Lopchu tea estate is located between Darjeeling and Teesta in West Bengal. The majority of its tea is from bushes originally from Yunnan province in China. The tea estate is proud to sell 100% of it’s tea under it’s own brand name. The tea estate is part of the darjeeling region but it’s flavour is unique enough that many people see it as a type into itself.
I bought this tea at a local store. Both this tea, the Flowery Orange Pekoe in a blue box, and the Golden orange pekoe in the pink box are often sold at stores near where I live. It is interesting to have the experience of buying boxes of tea carefully wrapped in paper.
The dry leaf smells like the forest, a mix of very fresh green scents, tempered by earth and spice, very green and clean. It brews to a deep orange red copper colour. It has a very fragrant smell. It is very fruity, with citrus, berry, and red wine accents, underlain by a more savory spicy smell, with hints of chocolate and biscuit which gives it a certain earthiness, plus a sweet and spicy floral. Flavour wise the first notes were green and floral, followed by sweet,citrus fruit accents, which were followed by bitter bisuit notes. It has an aftertaste of grapes, berries and floral spice. It has a fairly heavy body for a darjeeling, but leaves a light and bright feeling in the mouth, otherwise its fairly smooth. It Resteeps very well. It also tends to be more forgiving than some darjeelings and can take higher temperatures without becoming overly astringent. This tea is very
aromatic with lots of flavour and is great hot or cold.
