India Nilgiri 2020 'New Winter Frost' Black Tea from What-Cha

India Nilgiri 2020 'New Winter Frost' Black Tea

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Black Tea Leaves
Flavors
Almond, Apricot, Blackberry, Blueberry, Bread, Brown Sugar, Butter, Cherry, Cream, Fig, Honey, Malt, Orange Zest, Pear, Plum, Raisins, Red Apple, Straw, Strawberry, Vanilla, Chocolate, Dill, Menthol, Orange, Rose, Rye, Smooth
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Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by eastkyteaguy
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 3 g 9 oz / 266 ml

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2 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Alright, it’s time to review something I finished earlier in the year. I finished this tea sometime during the spring. I had no intentions to drink it when I did, but I accidentally tore the side...” Read full tasting note
    93
  • “Smooth with soft malt body, a bit of chocolate, dill and rose. All supplemented by a bright apricot-orange tone and cooling mouthfeel. It’s a clean Nilgiri without much depth. I’m sure...” Read full tasting note

From What-Cha

Sourced from a different tea estate to our previous Nilgiri Winter Frost offerings, this one has a very unique apricot taste which cools and lingers in the mouth.

Nilgiri Winter Frost Tea gets its unique taste as a result of the contrasting conditions experienced by the plant in late winter, the days are warm and sunny while temperatures plummet at night.

Sourced direct from Neemalamai Organics, a small farm located high in the Nilgiri mountains.

Tasting Notes:
- Apricot aroma
- Smooth taste with fruit notes and light malt

Harvest: February 7th 2020

Organic: Yes but not certified

Altitude: 2,000m
Origin: Neemalamai Organics, Tamil Nadu, Nilgiris, India
Farmer: The Subramanian family
Sourced: Direct from the farmer
Percentage of price going back to the farmer: 20%+

Brewing Advice:
- Heat water to roughly 90°C/197°F
- Use 2 teaspoons per cup/small teapot
- Brew for 2-3 minutes

Packaging: Resealable ziplock bag

About What-Cha View company

Company description not available.

2 Tasting Notes

93
Recommended
1049 tasting notes

Alright, it’s time to review something I finished earlier in the year. I finished this tea sometime during the spring. I had no intentions to drink it when I did, but I accidentally tore the side of the pouch removing it from the box it arrived in, so I immediately started working my way through what I had of it. Oddly, Nilgiri black teas do not often do a ton for me, yet the ones that impress me really impress me. This was one of those impressive offerings for me.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped 3 grams of loose tea leaves in approximately 8 ounces of 197 F water for 5 minutes. I did not rinse the leaves prior to infusion nor did I attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of straw, blueberry, cream, orange zest, raisin, and strawberry. After infusion, I detected aromas of apricot, plum, honey, cherry, and brown sugar. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of straw, cream, apricot, plum, honey, baked bread, roasted almond, strawberry, raisin, malt, orange zest, blackberry, blueberry, red apple, cherry, pear, and brown sugar that were balanced by hints of butter, vanilla, and fig. Each sip then finished in a smooth, malty, creamy, and very fruity fashion.

I may be alone here, but I found this to be a knockout Nilgiri black tea. I loved its robust fruity notes and the smooth, mellow finish of each sip. What-Cha has been knocking it out of the park for at least the past year or two with their Nilgiri offerings. Each one I try ends up serving as a reminder that I need to devote some time to trying more Nilgiri teas.

Flavors: Almond, Apricot, Blackberry, Blueberry, Bread, Brown Sugar, Butter, Cherry, Cream, Fig, Honey, Malt, Orange Zest, Pear, Plum, Raisins, Red Apple, Straw, Strawberry, Vanilla

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec 3 g 8 OZ / 236 ML
2 comments
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Courtney
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Wow — this one sounds amazing! The straw and cream with honey and the fruits (blackberry!). I can’t get over how tasty this one sounds.

derk
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It seems I have a palate that more often than not overlaps with yours, guy, but I couldn’t seem to pull much from this one; I think I have a difficult time parsing exceptionally smooth teas. Glad to finally read your experience!

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1597 tasting notes

Smooth with soft malt body, a bit of chocolate, dill and rose. All supplemented by a bright apricot-orange tone and cooling mouthfeel. It’s a clean Nilgiri without much depth. I’m sure eastkyteaguy will swoop in some day with a lengthy list of flavors and aromas; I keep trying to pay attention but it’s one of those flatter thirst quenchers that goes down quickly. Some days do have more oomph than others.

Flavors: Apricot, Bread, Chocolate, Dill, Malt, Menthol, Orange, Rose, Rye, Smooth

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML
5 comments
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eastkyteaguy
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Derk, I’d like to say that I will be swooping in to post a review with a lengthy list of aromas and flavors for this tea, but at this point, I doubt that will happen. It’s not that I didn’t get a lot out of this tea, because I did. I loved it, and I generally don’t flip over Nilgiri black teas. It’s just that with everything that has come down the pipe in the last day or so, I have no clue how much involvement I will have with Steepster in the future. Due to persistent difficulties logging in and posting content, my role here has been very limited for much of the past year. I have been spending most of my time reading the reviews of others, answering questions, adding new teas, updating product listings, and cleaning out spam. Like all of the other mods that are active, I have been putting in a ton of unpaid work behind the scenes. I love the community here and think this site is a tremendous resource that still has tons of untapped potential. That being said, I also have serious concerns about Adagio taking over the site. I recall some of the controversy with TeaChat, and though I have been impressed with Adagio’s willingness to accept input from the community of active users and their pledge to maintain the content generated by them, I do not trust that this site will truly remain unbiased or will maintain its own distinct identity under the Adagio umbrella for long. I have serious ethical concerns about a tea review site being run by a tea company. I’m willing to give Adagio a chance and sincerely hope they have learned from past mistakes, but I also do not feel that it would be appropriate for me to continue contributing original content to Steepster. I was drawn to Steepster because it was an independent resource. That’s why I joined in the first place. In light of recent events, I feel that continuing to contribute content to this site would amount to an endorsement of a transition about which I have serious ethical concerns. In other words, I’m not sure it would be ethical on my part to endorse a product in which I currently do not have faith. If Adagio allows me to do so, I will gladly continue to serve as an independent moderator, but as far as providing original content goes, I doubt I will be writing anything else for Steepster. If things work out and my fears prove unfounded, then I may start contributing material again here and there, but for now, I would advise you and anyone else who takes the time to read this post not to bet any significant amount on it. I’m serious when I say that this is very likely the last public post I will be making on Steepster. If this does prove to mark the of my time here as a contributor of content, and again, it likely does, then it’s been a great run. I’ve treasured every second of it and truly appreciate every interaction I have had on this site. I still have great difficulty believing that anybody ever liked or agreed with anything I had to say or enjoyed my extremely humorless, mechanical, repetitive, and all too frequently uninspired writing.

Crowkettle
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Psh, I’m definitely one of those people who love and value your tea notes, eastkyteaguy. One of the best parts of Steepster for me is/was clicking on any given tea here and being met with a hodgepodge of reference notes ranging from open diary entries, stream of consciousness experiences, mixed media scrap-booking, to “scientific”/methodological guides. Regardless of how personal or impersonal your notes are/were it’s clear you put your heart (time & energy) into them. I love and appreciate that. I also find your notes and those like yours so useful when I find myself trying to make a cup of a tea you had previously.

I hope for the best, but if this turns out to be an ending you will be dearly missed!

mrmopar
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@eastkyteaguy, I sure hope you do stay around. If not then at least give me a way to contact you. We are still due that tea meet up one day that we talked about a while back. I would like to see both those things come to pass as well as a contact email or phone number from you. You and I have been here a while and I hate to see anyone leave the site.

Martin Bednář
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Eastkyteaguy: I completely understand you, but please, be patient and wait what will develop! Your tasting notes are always nice to read, although sometimes too specific for me, but certainly great! I don’t like the idea of ownership of rating site by some vendor, but maybe it is right now the best way. I have big troubles with discussions and messages, but writing tasting notes worked well for me (athough there were some mishaps).

I am optimistic a bit as well pesimistic. Just puzzled. Happy that something is happening, but tea company is the owner. (rolls eyes)

tea-sipper
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eastkyteaguy: I think your tasting notes have been an essential part of Steepster and tea knowledge in general. Your notes set the bar extremely high! I get what you’re saying about Adagio, but hopefully things will turn out okay down the road.

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