I am just getting into the tea world, but i believe Golden Moon Tea has
an Autumnal Darjeeling. I asked the person at the company what kind of
darjeeling it is and I *believe* they said it was a FTGFOP-1S from
Makaibari. They also said it was organic. I hope this helps.

What is the difference between FTGFOP-1 and FTGFOP-1S?



wrote:
> Hi,
> I finally found some time to copy a few lines from my sampling notebook
> on some of the more exciting Darjeelings I had the pleasure to sample
> during the last couple weeks. All together I sampled more than 60
> different Darjeelings, mostly 2nds and Autumnals as well as a few
> Oolongs, and other more exotic offerings.
> Most of the better teas I got from some folks in the beezness, from
> their private stashes, not commercially available unless you happen to
> live here or in Japan.
> One thing I never experienced to such an extent before were the
> differences among the invoices in 2005. This time around I was able to
> get my hands on up to 5 different invoices of the same single estate
> harvest (Marg. Hope FTGFOP and Avongrove FTGFOP Autumnals) and some
> were as different as day and night, the Marg. Hope ranging from very
> expressive, with a beautiful flowery aroma to not so memorable, almost
> flat while not one sample of this years Av.groves Autumns managed to
> entirely catch my interest. YMMV.
>
> Let me start with a little review on a tea that almost knocked me out
> of my shoes some days ago.
> (please refer to a previous post "Sampling those finicky Darjeelings"
> for some notes on my sampling method, so I don´t need to bore you with
> the details here)
>
>
> Sample: Makaibari SFTGFOP-1 Vintage Autumn [Organic]
>
> Source: a friends private stash
>
> Just back from shopping with a little time on my hands I decided it was
> time to finally give this sample a go, and what a wonderful experience
> this has been. I have a small tasting table in my room, with all that
> gear ready to go whenever I and my allergy plagued nose feel ready to
> sample some nice leaves.
>
> The appearance is pretty dark, lots of long twisted leaves, some mocha
> colored strands, white tips, almost nothing broken here.
>
> Starting as usual with sniffing some dry leaves, at first I couldn´t
> detect anything particular, delicate deep and "warm" notes of exotic
> wood with a wee bit of dried fruit, hmm, a pretty average delicate
> profile for an autumnal tea. A second sniff revealed more of the
> background, a picture of a forest came to my mind but I couldn´t
> identify any of the spicy details, the closest idea was that of a
> Kashmiri kofta masala, still too far off though.
>
> I decided to begin with 2.3g of leaves, prewarmed a 4 oz gaiwan,
> brought the water to almost a rolling boil (96°C) and will not forget
> to soon what happened in the following minutes/hours.
> The first sniff of the steeping leaves didn´t bring just notes or
> hints of a chocolate-vanilla creme custard, it was almost like placing
> my nose over a bowl of the real thing. Every sniff brought up a
> distinctively different sweet creamy layer. I had to remind myself to
> place the lid back on the small gaiwan as not to sacrifice too much
> temperature.
>
> First sample - 3 minutes - my usual starting point for Autumnals
> A sweet, mellow cup with delicate, deep notes of vanilla, emerging from
> a soft bed of delicate spices, mirrored in the cups aroma. Is this a
> Darjeeling or some flavored blend ? What may come next ?
>
> 2nd sample - 3´30''
> Almost nothing reminding of vanilla anymore, now it was all delicate
> flowers, beautifully arranged with the first noteworthy touch of
> Muscatel <aha> and the first touch of briskness.
>
> 3d sample - 4'00''
> Now the flowery notes were gone, and those distinctive warm notes of
> vanilla were back. A mellow, sweet cup, artfully framed with
> adstringency that together with the now very present Muscatel reminded
> me that I was actually drinking a Darjeeling.
>
> 4th sample - 4'30''
> Besides the now dominating but agile adstringency, temporarily
> concealing the Muscatel like a matrix of hovering pinholes this was a
> most remarkable cup. I could almost physically feel the living
> multidimensional, velvet covered prickling structure of that intense
> flavour. One after another peak emerged through the delicious
> adstringent weave. None of Makaibaris sometimes toasty notes, but
> caprioles of muscatel, fruits (peach, mango), orchids, like this tea
> was trying to tell me something, urging me to fully concentrate on
> it´s presence. A truly synergistic, as not to say trippy experience
> and I didn´t even mention the wonderful aroma of those 4 cups,
> harmonically in balance with the flavour.
>
> All over ? No way. The flavours of the last cup lingered on the palate
> for some minutes!, still a complex sensory experience.
> At this point the wet leaves in the gaiwan smelled just wonderful, all
> those aromas of the last minutes asked for my undivided attention but I
> was a bit overwhelmed by the complexity. So I grabbed my notebook and
> wrote down some more lines. 5 minutes later I again sniffed the now
> cold leaves (it was about 5 deg C. in my unheated hotelroom, nothing
> stays warm for too long here). Now the leaves distinctively smelled of
> peaches. I left the room for 5 minutes, came back and took another
> whiff of the leaves. I honestly thought this can´t be, now the leaves
> STRONGLY and unmistakenly smelled of a flowery perfume. I decided to
> give them a second dive and boiled up some water.
>
> Second steeping - 80ml - 5 minutes
> Anything else to say, leaves ? Yes, they had.
> The second st. resulted in a sweet flowery only slightly adstringent
> cup, that was still more interesting than 2/3ds of the teas I sampled
> in the last weeks. The sweet flowery aroma was of course weaker now but
> still complex enough to keep me interested for some time.
> All over now ? No. I went downstairs for some Nepali dinner, and when I
> came back 2 hours later the leaves in the Gaiwan smelled of a fruit
> salad, peaches, mangos, pears, ...
>
> ... sorry for the lame expression but "what a tea" !
>
> Bottom line: 90 out of 100 points for that lonely sample, certainly one
> of the most entertaining Darjeeling adventures I enjoyed so far,
> complexitywise up on par with any Oolong I care to remember, just a tad
> too autumnal (read:delicate) in the cup for my tastes but my schnotz
> had a great time.
>
> PS: Anything else to ramble about ? This tea just cries to be gong-fued
> but I only have some 2 grams left. Time to think about an appropriate
> baksheesh for that friend to get some more. Some days ago though after
> a another truly memorable sampling session I managed to snatch a
> healthy stash of "Castleton SFTGFOP 1 Musc (Cl) 2nd flush [DJ-165]". A
> cloudy mountain of a 2nd flush, Muscatel on MSG. Certainly worth of
> some more lines ... and lots more cups.
>
>
> Right below my open window my neighbours dog just started his nightly
> soprano solo, the pack from Laden La road happily tuning in. It must be
> 11 pm, time to grab those earplugs and call it a night.
>
> Karsten / Darjeeling