Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
A lovely and warming golden-red brew, Golden Nepal tea is harvested in several flushes high in the moist and chilly climate of the Antu Valley, located near the Darjeeling plantations. This brew is very sweet and scented with several flowery flavors, including hints of honeysuckle and jasmine. Connoissuers insist that you should drink it straight, without adding milk, cream or lemon but then feel free to experiment with this exceptional loose leaf black tea for your own tastes!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea has a lovely complexity. It’s one of those teas with which I’d love to spend an afternoon lingering over, quietly contemplating its lovely layers of flavor.
When I opened the container of this tea, and before I had even read the above description, I could notice some similarities to a Darjeeling tea. The colors within the dry leaf looked very Darjeeling-esque to me. The aroma was earthy, but with some interesting floral notes as well as hints of fruit.
The taste is very similar to a Darjeeling too. It has that light, crisp flavor to it that one would expect from a Darjeeling, and it even has notes of muscatel within its many diverse layers. There is an astringency to this tea that also reminds me of a Darjeeling: a clean astringency that lightly dries the palate.
The above description suggests tones of honeysuckle and jasmine, and I taste those. It was really quite a surprise when I first tasted it … again taking my first few sips without having read the description, and it was after those initial sips that prompted me to read more about it. I could swear that I was tasting jasmine, and I had thought I had brewed a Nepalese Black, not, a jasmine tea.
As I continue to sip, the sharper tones of the jasmine seem to subside, melding into the other floral notes to create a sublime medley of flower that enchant the palate. Overall, I find this cup to be floral, earthy, and a little fruit-like, very much like a Darjeeling, but different enough to stand on its own.
A lovely tea. I highly recommend this to any tea lover out there!
