Hi,
TGIF, the shops have opened and I went to see my dealer to put an end
to that guessing game. So after some hesitation, and a discussion with
his wife again he looked around and then whispered the name into my
ear: Rangmuk T.E.

A few notes on that tea:
Appearance: as green as a FF gets, quite a few silver tips, some more
oxidised
leaves, and far less broken leaves and fannings than in the first
sample I got from that dealer

Dry blow: very aromatic, warm spices, some sweeter notes nicely
embedded, interesting profile.

Prewarmed my 180ml/6 oz Gaiwan, poured out the water, added 2.3g of
leaves.

1st sniff of moistened leaves: grassy, with heavy balsamic clouds
wafting up, rounded up by
notes of tangerine peel. Promising indeed.

Added 180ml of Kingfisher Mineral Water, ~93 Deg C.

1. steeping - 2'15" - light indian yellow:
- light cup, min. adstringent, rounded aromatic profile with notes of
riper grass and lighter notes of citronella

2. steeping - 2'45" - medium indian yellow (a lovely color, haven't
seen that in any FF before)
- adstringency slightly picking up, a light cup, now some other fruity
and spicy notes come into play, fairly complex at this time, couldn't
identify any of the peaks, the profile (not the flavour) reminds me of
a well blended masala

3. steeping - 3'15" - denser indian yellow
- adstringency didn't pick up as much as expected, now the flavour is
dominated by some heavy balsamic notes, the base spectrum is that of
warm spices in a bed of hayish notes completed by some autumnal woody
notes.

A sniff of the cold leaves showed a pretty sharp profile, hints of
menthol, stronger notes of mint in a bouquet of herbal notes with
single protruding bitter peaks, as you would find in an older sample of
"Herbs de Provence".

Bottom line:
A nice little tea, truly enjoyable, but nothing too great. I'm
desperately waiting for more samples, but right now I'd give it 60-65
out of 100 points. This tea too benefits from a wee bit of added sugar.


As always I tried to guess the retail price and got it right this time.
The FF of the better known estates will sell for 3-5 times that price
over here; god knows what you have to pay in the US for 100g of a
decent FF DJ this year. Since that chap only had a small amount
available I took the plunge and grabbed two pounds for my friends back
home.

Best,
Karsten / Darjeeling