A quality tea, from the ‘Roof of the World’, found to the east of Kathmandu produced by small tea plantations, operated by family owned small holder businesses. These plantations occur at altitudes between 1,000 and 2,000 metres, due to these small holdings size only small amounts of tea are produced and prepared within their own gardens. The enthusiasm and knowledge of tea production has led to a collection of high quality farmers producing limited quantities of superior black, oolong and green teas.
The ideal combination of climate and altitude plus a greater preponderance of organic farming techniques have helped make the Nepalese teas worthy in comparison to second flush Darjeeling teas found growing in the same area in neighbouring India. It is exceedingly unusual for single estate tea to come from Nepal as the amount produced is often too small to interest the world market and so the growers have to rely on outside agents to purchase direct from them and package the product for international sale, hence the marketing of this tea as Golden Nepal.
I brewed this tea at 90oC for three minutes and it produced a lovely cup very similar to a second flush Darjeeling but with a more ‘earthy’ flavour. I didn’t take it with milk but Helen had it with a small splash and enjoyed it.
