I’m a sucker for Darjeeling oolongs. Heck, I’m even a sucker for the one and only Assam oolong I’ve tried. Nilgiri oolongs…um…they mean well. This one out of Bihar is hard to pinpoint. So we’ll start with the obvious.
Do I like it? Oh, hell yes. Character-wise, it has the nuances of a Nilgiri OP (Tiger Hill-ish), but a lot of the fruity bend of a Formosa. There’s also a smoky aspect on the end, but it’s very minor. One thing of note, though, this tasting note was from trying it Western-style. It held up well in a “wrongfu” prep, but not quite as well. Go big and boiled with this one.
It also almost became the subject of a tea fiction story (along with one other Doke tea, a Taiwanese sencha, and two Nepalese whites), the “DVD commentary”-ish blog on that trainwreck can be found here: http://lazyliteratus.teatra.de/2012/10/03/blending-tea-and-fiction/
