1st annual Tea Trade gathering

Although we'd met separately over the weekend, the whole gang finally got together on Sunday afternoon and we went through a nice selection of tea. There was a wonderful surprise organised by Robert, and he wrote about it over at It’s a mad, mad world…








The other not necessarily tea-related surprise was that I invited my bass player friend Jarrod, about whom I've written here periodically, and we started the afternoon out by playing some of my tunes and some lesser-known covers. It hadn't been announced, and the music was well received.

Jarrod was interrogated at the beginning of the festivities about whether he even drank tea, but I quickly assured everyone that he was one of the people I'd lured partially over to the leaf-side. Many of my tea-related experiments have first been tried on Jarrod before I've launched them on the general public. He seems no worse for wear.




Before anyone arrived, I'd brewed the Gu Zhang Mao Jian that I wrote about in yesterday's post, as well as some Nilgiri Thiashola 'Carrington'. Both got nice comments, but the Nilgiri especially seemed to impress. I wrote about it in tea choices for marauding teenagers or Zombie Apocalypse, but you have to read through to near the end of the blogpost to get to the part about the Nilgiri.




In addition to the strong black and earthy green, I wanted to have a decent Darjeeling to offer people as they arrived, so I chose a first flush from the Snowview Estate. Although it's a tea from 2010, it's still remarkably crisp and fresh.

But because the darker tea got such a good reception, I decided to make a strong but not too malty/bitter Assam. I'd written quite a bit about Assam Mangalam, so I decided now was my change to showcase it. If you look in the comments to my blogpost Waking up in Mangalam, you can see what interesting things Jackie found out about this estate and their distinctive clonal Assam. Here's the best part:

From Steepster:
“The Mangalam tea estate is named after Kumar Mangalam Birla, once the son of the estate’s owners and now one of its managers. The estate is owned by Jayshree Tea & Industries, a large company that incorporated in 1945. Jayshree is heralded in the Orthodox world for its special clones that produce a big golden leaf tip, which no one is able to replicate, making Jayshree Assams easily identifiable.”

I couldn't miss an oppurtunity to serve some Flugtee, so I brewed a pot of this year's Singell Darjeeling first flush. From my perspective, this was probably the best tea served today and it certainly got the praise it deserved. One person who nearly always drinks any black tea with milk said that this was the first tea she'd had that was just fine all on its own. That alone made my day.


As good as the tea was to be, the quality of the cake was of extreme importance. Jackie made it clear that good cake was absolutely essential. From what I could tell, she was anything but disappointed.







As people started getting ready to leave I quickly started brewing multiple infusions of my nicest high mountain Oolong from Taiwan. It's called Alishan Zhu Lu Oolong and it really was the perfect tea to wrap up an enjoyable afternoon. Even after six infusions, the taste was vibrant and blooming. No wonder many serious teabloggers spend so much time talking about high mountain Oolongs.

The weekend has been fantastic, and I can only hope we actually do another annual gathering. Maybe Adelaide next year? Or everyone make a pilgrimage to the Chicago Tea Gardens? I'm sure we can find a place centrally located.



Here's yours truly, Jackie, Peter, Sheila, Sabine and Xavier. We were too busy drinking tea and listening to music to take a lot of photos, but there were a few.

nostalgia for a place I've never been

I'll start out with a disclaimer. Bavaria is nothing like Darjeeling. Not at all. Not that I've been to Darjeeling. Not yet anyway. I'll go there one day. The more I read/hear about the mountainous region of northeastern India and its mystical air and bountiful soil, the more I desperately want to see it for myself.

So, instead I've been here in the Bavarian Alps for most of the last two weeks, and it's rained more than it hasn't. It's beautiful up here whether it's raining or not, but I love hiking and this torrential rain has definitely limited my opportunities to go up the mountain.

I was sitting here this afternoon, staring out the window at yet another dark and heavy cloud...I wondered to myself, 'What's the perfect tea for this weather?' Well, the mountain air and relentless rain is very similar to what I know of Darjeeling.

I've written quite a lot about Darjeeling in these pages, but here's one of the posts I liked the most. Actually, the comments/discussion after the post is what I liked most of all. Check them out: soil from which it came.

Had a few infusions of the Singell Estate first flush that I wrote about in the previous post. As good as it was down in the Bavarian capitol, it was somehow even more delicious up here at the higher altitude.

I somehow feel nostalgia for a place I've never been. Just thinking about is making me thirsty.

finally a cup of first flush

I wrote a while back about Flugtee and the way some German tea shops market the freshest Darjeeling. Here's what I said back then: 'flown tea' nine months too late.

I write about teashops when I travel. Love to find obscure, out-of-the-way places to either drink tea or purchase it. But I don't spend much time talking about the tea establishments in my immediate surroundings. Now that I'm getting to know more German tea fanatics/teabloggers, I feel I should mention the places I go for tea.

That's where the Flugtee comes in. I passed the Tee Gallerie the other day and saw a sign in the window announcing the freshest, right-off-the-plane selection of first flush. I was too curious not to go in and have a look.

The teaseller, Thomas Olmesdahl, is always very helpful, but as soon as I mentioned what I was there for, he couldn't hide his enthusiasm. He showed me quite a selection of wonderfully fragrant teas. One smelled of flowers and another of asparagus. Might not sound so great, but I've been pondering the scent of the asparagus-smelling tea since then. I really might have to break down and go get it.

What I did get was a Darjeeling Singell, which I'll talk about more in a later post, but suffice it to say that this is unquestionably a step above the Darjeeling that's been sitting on shelves since last year. The leaves smell like they've just been plucked (I guess that's the point of spending more for this stuff) and there's no question that this tea can be infused a second time.

Like I say, I'm going to get at least one other first flush tea and make a taste comparison. This isn't the last you'll hear of this 'flown tea'.