I’m fairly hopeful that the season of regular-ish tea reviews is back because I’ve received quite a bit of tea in the last two weeks and I’m really excited to make my way through them! Today, I’m doing a review of Nepal Mystic, which was given to me by Warren! I’m always excited for teas that have been recommended by friends because I figure they’d be good!

Fun fact – Nepal Mystic is sold by TeaHaus and I’ve actually been following one of their employee’s blog, Jill from It’s More Than Tea’s, for quite a while now! So this is a tea from a brand that I’ve been curious about!

Here’s the description of the tea from its product page:

“Velvety, nutty, and exquisite. Premium second-flush tea from the Himalayas. Delicate and classy leaf, with a glowing reddish cup.”

First Impressions

The dry leaves are sweet and woody, with what looks like smaller, white leaves (maybe buds?) mixed in with it. They smell great and I’m excited for the tea!

Tasting Notes

The recommendation is to steep this for 3 to 4 minutes, but the first time I tried this, I brewed the tea gongfu style because that’s what I’m used to. The first steep, which was brewed for about a minute, produced a tea liquor with a beautiful light brown colour. The tea was sweet and light with woody notes. There was a hint of smoky note in the finish, which is something I got whenever I used freshly boiled water. The smoky note reminds me of a shui xian, but I’m guessing it’s a sign I should be using slightly cooler water!

For the second and third steep, the smoky note was gone but the tea remains sweet and light, with no astringency or bitterness. I found that I reached the end of the tea session pretty quickly – by the third steep, the taste was so light that I felt the leaves had reached the end.

After the second session with the tea, I remembered that I now have a teapot, so I tried to brew it for longer and with a bit more water. The tea liquor was mainly sweet and smooth, with that smoky note that I associate with brewing the teas in higher temperatures. It isn’t too far from what I get gongfu brewing the tea, which is interesting.

The spent leaves were chocolate brown, which was surprising because I thought that the smaller white leaves would be greener.

Overall, this is a lovely tea and one that is really easy to drink alone or with food. I had this with some ravioli and I liked how I could taste the tea even though it’s pretty light!