ethan wrote:kuanglong, Are you drinking first-flush tea only? Did you conclude that for darjeeling that is what you prefer?
Not really. It's just that for the last year or so they seem to resonate with my system more than any other tea (with few exceptions, like that Nilgiri I wrote about and some lighter oolongs) and that's what I'm really after.
It is apparent that besides the subjectivity of what individuals like, we have different habits. One might conclude he likes first flush darjeeling tea or Japanese green tea & then try many of those, while others may not drink so much of one type of tea.
For me it's not so much about habits but that resonance thing I wrote about and the whole setup can change in no time. I wouldn't be too surprised if I woke up tomorrow and wouldn't feel like drinking any tea at all - it has happened before - many times. We're all in it for all sorts of different reasons.
For black tea from Nepal, I tried several brands & easily concluded Jun Chiyabari was best which led me to focus on HOR because of taste & price. (J.C.'s doubly expensive black also pleased me greatly.) After knowing I liked HOR & it was affordable, I did not buy in quantity until I found a superior "harvest". I do not say "flush" because I do not know that I prefer autumn flush always. I do know the leaves of one particular late harvest of one year was excellent tea. I love it. To secure a lot of it & to be able to get it affordably, I needed to buy in large quantity > I can drink myself. I did buy that much & so sell Himalayan Orange (HOR) via TeaSwap.
If it were wine, I'd say it was "vintage". (It also might have a better name. "Himalayan Orange" seems more misleading to me than helpful. I don't taste orange; lots of tea that we drink has orange color; the aroma is not clearly orange; etc.) But some wine people seem to have their bottles of vintage saved for some "special occasion" & for bragging rights. I think tea-drinkers drink their best teas more often & are more generous. (Not sneaking off to some small room by a couple of best friends to sip an 18-year old single malt while other partygoers are offered Budweiser.)
Nothing against Budweiser, the real (czech) deal at least, my mother is from that area and even though I usually don't drink any alcohol I seem to have something of that stuff in my genes, lol.
Anyway, for "darjeeling" the HOR is all I need for a few years. I am satisfied in that category. I was so proud to have bravely bought enough to take care of that need & need for all black tea-- until ..... yes, there are other great black teas. So, now I also am drinking 2 black teas from Taiwan regularly. I am not so smart. When will I know what I know about tea?
Cheers
There sure are some other great black or 'red' teas out there, much more than anyone can sample and if it goes on like this we'll most probably see some even greater teas in the future. To me that's the central part of the fun - exploring and experimenting with what's there, getting ever deeper into it and variety plays an important role in that ongoing journey. On the other hand I've done this long enough now, to an extent that I know what I really care for and above all why and to me that's the most beautiful aspect of the whole story.
Cheers