India Darjeeling 2nd Flush Gopaldhara 'China Muscatel Gold' Black Tea

I think it might be time for me to face the fact I can’t pick up on notes like other tea tasters :( I tried though. This is my last tea from the order I got from What-cha last year. Black teas are my favorite of all the tea varieties. This one was OK. I liked it well enough, I don’t pick up on the notes…it just tastes like black tea to me. Get’s pretty astringent quickly if you brew too much too quickly. It was OK..by the time I got the the bottom of the tea I was ready to move onto something different. I wish I could taste all the notes everyone else gets, I’ll keep trying. I really like What-Cha tho, quick shipping and great customer service.

Over the past few days of doing a sipdown with this tea, I’ve brewed it at a lower temperature (only 5 degrees difference) and noticed some differences, the biggest being a pronounced milkiness in texture in the first steep. Straw, malt, mace (warming and quite peppery, kind of sweet), almond, cream and butter became the dominant notes in taste.
The cocoa I had gotten previously pretty much disappeared. There was still enough of a high note between the fruity nose and the muscatel, orange blossom and yellow gooseberry in the mouth to keep it interesting. The first steep produced an aftertaste of cream/butter while the second was fruity with a lingering light astringency. Again, this tea is versatile in that I can gain equal pleasure by either taking my time sipping or drinking it quickly. The mornings here have been chilly lately and this tea has been a nice accompaniment.

I plowed through this one first of the samples, and it was almost my third or second favorite. The other reviewers have already nailed it. Autumn leave piles and fruity notes are the prominent notes, though I had some association with dandelion faintly in the florals despite the cocoa-muscatel notes being the most dominant. This tea is more typical of a second flush with its dry fusion of cocoa and cooked fruit amidst a character best suited to autumn, but it is a very tasty example of one.

If you want a more typical tea that belongs to your idea of “Darjeeling”, this is the tea for you in exceptional quality from the exceptional Gopaldhara Estate. I gotta say this might appeal more to a dark oolong drinker, but Darjeelings are usually lighter anyway, so I might be describing Darjeeling drinkers in general anyway. Well, I like What-Cha, and this is yet another option that will definitely satisfy the buyer.

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.

I’m nearing the end of my stash and decided it was about time I rated this tea. This is my second What-Cha darjeeling, and my first second flush darjeeling…almost a tongue twister there. I enjoyed the first flush and this is its fruitier, more robust sibling.

The tea steeps a nice amber and orange color. Like the first flush, its pleasantly woodsy evoking colorful autumn leaves. Mild yet full bodied with a crisp frutiness and hints of spice. It leaves behind a soft bite in the mouth and throat as it washes down. This isn’t astringent and rather enjoyable once you get used to it. The oxidation flavor is stronger but without the malt of a typical black tea.