Nepali Tea Traders

Moderate to high maltiness, higher as it cools. Sour but not bitter notes in the finishing tastes, maybe a bit of tobacco but not smoke. Astringency is moderate. A good, bright tea. I don’t know if I’ll replace when it is gone, but if it were on sale or had no shipping… I’d seriously consider it.

Very light for a black tea; it looks like a green. Taste is mostly malty with some grassy and citrusy flavor as well. Makes me think of a first flush Darjeeling.

Leaves are small with lots of leaf fragments. Maybe not the best candidate for gaiwan brewing. As I resteep it seems to be getting more bitter over time, possibly due to the state of the leaves.

Sweet but not particularly interesting.

I have a strong affinity for teas from Nepal, some of the most overlooked teas in the world come out of this region. Several of the very best green teas I have had have come from Nepal. This is a very lightly oxidized Darjeeling-style tea. It has many of the excellent flavors found in its more expensive counterparts, but overall it is not quite as complex. Still a delicious tea I would buy again.

I got this sample from Good Tea Leaf. I hadn’t heard of them before, but apparently they offer samples of tea from various tea vendors for a discounted price once a month. This one came from Nepali Tea Traders. Now, I typically try not to drink tea after about 9 but I just got home from work and it was such a snowy night here in KC that I couldn’t pass up a little tea time. I chose the white tea for it’s relative lightness, and lightness is exactly what I am getting.

I put 7g in my gaiwan and gave it a quick rinse. The little buds and leaves smell very mildly of dried grass with a touch of sweetness. A 10 second steep and I can barely make out any flavor profile. 15 seconds gives me a touch of the same sweet grass as before. I went ahead and skipped to 30s, 45s, a minute… still just sweet grass, maybe a touch of something citrus. When I reheated my water and gave it a longer steep at a highter temperature a decent amount of astringency came out. I will use the rest of the sample to brew this Western style.

Overall I wouldn’t buy this tea again, there are just too many good white teas out there. I also wonder when this tea was picked. A quick scan of the original website didn’t give a production date, and if this is a 2014 or before much of the original complexity could very well be gone. That said, I WOULD order samples form Good Leaf Tea again. Quick shipping and an overall good experience.

This was a free sample from Napali Tea Traders. Thank you! This is one of those just good black teas. Nothing fancy, nothing that stands out, but just solid. It is smooth, and slightly caramely/malty. Not really any astringency. Prior to getting into loose leaf tea it is what I wold have been referring to when I said I will have some tea.

I received this as a courtesy sample along with the free sample of Himalayan Chai. Thanks, Nepali Tea Traders!

Brewed in an infuser mug. Followed the website’s direction.

The dry leaf is pretty, up close. The leaves are short and curly, and are mostly very dark green, some red-tinted brown, and a few white with hairs. I also like the look of the wet leaf: uniformly chocolate-like, some broken, others whole. I never had a Nepalese tea in general, so I went in expecting nothing. This oolong resembles a first flush Darjeeling. The overall aroma smells of white grapes. The liquor, which becomes juicier as it cools, has a muscatel taste. Amber colored and smooth, light in body and in flavor intensity.

Enjoyable, but I’d waiver on a purchase. I like my fruity/muscatel teas to be punchier. I’d have to increase the leaf-water ratio. However, if offered a cup, I wouldn’t refuse.

Another from VariaTEA and yes…it’s an early grey. But this is a muted, orange-ish sort of tea. it’s less earl grey and more…weird orange black tea. Not a fan…was hoping from something different with the vanilla addition in this one.

This was part of the Amoda Nepal tasting box. $5 of the price of the box went to benefit the victims of the earthquake this year, so it gave me a “good” excuse to buy more tea. I’m really liking this tea a lot. The flavorings are mild, and you can still appreciate the base tea, which is fresh and vegetal. I’m looking forward to tasting this tea again when I’m not painting my nails (the citrus from the nail polish remover I’m sure is overwhelming some of the aromas and flavors that are there.)

Unrelated: I’m newly obsessed with the Hae Min Lee case since discovering the Undisclosed podcast. I anxiously await the second season of Serial and the results of the testing on the forensic evidence (will it be made public regardless of the results?)

I ordered a sample of this from Amoda tea right before they sold out. The vanilla bean is the star of this blend. It is super fragrant in the dry leaf, and truly vanilla bean in flavor (not vanilla flavoring, not cream or frosting flavored). The black tea is rich and smooth without being too overpowering. The orange notes are just present enough to confirm this is an earl grey, but the citrus definitely takes a backseat to the herbal vanilla. I don’t drink my tea with milk or sugar, so I am getting the most robust take on this blend. I bet this would be decadent and comforting with a dose of milk. I will be eager to see when this ends up back in stock, it’s the suavest earl grey I’ve had the pleasure to drink.

Thank you to Nepali Tea Traders for the sample! I suspect this is the same tea used for the base of their Masala Spiced blend. It’’s delicious. Apparently Nepalese blacks lack the astringency of most other black teas and don’t hurt my stomach. This one is mellow and bready with a faint apricot note. In later steeps, a strong honey note comes to the fore. I’m truly displeased that this is a sipdown. Once I get my cupboard under control, this goes on the keep-in-stock list. Though it seems like I’ve been saying that for years about various teas and my cupboard is still a mess…

Earl Grey is one of my favorites so I’m excited to try Nepali Tea Traders’ interpretation with vanilla bean and added orange peel. The tea leaves appear to be chopped into smaller pieces in this one. There are small bits of orange peel but I don’t see any of the vanilla bean yet. The color of the liquid after steeping is a red mahogany and the taste is bergamot with a bit of tang. I really wish I could taste the vanilla. I was so excited about a vanilla Earl Grey. Maybe I just didn’t get any vanilla bean pieces in this cup.

Second Steep
8 ounces + 195 degrees + 6 minutes

This second cup was not so bold as the first, but it also seemed smoother. I think I prefer it to the first cup actually.

It’s bitter as I expected it would be. I steeped this far too long so it’s completely my fault. I still like this one better than yesterday’s green. It seems sweeter and more fragrant.

Second Steep
8 ounces water + 160 degrees + 2 minutes

I steeped this cup correctly. Even with the long first steep, it has a deep color and a nice, light aroma. I actually taste green beans in this. That’s a first for me. I haven’t tasted the orange in either cup though.

Yesterday was a rough day and, unfortunately, it’s carried over into this morning. I’m going to try to make things a little better with a cup of good tea. I steeped this at a lower temperature, though I’m not sure of the exact temp since I didn’t use a thermometer to check it. I just know that I started with 200 degree water and let it cool for about 3 minutes before adding the tea leaves.

There is a roasted quality to this that actually reminds me somewhat of an oolong. Could that be right? The steeped leaves have that same roasted aroma. With just a touch of honey, the taste is quite enjoyable. This one I’m sure would be best in a gaiwan so I may try that next time.

Second Steep
8 ounces water + 2 minutes

The leaves are starting to relax and slump. A little bitter, more vegetal this time around.

1 tsp. cream + 2 tsp. honey

I’m not doing a very good job at taking notes on this one. My first cup was very dark and a touch bitter but this was easily smoothed out with the addition of some cream. My second cup I steeped at a lower temperature (195°) for a longer period of time (7 min). It didn’t get quite as dark as the first cup but it still smells nice and strong.

The leaves are tiny corkscrews, some black and some a fuzzy gold.

I got this tea as a sample with my order. I steeped it up to have with breakfast this morning (pancakes and syrup with strawberries, yum). It’s not really a breakfasty tea, but whatever. The loose leaf smelled pretty non-descript, and the brew smelled like a light-bodied black, perhaps like a Keemun or Darjeeling. My first sip was surprisingly sweet; I got a big hit of honey flavor, followed by some very mellow malt and a slight hint of bread. I think the reason it is so light in flavor for me is possibly because I didn’t quite have two teaspoons worth, but I steeped it in my 16-oz. perfect Teamaker anyway… I tried to not fill it all the way to compensate, but I guess it must not have worked, unless this tea is just meant to be light—a quality about which I am not complaining, though, since I do love a good easygoing black tea! Sometimes you just aren’t in the mood for a strong cuppa. The honey flavor is really complementing these pancakes beautifully, too. I may just have to buy some of this!

Good morning! I woke up this morning, and my house was freezing. I needed something to warm me up, so I picked this. I had almost forgotten about it actually, so i’m glad I still had this. I brewed this up in my porcelain mug. I’ve been wanting to try this piece out for awhile too. The little silken pyramids are pretty, but they do not have a string and tag. It is very to hard and painful to pick a sac out of boiling tea. I really wish they would have a string. Anyways, the aroma is that of a classic chai. My tea room is filled with cardamom and cinnamon with an underlying sweetness. The flavor is very subtle. The initial sip starts with a sharp spice but quickly shortens to a smooth and light body. This is a very light chai, and this would be perfect for someone just starting out on chai. It warmed me up and now the suns out. I liked it as a quick brew.

https://instagram.com/p/3RD0dUTGeI/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

I bought this tea for two reasons: I wanted to support the company’s efforts (in a somewhat indirect way) to do their part to help rebuild Nepal, as they have pledged to do with their profits for the next year, and I wanted to try the tea that won the North American Tea Championship in 2014 in the black tea category. The reviews looked very promising, so I went ahead an ordered the 1.6-oz. package. The tea is very reminiscent of a Yunnan golden tips, but with a slight smoky/bitter edge to it, somewhat reminiscent of the flavor of a pecan, or like a single leaf of lapsang souchong snuck its way into the steeper. It’s deeply malty, but also smooth, like someone took my favorite beer and made it into a tea. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although next time I might try steeping it for less time, just to see. :)