dark brown unfurling

Am excited about a package full of Hampstead Tea that I received today. Seems there selection of Darjeeling all comes from the Makaibari Tea Garden. A great resource for information about any Darjeeling estate is Darjeeling Tea Express, and this is what I found there about Makaibari.

So the teas from Hampstead Tea are a white tea, two black teas (one first flush), and even an Oolong. In the next several days, I plan to brew these up and share my impressions here. I must say that I'm very impressed with the presentation of the packaging. The picture of the dark brown liquid unfurling into the white background is really attractive. You can see it at their website here:

Hampstead Tea

Should be a good weekend for tea drinking.

I'll show you mine if you show me yours

What an enjoyable afternoon Neil of Neil's Yard and I had trying a variety of tea. Am going to briefly go over the highlights, and possibly come back and go into more detail if there's more to cover.

I wanted to see what he thought of the Darjeeling I have from Darjeeling Tea Express, so I started with a Goomtea Pre Autumnal Black. You can read about it here: Darjeeling Pre Autumnal. This is a tea I like, but Neil was immediately smitten. He loved it. Couldn't help but taste the muscatel, he said. He could clearly see why I was so excited to share this tea with him.



Then I tried his Everyday Kenya from leaf. (leaf. tea), and I was similarly impressed. I've not had much Kenyan tea, but this was delicious. It smelled smoky like a good Yunnan, but was so smooth and spicy. Here's how the leaves looked before adding boiling water (Very dark brown with yellow tips):




Although many Darjeeling lovers wax rhapsodic about first flush tea, I've always liked the stronger second flushes. So I was excited to brew a bit of Gopaldhara 2nd flush (again from Darjeeling Tea Express Gopaldhara 2nd flush). Although he liked it, it didn't make nearly the same impression that the Pre Autumnal did.

This is one of the things I love about tea. Not just the variety of flavours, but the incredibly subjective response that can result from two different tea drinkers.

After we got the black tea sorted, we spent the remainder of our time on multiple infusions of something called Organic Blue Tea (again from leaf.). According to their website, Oolong is sometimes called Blue tea because it's somewhere between black and green. Had never heard that description, but why not? Here's how they describe it: Organic Oolong 'Blue' tea, and it's stated, 'this oolong tea is a Qi Lan from the province of Guang Dong in China.'

From both appearance and taste, this is clearly a highly-oxidised Oolong. Like many first infusions, the smell was more pronounced than the taste. Nevertheless, you could tell what an enjoyable tea drinking session was in store based simply upon this smell.




Sure enough as we drank multiple infusions, the taste of the tea developed. How I ever brewed one single infusion of a decent Oolong still makes me shudder. It was at this point that we sat down and looked at twitter. I think Neil was a bit impressed, as well as intrigued, that the tea companies he'd been in contact with were so easily accessible on Web 2.0. So often, twitter makes no sense until one can see it in action.

There you have it. A wonderful tea tasting experience, and the more he talks about it, I can't wait to see how Neil's Yard turns out. Stay tuned.

Neil's Yard

My friend Ruth married a guy named Neil, which means I got a new friend in the process. A while back, I saw them at some function, and they informed me they were packing up and moving to Newfoundland (and Labrador), where he'll have a little cafe/shop and serve tea. That's right tea!

The plan back then was to sell/serve tea from teabags. I thought that maybe my short-term goal was to bring him over to the leaf-side, but he seems to have made it over here on his own already. Thankfully.

Nevertheless, he wants to show me the teas he already has, and I want to introduce him to the Darjeeling from Darjeeling Tea Express that I served at the tea tasting I did a while back.

I'm also going to show him the basics of twitter, and extoll the virtues of meeting/communicating with tea people there. Should be fun. Will definitely be reporting here on the whole ordeal, but I wanted to start out by introducing Neil and his soon-to-be-opened cafe/shop. It's called Neil's Yard, and here's the website:

Neil's Yard

Go have a look.

More soon on an impromptu tea tasting and a welcome newcomer to the online tea community. You can't wait, can you?

cup after cup getting better and better

Today seemed endless. That being said, my tea drinking was as close to ideal as I can imagine. Had a strong Assam Khongea to help open my eyes, a pot of smoky Grand Yunnan to carry me through until early afternoon, and then I started on what seemed like a limitless string of infusions of Darjeeling Kangra Oolong.

Here's where I got it: Darjeeling Tea Express

and here's a description: bit.ly/htJAd3

Even the first infusion, which can sometimes be a bit weak/watery, was delicious. Light, but full of the flavour that was to come. And here's what I loved: each infusion was tastier and tastier...I thought it couldn't get better. But it did. It tasted like the flowers that were only hinted at were coming alive in my mouth.

Another time I might go back and talk about the specific notes I tasted, and how those notes strengthened or faded. But I simply wanted to mention that all the trial and error with multiple infusions of a good Oolong can eventually produce quite a tea drinking session. Today's was one of the nicest I can remember.

I was out and about for most of the evening, but upon returning home I couldn't resist seeing if those sad, abused leaves could yield one more round of not nearly boiling water (80°C). They did. The last infusion was still worth it. More than worth it.

'flown tea' nine months too late

While going through my tea over the holidays, I came upon something I'm a bit embarrassed about. I was in Hamburg last spring, and visited (and blogged about) a wide assortment of tea shops (http://bit.ly/dE75QU). One of the places I was most impressed with was Teehaus Shila. They were incredibly friendly and knowledgable, and after I asked a thousand questions, the young guy behind the counter handed me a sample of their Flugtee, which translates as 'flown tea' or 'air tea'.

The way the story was explained to me: the owner of the shop flies to Darjeeling when the initial first flush is ready and comes back with suitcases full of the stuff. As fresh as it can possibly be. He's not the only guy in Germany that does this. Apparently, there are a few shops in Germany that get this tea several weeks before everyone else and promote it accordingly.

Do they do this anywhere else in the world? I went back to Teehaus Shila's website, and it seems they're selling the Flugtee for the same price. Maybe it's different from the other first flush Darjeelings that you can get later.

Why was I embarrassed? Because I saved the little packet for a special occasion, and then promptly forgot about it. Until I cleaned out my tea cabinet recently, and there it was.

I have no idea how much better it would've been back in April, but it was pretty good when I finally brewed it today. Am not sure I would've even appreciated it back then. I was still very new to Darjeeling first flushes, and not that impressed. Since then, I've had many different first, second and autumnal flushes, and my palate has definitely improved.

Now that I've tried the most recent teas that Darjeeling Tea Express has on offer, I truly cannot wait until they are able to send the many first flush teas of 2011. Am salivating just thinking of it.

Will happily drink the second and Autumnal flushes until then, but I'm waiting impatiently for the next batch of Flugtee, whether it's flown in or not.

Oolong all the way from the Rohini Estate in Darjeeling

The test for my new teapot has been to brew a few Oolongs that I simply couldn't enjoy prepared in my normal teapot. The first one I tried, and it was much better, was a Jun Chiyabari Oolong from Nepal. Not sure why it tasted so much better steeped repeatedly in this brown clay pot, but it did.

I'm hoping that the more I experiment with these different teas, the more infusions I'll be able to get. Earlier this year, I got some Darjeeling Rohini Oolong from Teehaus Shila in Hamburg. I've briefly mentioned Oolong from Darjeeling before (the Himalayan Oolong that Darjeeling Tea Express sent me was quite good), but because I couldn't brew the Oolong from the Rohini Estate to taste very good, I assumed Oolongs from Nepal or Darjeeling simply weren't of a very high quality. Am beginning to see that the problem lay more with me than with the tea.

Here's how the leaves looked at the outset:



If I hadn't tasted this tea, I'd say the leaves looked like a typical Darjeeling black tea. This tea was anything but.

The first infusion was light, but there was something a bit malty to the taste. I steeped the second infusion too long and although it was a bit bitter (something I rarely experience with Oolongs), I noticed a taste that I normally associate with Formosa Oolong. It was almost a bit of a burnt flavour.

The third infusion was where I under-steeped it after going too long the time before. Nevertheless, there was a bit of a mint aftertaste. Very light, but definitely there. Only on the fourth infusion could I detect a bit of vanilla. I've never tasted vanilla in an Oolong. Quite a surprise.

Here's how the leaves looked after the workout I gave them:



For the next week or so, I'll be in France for the New Year. Cannot wait to report on the Tea Salons in Nice and whether there are differences between tea drinking there and in Paris. Stay tuned.

a bit deeper with the Gopaldhara 2nd flush

Decided to try two Darjeelings alongside one another, and wanted to see how this new tea from Darjeeling Tea Express tasted in direct comparison to tea from another source.
The former is a Darjeeling 2nd flush FTGFOP1 from the Gopaldhara estate, while the latter tea was described as simply Tea of the Year 2010 and had the grade FTGFOP1, but it wasn't clear which flush it was.





Although the leaves of both teas were very dark green, the leaves of the second tea were lighter and even had a glimmer of light green leaves mixed in.

My preference in Darjeelings continues to be teas from the 2nd flush, and this was no exception. My suspicion is that the Tea of the Year was a 1st flush. The brewed tea smelled flowery, but the taste was simply not very memorable. Both teas have a very coppery cup colour, but the taste of the Gopaldhara 2nd flush was much fuller. There was also a light wood smell to this tea. Even though there was a bit of bitterness, it wasn't as much as with some 2nd flush teas.



The Gopaldhara is on the left, while the Tea of the Year is sitting nearby. This is definitely not an advertisement for either tea, but if you want to know where to find the Gopaldhara, here's where you can find this specific tea on the Darjeeling Tea Express website:

http://bit.ly/fukwlj

Am really enjoying spending more time with these teas that I had such a rushed introduction to during the tea tasting a few weeks ago. Thus far, this is the tea I like the most from the five we tried.

Oolong Nirvana in the next street over

My plan is still to go into more detail about the teas I was sent by Darjeeling Tea Express, but something excited has come up. I have to talk about it.

Recently, a few different people told me that there was a new tea shop nearby. My hopes were not high. Immediately, my thoughts turned to what sort of shop it might be. My worst nightmare was kitschy knick knacks and assorted artificially flavoured teas. Just in time for the holidays.

I was in for a shock. Immediately as I walked up to the window, it was obvious that my assumptions were all wrong. Here's the Laifufu Teesalon:





The owner is a Taiwanese woman called Pei-Jen, and it was quickly apparent that she was a wealth of information about Oolong tea. This really could not get any better. First I wandered through and admired the teapots and cups on display:







Then at the back of the room there's a little set of tables looking out on the quiet, snowy courtyard. I think you'll find me here quite often in the coming months:








Asked for an Oolong recommendation, and was encouraged to sit and try multiple infusions of a high mountain Oolong called Alishan Zhu Lu. The first infusion was ok, but nothing special. It had a very strong floral smell, but I couldn't taste it. Luckily, each infusion became more floral and more dramatic. Once again, I'm not surprised that I like a tea grown at a high altitude.

While Pei-Jen poured cup after cup, we talked about a wide variety of topics relating to Oolong tea. Wealthy nouveau riche Chinese who come in and buy entire crops of a plantation before the tea has even been processed. Oolong tea being sold on the market as authentic Taiwanese, which is over-priced and potentially not even from Taiwan.

If you happen to be in Munich-Neuhausen, you'll find the Laiffu Teesalon at Maillinger Straße 14, 80636 München (Munich). There's a website still under construction, but I'll go ahead and give the address (http://www.laifufu.de).

I wanted to include a photo of Pei-Jen, but thought it might be overwhelming on the first visit. Nevertheless, here's a photo of the table where we drank the delicious tea I've described:

straight from Darjeeling

The people who provided the tea for the tea tasting I did at the weekend are launching the new website, and I want to make a lot of noise about it.

It was already a treasure trove of information about Darjeeling tea. But now they're launching the website and providing authentic Darjeeling tea to be sent anywhere in the world.

Here, you can see it for yourself:

http://www.darjeelingteaxpress.com

I have to reiterate how reliably and smoothly the tea was delivered. Even in our globalised world, it's still remarkable that the tea was sent last Monday afternoon and easily arrived by Friday afternoon. This is even more surprising considering that we had our first major snow of the year and shipping logistics were a nightmare.

I also like the thought that the people at Darjeeling Tea Express know the growers at the tea estates. I feel much more comfortable where my money is going, when I know someone who has direct contact with the growers.

So, here's the announcement:

Darjeeling Tea Express Launches New Tea Website

Go check them out.

Castleton's coppery cup

Here's a photo of the very beautiful red and even yellow tips of very dark green leaves of Castleton Autumnal Darjeeling.


Because Sir William spoke so highly of autumnal Darjeelings, I was excited to try this as soon as I pulled it out of the package from India. I thought there were only 1st and 2nd flushes for Darjeeling, but am happy to find out about the tea that's plucked after the rainy season. The tea we're dealing with here come from the Castleton Estate. There's a structure, which is still standing on the Castleton Estate., that looks like a castle. Hence the name.


So, I brewed the tea and for once I took a photo of the leaves afterwards. The tea has a very floral smell that didn't lessen on the second infusion. Actually, the tea held up well on the second infusion. It was a bit lighter, but not much. Here's a description of tea from this estate at the Darjeeling Tea Express website:

The teas have (a) rose like fragrance, golden like sun-spun amber and are most prized for their unique "mucatel" comparable to sweet summer wines with intense fragrant top notes of musk.
(source: www.darjeelingteaexpress.com)



The cup colour is coppery, and although the taste is a tad bitter, it's very fresh. There's definitely a muscatel flavour, as well as a hint of citrus. It's certainly lighter than a 2nd flush, but seems a bit stronger than a 1st flush. I doubt I'd start my day with this tea, but it seems perfect for a cold, rainy afternoon like we had today. Even after I'd had two infusions of this tea, I brewed another half pot of it after a long walk in the afternoon. Ultimately, the fact that I went back to it after having already had two pots is a hearty recommendation indeed.