Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Nepali Tea Traders
Tea Description:
A top-rated Orthodox black tea, only two leaves and a bud are hand plucked for processing. This full-leaf, loose tea is then oxidized carefully until a fine balance of flavors is achieved. This exquisite tea has a smooth floral bouquet with a lingering apricot finish. Tea available in pouches and tin.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I generally like to save my “black tea experiences” for earlier in the day, because I find these teas to be more invigorating than other leaf types. However, this Sandakphu Hand-Rolled Black Tea from Nepali Tea Traders has a lighter body and a crisp, smooth taste (similar to what you would experience with a Darjeeling tea), and I think that it would make an excellent afternoon or early evening tea.
And while I am noticing similarities to a Darjeeling tea, I think that this tea is smoother and less astringent than a typical Darjeeling, and it doesn’t have that wine-like finish of a Darjeeling. Instead, the finish here is – as promised in the above description – apricot!
The sip begins with a sweet, fruit-like note and from there delivers notes of flower and wood. It tastes clean and refreshing. As the finish approaches, I notice the aforementioned apricot. It’s surprised me at just how focused the apricot notes are. There’s no mistaking that flavor for anything but apricot!
The aftertaste is sweet and maintains some of those apricot-y notes. Nice! This isn’t an overly robust or bold tea, but it does have it’s own sort of briskness to it. It isn’t a tea that I’d choose for first tea of the day, as I said before, it’s one I’d want to curl up with on a quiet afternoon, perhaps with a good book.
What impresses me most about this tea is that it’s consistent. With every sip, I get those amazing flavors. It continues to deliver from the very first sip right down to the last. A remarkable tea.
