Darjeeling Gopaldhara Sencha

Darjeeling Gopaldhara Sencha is an unusual sencha-style green tea from Gopaldhara Tea Estate. Polished dark green leaves produce a light liquor with a smoky and fruity aroma. The smooth taste has notes of fruits and tobacco with a mineral and slightly tannic aftertaste.

Brewing guide: 2.5g in 250ml water at 80°C for 2-3 minutes

£1.90£6.50

(10-50g)

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Origin:Gopaldhara Tea Estate, Darjeeling, India
Elevation:1,700 - 2,100m
Cultivar:Japanese clones
Harvest time:May 2021
Sourcing:Direct from Gopaldhara

Description

Darjeeling Gopaldhara Sencha green tea is an unusual green tea from Gopaldhara Tea Estate in Darjeeling. Made from Japanese tea clones, the dry leaves have a polished appearance that is normally common of Japanese sencha teas. It produces a very smooth cup, with minimum astringency and a lightly smoky and fruity flavour reminiscent of wild Vietnamese green teas or young sheng pu-erh. Like all our Gopaldhara teas, we source this tea directly from Rishi Saria, the owner and director of Gopaldhara and Rohini Tea Estates. This particular batch of tea is FTGFOP1 grade from the First Flush May 2021 crop.

Gopaldhara Tea Estate is nestled in the Mirik Valley, in the Himalayan foothills, and is one of the highest tea estates in Darjeeling with elevations of between 1,700m and 2,100m. It is renowned for producing teas of exceptional quality and very often quite unusual character.

Darjeeling Gopaldhara Sencha green tea has long polished dark green leaves that are larger in size than a typical Japanese sencha. The leaves produce a pale liquor with a pronounced aroma that is vegetal, smoky and somewhat reminiscent of tobacco. The taste, however, is rather soft for an Indian green tea with smooth lightly vegetal flavours. It has a mouth coating aspect and notes that are smoky and fruity, resembling smoked prunes. There is slight tartness and a slight tannic astringency on the aftertaste. Overall, the flavours of this tea do take you on a little journey. The start is sweet, the middle progresses to a main smoky and fruity flavour and the finish has a mineral and vegetal aftertaste.

We suggest brewing parameters of 80°C for 2-3 minutes according to your taste. If you are finding the tea a little too astringent, you can decrease the water temperature to 70-75°C.

This Darjeeling Gopaldhara Sencha green tea was first featured in our September 2018 Curious Tea Subscription Boxes.