2020 Winter Darjeeling White Tea

Tea type
White Tea
Ingredients
White Tea Leaves
Flavors
Apricot, Astringent, Butter, Citrus, Cocoa, Cream, Dry Grass, Drying, Earth, Flowers, Green Pepper, Hay, Lemon Zest, Lime, Mango, Melon, Mint, Olives, Pineapple, Rose, Round, Smooth, Spicy, Tart, Thick, Toast, Vanilla, Wheat, White Chocolate, White Wine, Wood
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Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by derk
Average preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 1 min, 45 sec 3 g 7 oz / 213 ml

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2 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Derk, thank you for this truly wonderful and magnificent tea. Yes, I know I am drinking it late, it can be almost considered aged. However, airtight pouch did its trick and didn’t let any wrong...” Read full tasting note
    90
  • “Ketlee is providing all kinds of firsts in my tea journey. Here is a winter Darjeeling white tea produced probably a year and a half ago. The dry leaf in the bag smells spicy and earthy-musky, a...” Read full tasting note
    94

From Ketlee

2020 Winter Harvest Darjeeling White Tea

Its a pleasure to offer you a wintertime tea from Darjeeling, which is most popular for its first flush harvest. Grown in a mid elevation garden of 3500-4000 feet, the winter seasons slow growth provides the leaf with a nectar like sweetness along with citrus fruit notes.

The dry leaf smells sweet with notes of vanilla and milk chocolate, when placed on heated teaware, there is a burst of dessert like aroma which is similar to vanilla wafer. The taste is dominant in notes of mango, sweet lime and white chocolate. The first infusion has a honey finish which is replaced by a pleasant green leaf astringency common in Darjeeling first flush teas. There are some more interesting fruity notes present like muskmelon and litchi especially if brewed at lower temperature. With the later brews the fruity character resembles pineapple and green olives. There is also a hint of mild spice in the third and fourth infusions which gives the medium bodied liquor a nice bite. The aftertaste fruity and sweet with notes of guawa and peach lingering for a long time.

Appearance : Light yellow

Taste : Vanilla, honey, mango, creamy, white chocolate, sweet lime, pineapple, green olive

Steeping Time : 4 minutes western style, 30 seconds gongfu style adding 10 seconds every subsequent steep

Recommended Steeping Temperature : 75°C

Recommended Steeping Method : Works good both ways, gongfu and western style

About Ketlee View company

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2 Tasting Notes

90
1839 tasting notes

Derk, thank you for this truly wonderful and magnificent tea. Yes, I know I am drinking it late, it can be almost considered aged. However, airtight pouch did its trick and didn’t let any wrong aroma in and any good aroma out.

I wasn’t able to recognize anything from dry leaf, but after a rinse a wonderful aromas started to appear. I can totally recognize vanilla wafers, white chocolate and closely followed by fruit notes, tropical fruits as mango, pineapple a bit and certainly there is litchi.

When brewed with 80°C water in thermos, which was slowly cooling down, ended up with 60°C water; a wonderful qualities were also in taste. Again the fruits I have mentioned before, with first steep a little astringent. Also it was indeed vanilla wafer like when lukewarm. As it was cooling down, there were certainly notes of litchi and pineapples.

I know it looks like I copied and rewrote by my own words their description. But it is, finally, one of the descriptions which are true in all points.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 30 sec 3 g 4 OZ / 125 ML

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94
1541 tasting notes

Ketlee is providing all kinds of firsts in my tea journey. Here is a winter Darjeeling white tea produced probably a year and a half ago.

The dry leaf in the bag smells spicy and earthy-musky, a mix of rosewood and green chillie/leaf. I cup the leaf in my hand and it smells like fresh wheat, dried yellow peonies, and I can see where Ketlee gets vanilla wafer. The brewed aroma is a mix of cocoa and white chocolate, vanilla cream and dry grass with a bright apricot-citrus tone.

This tea is very difficult for me to describe. The flavors are round enough that it calls to mind white wine, specifically a light-oaked chardonnay but with this awesome cocoa undertone. The body, too, adds to the impression of chardonnay, thick with a gentle acidity and dryness. Along with the cocoa undertone, I think I taste white chocolate, hay, gooseberry, toast and butter along with Ketlee’s mentioned notes of lime, mango and olive. The dry aftertaste is light and lingering with something like sweet mango-cream-white chocolate-cocoa. There’s a bit of a cooling-spicy feel that also lingers with a lemon zest feel on the sides of the tongue. A second steep is sharper and the acidic fruity notes come to the fore, very lime- and pineapple-like.

I wasn’t expecting much since Darjeeling teas don’t seem to age well but wow is this something unique. I do wonder how it was fresh and also how it will age but I won’t be able to keep this around long enough to find out. What a treat!

I would like to know which estate this comes from.

Flavors: Apricot, Astringent, Butter, Citrus, Cocoa, Cream, Dry Grass, Drying, Earth, Flowers, Green Pepper, Hay, Lemon Zest, Lime, Mango, Melon, Mint, Olives, Pineapple, Rose, Round, Smooth, Spicy, Tart, Thick, Toast, Vanilla, Wheat, White Chocolate, White Wine, Wood

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 g 10 OZ / 300 ML
tea-sipper

Your flavor notes are VERY similar to the description notes for this tea, if you didn’t notice!

derk

I did! It seems like our palates match pretty well.

Natethesnake

I have a bag of that tea that I’ve yet to try. I loved and got similar notes from his 2019 winter Nilgiri oolong but the 2020 is kinda meh.

derk

I hope to see your impression of this tea!

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