Whew what a long name for a tea! I’ve gotta say, though, I also like long descriptive names because I have a much better understanding about what they’re supposed to taste like.

Anyway, this is one of the two teas I brought into Malaysia with me (I’m hoping to make a dent in the tea stash rather than open up new ones) so I was really excited to try and review it. Like always, I had two sessions with it, but this time, one session was in the office during work. The flavour notes were still pretty much the same so I’m glad for the consistency!

First Impressions

The dry leaves were small and thin and although they were pretty oxidised, I still saw some green. They smelled pretty floral, which seemed very promising.

Tasting Notes

First steep: The first steep gave a light yellow tea liquor that was smooth and sweet. It’s pretty floral, with a slight woody note and I was actually reminded of dancongs when I was sipping this tea.

Second steep: The tea liquor has darkened just a little, making it a light amber tea colour. In terms of taste, the dominant notes for me are sweet and floral notes with some woody notes (especially just after you swallow the tea). There’s also a pleasant but not overly strong aftertaste.

Third steep: In terms of looks, the tea liquor is pretty much like the second steep – a light amber. The sweetness of the tea is weaker but in exchange, I’m getting stronger fruity and woody notes. Overall it’s still a very smooth and fragrant drink.

Fourth steep: I’m getting more of what I feel are woody notes now. It’s actually starting to remind me more of a black tea, the way the Malawi Bvumbwe White Peony tea reminded me of a black tea.

Spent leaves: As expected from the dry leaves, the spent leaves were also rather small. The leaves were much redder than expected – I thought I’d see a bit more green, given what I saw when I looked at the dry leaves, but it looked like a regular black tea to me.

Conclusions

This was a fun tea to drink! I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m not familiar with Darjeeling teas so I appreciated the chance to get to know them a little better (my other new tea is a sample of Darjeeling so I’m excited for that!). I’m wondering how this is going to stack up to a cold brew, or compared to a rougui, so if I do try those, I’ll let you know how it goes!