2009 2nd Flush Darjeelings

[cyberhoofer]

Holy smokes, what are you going to do with that much tea? Pretty cheap, albeit.

If you brew a big pot, say 1,3 liters, you'd need 10 to 12 grams of dry leaves of Darj. I mean brewing Western / English way.

I do this 3 times a day. Mornings - Afternoon - 3rd pot in the evening.

All this totals a consumption of 30 to 36 grams of tea per day. Even if you use a lesser amount of tea, say 8 grams for a big pot (1300 ml), it'd be 24 grams a day.

Multiply this 30 times and you'll soon see my monthly consumption levels!

I do brew my 2nd Flush Darjs the way they were meant to be brewed according to the estate producers: enough dry leaves (8 to 10 grams per liter) - water near to the boiling point - steep 3 to 5 minutes. And NO multiple steeps, unless they're white, yellow or oolongs!

Many of you may disagree, but this is the orthodox way to brew 2nd Flush Darjs - acquire the taste layers & notes in one single brew, nothing fancy to it!

If you want to experience the 'heady' Muscatel aromas of these 2nd Flush teas, you don't achieve it by keeping the dry stuff in a tin. Go plenty with the leaves & get it fresh while you can, preferably directly from India, without too many hands in between.

I've had mine from the umpteenth so-called Darj vendors here and there - the utmost fresh genuine stuff from top notch vendors like Thunderbolt, Tea Emporium & Lochan Tea is my way of enjoying these 'champagnes' of teas.

I don't object to other brewing ways of these teas, I just feel people are missing a lot not following suit brewing wise from the country of origin & the people that created the product.

If I drank some quality Burgundy, like vintage Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet or Chablis Grand Cru, I wouldn't sip it fridge cold or luke warm either, but tried to get the most of it - according to the guide lines from those who know better. The folks who know better, usually are those who created the product.

Darjeelings on the whole are not meant to be brewed 'sparingly' on the leaves, you either like them, or then you don't. With or without the occasional astringency! Making mild brews trying to save the 'all too dear' leaves and your purse won't make justice to these teas.

Go get them and brew them!

And if you buy too much, you can always turn into a Tea Santa, Xmas is coming, Xmas is coming, Xmas is coming, Xmas is coming

[Chip]

All this totals a consumption of 30 to 36 grams of tea per day. Even if you use a lesser amount of tea, say 8 grams for a big pot (1300 ml), it'd be 24 grams a day.

Multiply this 30 times and you'll soon see my monthly consumption levels!

Whoa, 30-36 grams per day! I can now see how you can work your way through a lot. Whoa ...

[Intuit]

> I just feel people are missing a lot not following suit brewing wise from the country of origin & the people that created the product.

Talk to the tea garden managers, the growers and their family that handle the processing and sales.

They are shocked when they hear about gongfu cha brewing of fine estate Assams, Ceylons and Darjs.

"You cannot brew these teas this way. If you wait just two minutes, you will have colored water, no more taste than that. If you wait three, you will have just one-half the complexity available'. For most Indian teas, you must at least wait three and half minutes, and for the teas with great body, you need four to extract the full measure of the tea."

You need a certain ratio of liquid volume to pot surface area to retain enough heat to do a decent job of extracting that full measure. There is a unitary measure called 'representative sample', the smallest count, or mass, required to capture all of the variation with a population.

For black Indian teas, less is not more.

[entropyembrace]

My package from thunderbolt tea finally arrived!

Shipping time to Canada was roughly a month using standard airmail...I was a little bit surprised by that China is usually only 2 weeks. Benoy did warn me it would take longer than from China though. I was impressed by the packaging he wrapped the box in tough fabric and it was sewn together and sealed with wax. He also clearly labeled it as Orthodox Darjeeling Black Tea and the Canadian customs left it alone and let it through without opening.

Also I liked how the tea was packed in a double bag...foil on the outside and plain brown paper on the inside...makes it easy for me to store the open bags until I finish the tea and kept it very fresh during shipping.

My order was for 100g each of Margaret's Hope Hand Roll, Arya Ruby and Sungma Clonal Wonder.

So far I've tried the Margaret's Hope and Sungma...

The Margaret's Hope I was most excited about since I've been drinking lower grade 2nd Flush from their Estate all summer...when I tasted the hand roll from thunderbolt the sweetness and leafyness (kind of like the aroma in a forest in autumn) that I enjoy so much in the lower grade was definitely present. It's not as 'strong' of a tea brewing a much gentler cup and it slides across the palate very smoothly revealing each flavour component as it goes in a way...the lower grade kind of hits you with everything at once. The leaves in the hand roll are gorgeous and unbroken...just open bud along with young leaves and stems attached. Truely a whole leaf tea!

The other I've tried is the Sungma Clonal wonder...This one I can't describe in so much detail since I'm new to the Sungma estate and don't quite know what to look for. What really stands out to me is that it very clearly has a muscatel grape flavour and aroma which is much more pronounced than any other Darjeeling I've tasted so far. It's also very smooth and doesn't get unbearably astringent or bitter like some lower grade Darjeelings do when brewed for a long time. Leaves aren't as nice as the hand roll...most are broken though the pieces are fairly large and there are some whole leaves in the mix and I can also see stems (which I like because they tend to round out the flavour)

Tomorrow I'll try the Arya Ruby and update with my thoughts on that...

Anyway I'm quite impressed with thunderbolt tea packaging is great and the tea is wonderful. Also Benoy is friendly and helpful.

[woozl]

Thunderbolt +1

[entropyembrace]

Sorry it's taken me so long to write about the Arya Ruby...I've a had a hard time pinning this one and I've been pleasantly distracted planning a vacation to Mexico.

Leaf appearance is kind of intermediate between the Sungma and Margaret's Hope...it's mostly whole leaves though it's obviously not been handled as carefully as the Margaret's Hope so some are broken. Also the leaves are smaller and more tippy which translates into the cup has having a pleasant sweetness similar to most Keemun teas and the aroma is extremely sweet...Benoy's confectionery description on the thunderbolt tea website is right on. What really made it hard for me to pin down was that on the surface it's like a simple mid-grade Keemun...very smooth and sweet tippy tea but underneath there's a lot of lively Darjeeling character...some autumn forest leafiness like the Margaret's Hope and a touch of Muscatel along with a slight astringency to balance the sweetness. Overall a deep and complex tea with a lot of energy. Actually I think this might be my favorite of the three teas that I've tried...the Margaret's Hope Hand Roll is to me clearly higher grade but it has more of a calm and quiet character while the Arya Ruby has more energy that draws me to it.