What-Cha's Nepal Pearl Oolong Tea

What-Cha's Description
An incredibly rare and unusual oolong with a great taste and aroma. Incredibly smooth, absolutely no detectable bitterness or astringency with a great taste of apricots and nectarines.

My thoughts
Woo! Another Nepali tea! My latest What-Cha order came in a couple days ago, and this is a tea I've been wanting to try for a long time. Last year's version of this tea went by the name of "Monsoon Flush 2014 Pearl Oolong", and it had been out of stock for quite a long time until just recently. I grabbed a handful of teas I had been eyeing for quite some time with their last sale (thanks again Alistair for the user choice sale!), along with some of the newer arrivals.

Dry leaves - Part of what makes this tea so unique is how the leaves are rolled into tight little balls, about the size of a marble or slightly larger. Bigger than a rolled oolong, but smaller than a blooming tea ball. The dry leaf has a wonderful smell of fresh hay, apricots and stonefruit. Not sure if it's peach or nectarine, but either way it's a beautifully sweet aroma.

Brewing parameters - 175F, 90s first, +15s after. I used 8 pearls for around 250ml of water, which is a bit more than recommended.

Tasting notes - Smooth, apricot, peach/nectarine, honey, malt, muscatel, hay

The first steep is a light, fruity soup with just a touch of fresh hay. The apricot and nectarine are most definitely at the front of the aroma and taste, with a bit of muscatel grapes and hay rolling across the tongue as the sip ends. It reminds me quite a lot of some first flush Darjeeling black teas I've had, but without the herbal bite that some of them carry.

Second and third steeps are noticeably darker in hue, and have taken on a distinct malty aroma. That was kind of surprising, actually. The apricot/nectarine taste is still at the forefront, but malt has taken over the bulk of the taste, still leaving a tick of muscatel at the end. The tea has shifted from a light first flush Darjeeling to a second flush almost instantly. I've never really had a tea that changed a flavor profile that quickly before, and I like it a lot. I did start to notice a bit of dryness in the third steep, probably the result of using too much leaf.

For the fourth steep onward (through 8 total), I decided to cut the infusion time way back, going with 20 seconds and adding 10 on for each steep after. That did the trick, the astringency is gone completely, and the broth is extremely smooth now. Guess that's what I get for ignoring the steep recommendations. The maltiness has subsided somewhat, and the fruitiness has taken over again. There is just a slight hint of something I can't quite place. Black pepper, maybe? Not that the longer steeps were bad, quite the opposite actually, but I much prefer this over the maltiness that the longer steeps brought.

This is really a distinctive tea and certainly worth the price, and is yet another example of the fantastic teas that Nepal has been producing. You can buy this tea at What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/new-teas/nepal-pearl-oolong-tea/?

What-Cha's Nepal 2015 Sandakphu 'Ruby' Semi-Ripe Dark Tea

What-Cha's Description
A most unusual dark tea possessing a rich earthy dark chocolate aroma and taste.

My thoughts
This is a fun little tea. According to What-Cha, after initial processing, the leaves are placed in a special bag and left outdoors for a year, exposed to all the elements during that time. After this, the leaves are fired and processing is completed. This unique procedure sets this tea about halfway in between a black tea and a dark tea, hence the name "semi-ripe".

Dry leaves - At first glance, you'd think this was just a black tea. The leaves are various shades of dark brown to flat black and have an aroma reminiscent of a darker Yunnan black tea. The scent isn't powerful, but a subdued hint of dark chocolate is definitely present.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 15s first, +5s after. I decided to go with quick steep times rather than the full 2-3 minutes as recommended. I've been using a sort of gongfu-western hybrid technique lately that's been working really well for me.

Tasting notes - Dark chocolate, cacao, earthy, peat/humus

The hue of the broth is a beautiful dark amber color, and exudes a rich aroma of dark chocolate. I mean, this smells remarkably similar to a cup of hot cocoa. I just sat there for a minute or two just smelling the sweet-savory liquid. The taste is, unsurprisingly, quite chocolately. Dark chocolate (like the >75% cacao stuff) is certainly the dominant taste here, but there are mild notes of earthiness that come through towards the end of the sip. They're a bit hard to find under the chocolate landslide, but to me it's most like clean peat moss.

This will likely be a bit shorter review than normal as the flavor profile didn't change all that noticeably with each successive steep. Not that I'm complaining. I'll never complain about a chocolatey tea like this one. After the 7th steep, it did seem to lose a bit of it's *umph*, so for #8 I let it steep for 5 minutes. That definitely brought out the rich flavors again, and even made the subtle peaty tones a bit more prominent. I feel like steeping this tea for the full 2 minutes at first would probably amplify the earthiness right off the bat, rather than keeping it quiet like these short steeps have. Next time I make this one, I'll maybe give that a try and see if it makes a difference.

Nepal continues to produce exceptional teas. It's like they cross Darjeeling and Yunnan, and keep the best of both worlds. And if Nepali farmers continue to produce innovative processing techniques such as this one, I can only see the Nepali tea industry getting better.

You can buy this tea from What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/dark-tea/nepal-2015-sandakphu-ruby-semi-ripe-dark-tea/