Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Darjeeling Tea Lovers
Tea Description:
Goomtee Grand Reserve is a LIMITED EDITION tea. Not all teas get the prestigious tag of GRAND RESERVE but this tea deserves every bit of this.
The leaves have been plucked from the highest elevated section of this garden which is also called the MUSCATEL VALLEY. Super fine plucking of the leaves and tender processing has resulted with a masterpiece.
High floral notes with distinct JASMINE LIKE flavour will make every tea connoisseur mesmerized. It is only Goomtee that could deliver such a beauty.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This 2014 Goomtee Grand Reserve Spring Tea First Flush is a lot greener than most of the Darjeeling teas that I’ve encountered lately. In fact, it looks very much like a green tea rather than a black tea.
Taking this into account, I lowered the temperature slightly. Normally, I would steep a Darjeeling tea at 195°F, but for this greener Darjeeling, I lowered the temperature to 185°F, and using my Breville One-Touch tea maker, I set the steep time for 2 minutes.
The result is a delightful cup of tea! The aroma of the brewed cup is crazy floral – it is really beautiful.
And the flavor! Sweet! Floral! There are even hints of muscatel in this cup. The floral notes are profound, and as the description above promises, there is a “distinct jasmine like” flavor. There is a soft, pleasant texture. The astringency sort of tingles on the tongue in the finish, and I find that it accentuates the floral notes of this cup.
I’m mesmerized by the jasmine tones of this cup. I don’t think that this tea was actually *scented* with jasmine, but, it almost tastes as though it has been processed similar to a typical jasmine scented tea. The jasmine essence is a bit more subdued than in a typical jasmine green tea, for example, but, it’s still a rather surprising taste to find in a Darjeeling tea such as this.
I’d recommend this to all those that enjoy drinking tea! Those that love jasmine, as I do, this is an exciting twist on that classic favorite. Those that love Darjeeling, this is one that you should have on your cupboard because it’s a stunning representation of a fine Darjeeling first flush. Those that simply love all teas, this is quite a unique tea and unlike any that I’ve tried thus far (and I’ve tried a lot of tea!) It’s one you should try too!
A truly remarkable and … rather unexpected Darjeeling tea.
Mr. He’s 1st Picking Laoshan Black Tea from Verdant Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Tea Description:
Laoshan Black is our most popular tea, and its success has encouraged Mr He of Laoshan Village to keep refining his process to make it better every year. This year, Mr. He has taken leaves normally used for his delicate and subtle early spring green tea and allowed them to roast in the sun for three days before hand processing in small one to two pound batches, yielding this incredible rich, subtle Laoshan Black experience.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The aroma of the dry leaf knocks my socks off. OK, so I wasn’t wearing socks, but if I was, they’d be blown off. My feet felt the absence of the socks and felt the strong gust of wind that was there to blow the socks off the feet, but, because there was no socks, my feet just got a nice cool breeze for a few minutes, and given that it’s kind of hot outside, I’m glad that the gust wasn’t warm air.
Wow … so that was a lot “windier” than I expected to be to describe a scent that I can’t remember experiencing with a black tea in the past. It smells like chocolate. Like dark chocolate with a nice roast on those cacao beans. Nice. The chocoholic in me is happy.
This is a very special tea. And since it is so special, I decided to consult the suggested brewing parameters on the Verdant Tea website for how to best brew this tea. Now, this isn’t something I do often. I don’t usually check to see how the company suggests I brew a tea, mostly because I’ve been brewing tea for a long time. I eyeball my measurements using my bamboo scoop (the bamboo scoop that I own looks sort of like this one).
I have kind of a set “temperature” guide in my head: for most black teas, I use boiling water. If I’m brewing Assam, I drop the temperature to 205°F. If I’m brewing Darjeeling, I drop the temperature to 195°F. If I’m brewing herbal teas, including rooibos, honeybush, yerba mate and guayusa, I also set the temperature for 195°F. Most pu-erh teas get 190°F. If’ I’m brewing Green or Oolong teas, I use 175 – 185°F. If I’m brewing a white or yellow tea, I use 170°F. I don’t often stray from this mental temperature guide often. Steep times are also follow a mental steep-time guide.
But because this is a tea that is of very limited quantities, and not one that I want to experiment a lot with because I don’t have a large quantity of this tea to experiment with, nor do I have the resources to secure myself a large quantity of the tea … because of these reasons, I decided to consult with the people who have had more experience with this tea than I. I decided to go with the gongfu brew style (hey, what the heck!) and I now have sitting before me my first cup of this tea – the combined results of the first and second infusions, following an extremely quick 1 second rinse.
Ow! Cup is hot. I’m using my little Chinese teacup with no handle and made of very thin porcelain, so there’s not a lot to insulate and protect my fingers from the heat of the boiling water used to infuse this tea.
Very mellow tasting. These infusions were 15 seconds and 20 seconds, which went a little longer than the suggested 2 – 3 seconds as suggested in the brewing parameters by Verdant. But there is still a lot of flavor to the mellow taste.
The chocolate notes are THERE and I’m loving that. The tasting notes on the Verdant website also suggest notes of cherry and almond, and I do get a slight roasted nut flavor there that is almond-y. A lovely combination of flavors with the prolific chocolate notes. I taste hints of the sweet cherry notes. This first cup is sweet and lovely.
The next two infusions proved to continue with the chocolate-y notes. I love the roasted flavor to this cup and how that enhances the chocolate-y notes. I’m starting to pick up on honey-like flavors and a slight caramel-y note, like a honey caramel. Nice. I love that while this is tea is loaded with sweet notes, it doesn’t taste too sweet. It’s smooth and well-rounded.
Later infusions, I noticed the chocolate notes beginning to wane, replaced with a stronger nutty tone. Imagine toasted nuts that have been drizzled with honey.
The brewing parameters suggest 15 infusions, and I might very well have gotten that many out of this measurement of leaves, but, I was quite satisfied with the eight infusions that I brewed. By the fourth and final cup, while I was still enjoying the tea but I found myself missing the chocolate-y notes of the earlier infusions.
Then I found myself wondering how the flavors would differ if I were to experiment with this tea using the “Western” approach to brewing. So, I decided to do just that!
I think that I actually prefer the western method of brewing for this particular tea. The flavor is richer and more robust from the very first cup. Still deliciously chocolate-y and tasting of roasted almonds with hints of cherry, but the flavor has more muchness to it when I brew it using the teapot rather than the gaiwan.
And brewing this way, I can still get three flavorful infusions out of this tea. The first: chocolate-y, rich with notes of toasted almond and sweet cherry. The second: a little lighter on the chocolate notes, but, still very pleasantly chocolate-y, with more enhanced nutty notes and a touch of honey. And with the third, I was able to actually taste some notes of sarsaparilla.
This tea is awesome! It makes me want to dance the futterwacken!
Kokang Green Tea from Shan Valley
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Shan Valley
Tea Description:
This first flush green tea is from the Kokang region of Myanmar, close to the Yunan region in china. This is considered the highest quality tea that is available to the public in Myanmar.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea is interesting because it really seems like two different teas: when it is served hot, I get a different set of flavors than as it cools. Both are really delicious, though!
When served hot, I get a fresh and exhilarating flavor that is rich and brothy without tasting overly vegetal. In fact, there are very little distinct vegetative flavor to this green tea and I found that quite surprising.
There is a lovely buttery note to this – not so much a creamy, sweet butter flavor but more like a browned butter. I’m picking up on a slightly smoky note to this as well as distant notes of flower and a nice fruit note that is like a hybrid fruit of melon, sweet green grapes and a hint of citrus that is particularly noticeable toward the finish.
The hot cup is a beautifully sweet tasting tea with notes of savory and smoke. As the cup cools, I notice the flavors changing a bit. I still get a pleasantly sweet cuppa, but, the aforementioned buttery note becomes more creamy now and less like a brown butter.
This is sweet and creamy! Mmm! I still taste those notes of fruit and flower, and I’m not tasting quite as much of a smoky element as I noticed with the hot tea. It’s still very subtly there in the distance. The fruit notes seem more pronounced now, and I’m tasting primarily fruit and cream with the cooled tea.
A really WONDERFUL tea – I’ve been so impressed with the 2014 teas from Shan Valley!
Pyin Green Tea (2014) from Shan Valley
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Shan Valley
Tea Description:
This tea hails from Pyin Long within Northern Shan, Myanmar. This is also a first flush tea and is an everyday drinking tea. This tea is a reddish color.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
How lovely!
I was a little surprised when I first opened the pouch of tea and took a good look at the tea inside. It looks like a black tea … or at the very least a well-oxidized Oolong, but the label said that it was a green tea.
And even though it looked like a black tea, the dry leaf possesses the aroma of a green tea! A very strong vegetal scent, much like the smell that fills the kitchen when I’m steaming green veggies. The leaves produce a fairly dark liquid (darker than what I usually see with a green tea) with a vegetative scent.
The flavor is not quite as vegetal as I would have expected, given all the veggie smells I was picking up in both the dry leaf and the brewed tea. Yes, I do taste a grassy/vegetative flavor, but that’s not all I taste, nor is it the strongest flavor that I taste.
I taste notes of flower and fruit (somewhere between apple and melon), and a lovely buttery overtone. The vegetal notes taste very fresh and invigorating – it’s a very refreshing and satisfying beverage. It has a well-rounded flavor and while it is a thick, broth-like tea (in both taste and texture) and the buttery notes are strong, it doesn’t feel heavy as I sip it, nor does it leave the palate feeling coated with that buttery sensation. It is very easy to drink, with a pleasant flavor that is sweet – but not too sweet – and savory.
Another GREAT tea from Shan Valley!
Castleton Autumnal Tulip Black Tea (2013 Autumn Flush) from Darjeeling Tea Lovers
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Darjeeling Tea Lovers
Tea Description:
CASTLETON AUTUMNAL TULIP, as the name suggests is an AUTUMNAL TEA or THIRD FLUSH tea from the estates of CASTLETON TEA ESTATE.
This tea comes with Malty, Muscatel & spicy notes smooth yet complex in flavour. “LIGHT & BRIGHT” is an ideal way to describe this tea. It has a very smooth cup with plenty of sweet muscatel notes. An ideal tea for your breakfast.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The aroma of the dry leaf is sweet with some spice notes and floral tones. The brewed tea has a fruitier fragrance, smelling a lot more like fruit than flower. I still pick up on sweet and spice, but mostly, I’m picking up on a delightful grape-y scent! You know what that means, right? Muscatel!
Oh yeah! And this tea has the muscatel that you’re looking for! It has a very wine-like taste, with bright, fruity notes that taper to a slight dryness at the finish and the aftertaste is sweet and fruity, with notes of grape and black currant.
The sip starts with a sweet yet spicy note. The malty notes of this tea accentuate the sweetness, although I’m not finding this tea to be overly sweet. I think that the spice notes add enough contrast to the overall flavor to keep this from tasting like your average Darjeeling. This is – in my humble opinion – head and shoulders above that average Darjeeling. I love the muscatel notes here, and I love the crisp, light flavor of the cup.
This is not a heavy tasting black (not surprising, it is a Darjeeling, after all!) and it would make a great tea for mid-morning or early afternoon. The above description suggests this as a breakfast tea, and I could see that too, there is a certain briskness to this cup that is quite invigorating. Although, I wouldn’t add milk to this cup – it would overwhelm the fabulous flavors going on. So, if you’re one who wants milk in your breakfast tea, save this one for the second cup of the day when you are ready for some unfettered tea flavor.
As I continue sipping, I’m picking up on some bright citrus notes that arrive just after mid-sip, and re-emerge in the aftertaste. I don’t usually associate citrus flavors with Darjeeling, but this tea has some sunny notes of lemon! Nice!
There is some astringency to this cup, but, it’s a fairly mellow astringency. It isn’t leaving the insides of my cheeks feeling puckered or dry, although there is a gentle “clean” feeling to my palate.
Another delightful autumnal flush from Darjeeling Tea Lovers!