown toast, molasses, malt, honey, and butter before giving way to subtler impressions of cream, fig, and raisin. The finish saw the butter and malt swell while notes of caramel, molasses, honey, cream, wood, leather, and roasted nuts remained.

This was a traditional Assam with a powerful maltiness, a full body, pronounced astringency, and hints of bitterness lurking around the fringes. It was a tea that was put together well, but with the exception of the subtle fruit notes, there was not much setting it apart from many other teas of this type. I will concede, however, that it did its job as a breakfast tea with aplomb. All in all, this one should definitely appeal to fans of orthodox Assams, but if you are not huge on them, it probably won’t do much for you.

Sipdown (158)!

Brought the rest of my sample bag of this to work; I ended up making a mug for myself and then one for my coworker Kandyce. I had also brought tea infused chocolates, but felt bad she couldn’t have any because she’s allergic to cocoa. Tragic, right!? So I offered her a mug of this instead of chocolate.

Mostly guzzled this while helping customers; didn’t pay super close attention. When it’s busy like that I really appreciate having a tea on hand I can just enjoy without conscious thought though. At some point in the night I had time to scribble some tasting notes on the side of my cup in Sharpie though: Malt, sweet potato, French bread, honey. So take from that what you will.

I enjoyed this one! Especially since it was the tea from my last What-Cha order that I didn’t choose for myself. I think there are Assams I’d rather stock over this one, but definitely wouldn’t turn my nose up at it in the future.