Have you tried our 1st Flush Nepal Aishwarya yet?
Omg, it's incredible...
If you want to try, you can find it under our "Imperial Blacks" or under the Number 117 :)
This tea is high grown in altitude of 2133 m... "high, high in the mountains we fly." ~ And so we fly while drinking this tea.
This crispy tea comes from Nepal - Shree Antu Valley, Aishwarya Tea Estate which is called "A garden in the sky". Yes, Aishwarya is plantation so high that the tea bushes are constantly covered by mist and dew, while the big chunky clouds are rolling above like a wheels of ducati bike on a straight, long road...
(The weather in these hills is sort of like here in Scotland, perfect for growing our tea bushes in our little garden. Yes, of course we maybe not as high but the weather is often as grizzly as in Nepal!)
They also say, you can see Mt.Kangchenjunga from Aishwarya garden on a clear day... Heaven.. I can see the white peaks in my mind again! Mesmerising view.
What is the character of Nepalese teas?
Nepal produces wonderful black teas with a Darjeeling character. The world’s finest teas are nurtured and influenced by the clean, thin air of high mountain elevations. Altitude slows leaf maturation, which encourages flavour complexity and delicacy in the cup. Nowhere is this more true than for leaf that is plucked in the soaring elevations of the awe-inspiring and rugged Himalaya.
Tasting:
Aishwarya tea leaves are wonderfully furry... (like our cats, lol) the silvery buds & greenish-yellow leaves are small and a little broken but looking healthy and fresh. Dry nose aroma is full of sweetness, milk chocolate, herbs as sage and mint and also little hints of wood and hay.
The cup has bright & clear amber yellow colour. The aroma of cardamom, sage, lemon and vanilla is steaming up to the sky.
First sip gives sort of soft, smooth & milky texture on the tongue and you can recognise notes of creamy butter, wild sage and exotic vanilla. The tea is so gentle, very much alike white tea but with powerful zingy outburst and dry herbal astringency. With each cup the flavour is becoming less aromatic and more earthy, more notes of hay and dry herbs.
Processing:
- Pick: Bud and two leaves are carefully picked and thrown into a woven baskets that contains about 7 to 10 kg of fresh tea (which equals 1 to 1.5 kg of manufactured tea).
- Withering: The leaves are spread out evenly on a grid and are put in contact air. The air temperature, humidity, ventilation and the duration of withering are rigorously monitored. The withering lasts about 13 hours.
- Rolling: Which break the cells of the tea leaves in order to start their oxidation.
- Oxidation: It is during this stage that will prove the astringency of tea, flavour, body and the colour of the liquor. In contact with the oxygen in the air, the leaves previously 'prepared ' during the stage of rolling, are laid to rest in a warm and humid atmosphere. This will encourage the chemical phenomenon so-called 'enzymatic oxidation' and oxidized tea leaves. This is not a process of fermentation as natural BACTERIA is not in involved!!!
- Drying: The purpose of this step is to stop the oxidation process. For this, we will heat (still wet) leaves on a high to dry. This intense drying will then destroy the enzyme responsible for oxidation. The leaves are dried in heated cylindrical tanks at a temperature of 120 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.
How did we brew our Nepal?
Nice and easy.... We've brew Aishwarya in our ceramic teapot (130 ml volume) and add 3g of tea.
As usual we have preheated our tea-ware with 100 degree C water beforehead.
Then, we let the temperature naturally cool down to 92 C (no need to hurry, really) and steep the tea for about 60 seconds.
Pour into cups and enjoy.
The 3g of tea made us nice 5 brews, that's how fresh and powerful this 1st flush Nepal Aishwarya is... from the highest peaks of Himalaya.... the power of mountains is stored within.
Happy times as usual... Tea after incredible run in our local hills.... that's freedom guys!
Aishwarya... what's in the name?
Aishwarya was a queen of Nepal. Her husband was King Birendra. In contrast to her quiet husband, she was outspoken and forceful, and during the pre-1990 day of absolute monarchy she was viewed as the real power behind the throne. Until the people's revolution in 1950 the Rana dynasty was in power in Nepal for 104 years. She was killed in a palace massacre along with her husband and other members of the royal family in 2001 :(
This is a good name for tea.
