Avataa Tea is one of the leading tea brands of South India, and the distinguishing factor that I find about their teas, are the unique flavours and the freshness that each of their teas offer.
Avataa comes from the Sanskrit word “fresh” as their website mentions and coming from an elevation of 6400 ft in the Nilgiris, their teas are processed by an award winning steaming and dehydration method that ensures that the tea leaves retain their freshness long after they have been packed. And so, the apt name.
Avataa tea is also the winner of several awards both in the North America and in India – a very prestigious one being the Golden Leaf India Awards from “Southern Teas Competition”.
I was approached by Avataa tea to try and taste some of their unique and award winning teas; and it was with much pleasure that I indulged in that activity. After all, tea is what I do, and sipping as many cuppa as possible, only adds to my euphoria 🙂
Here are my observations after tasting their teas:
Name of the Tea: White
Aroma: A perfect grassy white tea aroma, I was hooked immediately.
Flavour: A simple, soothing white tea, absolutely fantastic on head, body and tail.
Brewing Time: 3 – 4 min.
Comments : I really enjoyed this tea. Just my kind of white tea that I will drink by itself or may be with a piece of cracker. The best tea that I tasted from the lot.
Name of the Tea : Jasmine Green
Aroma : A strong green tea aroma, which kind of overpowered the aroma of jasmine.
Flavour : Bitter on the head which was consistent throughout.
Brewing Time: 3 min.
Comments : Not a subtle green tea. This is my favourite flavoured green tea, and I wanted this to be little more easy on my senses.
Name of the Tea : Green Tea with Ginger
Aroma : A strong smell of ginger when we smell the tea leaves.
Flavour : Not as bitter as the Jasmine green tea, though I made it lighter bodied.
Brewing Time: 3 min.
Comments : I think ginger is not a good flavour for green tea, because green teas are mild and ginger has a very strong aroma. It becomes difficult to balance these two elements.
Name of the Tea : Orange Green
Aroma : A very nice orange peel smell which I really liked.
Flavour : It was little hard on the mouth, perhaps from the combined bitterness of the green tea and the orange peel.
Brewing Time: 3 min.
Comments : The green tea was little too bitter like the other green teas. The brew was quite nice but strong.
Name of the Tea : Vanilla Green
Aroma : The tea has a hint of vanilla smell as loose tea.
Flavour : The vanilla smell was not apparent after brewing.
Brewing Time: 3 min.
Comments :I was hoping that this unique flavoured tea will deliver a right combination of smooth green tea flavour along with the delightful essence of vanilla. But the vanilla smell was lost on the mouth.
Name of the Tea : Oolong Tea
Aroma : Was pleasantly surprised by the nice aroma.
Flavour : Perfect flavour as a oolong should be.
Brewing Time: 4 min.
Comments : Oolong teas are very complicated to manufacture. And Nilgiris are not really known for their Oolongs. Therefore, I must say I am very impressed with this Oolong that I tried. Quite comparable to the Karngra Oolong I drink. This could be a best seller with right promotion.
Final comments:
It seems all the green teas that I tried are on the bitter side of the taste palate. I am not sure if this is on purpose. Perhaps this is to meet the demand of the consumers who think “green teas should be bitter”. A strong green tea has the capability to overpower all other aromas once brewed.
The white and the oolong teas are a MUST try. And since we don’t really have a good source or variety of these two teas in India, they can be super hit products.