Vahdam

Omg okay so today I got 3 packages, one from Vahdam, one from Teasenz and another from Jake’s stash sale, I’m drowning in tea right now and its fantastic.

Anyways okay this is not going to be as proper of a review as mine usually are, I’ve been studying all night for my midterm tomorrow and caved and decided to start gongfuing this one while doing work so this is from memory. This is actually the only sample (of like 21) that I’ve opened just to give it a smell, and I was amazed by the dry leaf aroma, I don’t know how to describe it, it smells so pure and sweet, very fruity (orange/peach/grape) and not at all floral, more to the point I was really impressed with the look of the leaf, they’re completely whole and beautiful, just like in the picture. And with my complete disinterest in white tea recently and my past experiences with indian tea being pretty negative, this amazing aroma was a huge shock if I’m being honest. I had very low expectations for a Nilgiri white tea, but I’ve been very happily surprised.

It brewed up very strong and thick and almost malty in a way, hints of bitterness every now and then but for the most part it had a very nice body, I got notes of berries and lovely florals, as well as some of the fruits from the aroma, and at one point I’m pretty sure I tasted chocolate. Honestly, while I wouldn’t have had a hard time telling you that it was a white tea, it was quite.. Burly, I want to say. I feel like it has the body of a black tea, with the flavours of a fruity white.

Also, looking at the name, there is something that feels frosty about this tea. I don’t know why, but it’s very fitting that this is a winter harvest (Feb 2016).

This was a very good first impression for Vadham

Need to do a side by side with some of their other Assams but this one so far is not a standout. The leaves smell of a strong sweet malt but the flavor is somewhat lackluster. From this first cup, I get a moderate, average black tea. Need to try again. No rating.

Yum. The dry leaf smells like molasses and hay. The flavor is indeed plummy as their description says. A good heft of malt. A very classic taste. I can’t remember any more what the full leaf Nahorhabi from Harney tasted like but being from the same estate, I can’t imagine it was too different and I loved that one as well. Might have been a different flush, though, no idea and Harney only offers broken leaf now, which I don’t care for as much.

I ordered two big Golden Tips Teas samplers about a year ago (almost exactly a year ago, actually) and there are still so many I haven’t even tried yet. Gotta get on that! Golden Tips seems to be in the process of rebranding itself as Vahdam, and this particular sample bag is branded Vahdam so that’s how I’ve entered it into the system.

This is a classic assam: strong, malty, slightly astringent. There’s a hint of fruitiness/acidity with a clean feeling on the palate. The leaf is mostly dark/black, and small/broken. It’s good but not particularly remarkable. Would probably be good with milk.