88

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.

Flavors: Almond, Butter, Chocolate, Cream, Herbs, Malt, Muscatel, Nutmeg, Orange Blossom, Raisins, Rose, Straw, Toast, Violet, Wood

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec 3 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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My grading criteria for tea is as follows:

90-100: Exceptional. I love this stuff. If I can get it, I will drink it pretty much every day.

80-89: Very good. I really like this stuff and wouldn’t mind keeping it around for regular consumption.

70-79: Good. I like this stuff, but may or may not reach for it regularly.

60-69: Solid. I rather like this stuff and think it’s a little bit better-than-average. I’ll drink it with no complaints, but am more likely to reach for something I find more enjoyable than revisit it with regularity.

50-59: Average. I find this stuff to be more or less okay, but it is highly doubtful that I will revisit it in the near future if at all.

40-49: A little below average. I don’t really care for this tea and likely won’t have it again.

39 and lower: Varying degrees of yucky.

Don’t be surprised if my average scores are a bit on the high side because I tend to know what I like and what I dislike and will steer clear of teas I am likely to find unappealing.

Location

KY

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