I tried Darjeeling for the first time yesterday. It was by New Delhi Tea
and Coffee Co. I didn't find it particularly interesting. It kind of just
tasted like regular old black tea.....nothing to write home about. Am I
missing something?

Pete

yes! you probably had a bad darjeeling. try a fancier "first flush"
single estate tea (like Namring or Castleton), and you'll be surprised
how much different and better it tastes!

"Jason F in Los Angeles" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> yes! you probably had a bad darjeeling. try a fancier "first flush"
> single estate tea (like Namring or Castleton), and you'll be surprised
> how much different and better it tastes!

How would you describe the taste?

"ostaz" > wrote in message
news
>
> "Jason F in Los Angeles" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>> yes! you probably had a bad darjeeling. try a fancier "first flush"
>> single estate tea (like Namring or Castleton), and you'll be surprised
>> how much different and better it tastes!
>
> How would you describe the taste?

Here is how a regular poster here describes the taste

==== I quote ====
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

"Jason F in Los Angeles" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> yes! you probably had a bad darjeeling. try a fancier "first flush"
> single estate tea (like Namring or Castleton), and you'll be surprised
> how much different and better it tastes!

I guess I'll have to give it another shot. There's a big Indian
neighborhood in Bellflower, CA that should have good tea.

"Jason F in Los Angeles" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> yes! you probably had a bad darjeeling. try a fancier "first flush"
> single estate tea (like Namring or Castleton), and you'll be surprised
> how much different and better it tastes!

I guess I'll have to give it another shot. There's a great Indian area
close by that should have good tea.

ostaz wrote:
> I tried Darjeeling for the first time yesterday. It was by New Delhi Tea
> and Coffee Co. I didn't find it particularly interesting. It kind of just
> tasted like regular old black tea.....nothing to write home about. Am I
> missing something?
>
> Pete

Everyone has a different taster. I don't care for darjeeling either.
I'm an oolong fan.

Life is short. Drink what you like and don't worry about what other
people think.

P ~

"Patriot" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> ostaz wrote:
>> I tried Darjeeling for the first time yesterday. It was by New Delhi Tea
>> and Coffee Co. I didn't find it particularly interesting. It kind of
>> just
>> tasted like regular old black tea.....nothing to write home about. Am I
>> missing something?
>>
>> Pete
>
> Everyone has a different taster. I don't care for darjeeling either.
> I'm an oolong fan.
>
> Life is short. Drink what you like and don't worry about what other
> people think.
>
> P ~
I tend to agree...but I am suspicious that the one I bought may not be a
good representative of the style. BTW, I'm a huge oolong fan as well. I
bought a great one from a local Asian supermarket.

Pete

I have never understood what all the fuss about Darjeeling was about.
Granted, I've never had a second flush top-notch Darjeeling, but it's
just not the kind of tea I'm interested in. It's too weak and fruity
for my taste. I don't understand why everyone seems to like it.

"Pat" > writes:

> I have never understood what all the fuss about Darjeeling was about.
> Granted, I've never had a second flush top-notch Darjeeling, but it's
> just not the kind of tea I'm interested in. It's too weak and fruity
> for my taste. I don't understand why everyone seems to like it.

I guess we're just weak and fruity people.

Seriously, don't worry about not liking Darjeeling, but also don't
assume you will always dislike Darjeeling. My taste in tea has
changed vastly over the years.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

ostaz wrote:
> Am I missing something?

For sure.
IMO Darjeelings are a world of their own, but then I tasted a couple
100s if not more over the years. Their aromas and flavors cover a HUGE
spectrum and they never cease to fascinate me.
Just 3 days ago I picked up a 100g pack of wonderful autumnal leaves
from a biodynamic (Demeter) village project. Depending on the major
brewing parameters the aroma and flavors reached from exotic woods over
extremely fruity (peaches) to a more flowery character that strongly
reminded me of one of those handcrafted, lightly oxidised Oolongs I
brought back from China.
Don't get me wrong here, I really love chinese teas (Yunnans, Keemuns,
Oolongs, Pu-Erhs) but when it comes to complexity (read: (finicky)
chameleon like character) IMO not too many other leaves beat a
high-grade Darjeeling, though the real jewels maybe hard to get in some
parts of the world (entire series of top-notch leaves are often sold
BEFORE the harvest even starts).

I can't wait to sample the new first flushes, but the weather doesn't
look to good (for tea) these days, not a single drop of rain for weeks
- it slowly get's serious over here.

Karsten / Darjeeling

Hello Karsten,
I am from Darjeeling and since you write "Karsten/Darjeeling" - are you
from Darjeeling, if yes, which place?

I got the basic darjeeling sampler from Upton a while back, had a few
cups of each, and was kind of unimpressed. I just went back to it
yesterday, and the Aray Organic Second flush was just amazing. Natural
sweetness, a wide variety of flavors. I can only guess that Darjeeling
is especially sensitive to amount, water temp, and steep time.

I am new here, but am a great tea lover. Don't have great expertise on
the subject but can write a few words on the subject. If you mean Arya
tea, then I too had a good tea from Arya tea estate known as "Arya
Ruby" which my friend had sent. It was a superb tea with good leaf
appearance and gave a good result in the cup. Then I had to move to a
new location for a few days on a business trip and I had carried this
particular tea with me. Suprisingly, the liqor color along with the
taste had tremendously changed. I double checked the tea that I had
brought thinking I had packed some other tea, but it was the same. I
had heard that water plays a vital role in the brewing of tea and this
time I really had to believe it. It was the water that had played a
major role here.

The other thing I would like to focus is the brewing quantities and
time. I have noticed the best of teas giving the worst of results and
this has often given a bad name to the tea which it is being tasted,
but Darjeeling is such a sensitive tea which wholly depends on the
consumer and his way of brewing. The quantity of tea put in your pot
can make a huge difference along with the steeping times. If you over
steep, Darjeelings tend to get bitter, but some love this tender
bitterness as I do. I usually steep for 4-5 minutes (Darjeeling black
tea - First and Second Flush) and about 3 minutes (Darjeeling black tea
- Autumnals) and Darjeeling whites (6-8 minutes).

Sorry to inform who don't like Darjeelings - I am a great fan of
Darjeelings, specially Thurbo First flush (Tippy Clonal), Soureni,
Arya, Gopaldhara, Risheehat, Orange Valley, Margaret's Hope and
castleton(favorites), etc.

I got the basic darjeeling sampler from Upton a while back, had a few
cups of each, and was kind of unimpressed. I just went back to it
yesterday, and the Aray Organic Second flush was just amazing. Natural
sweetness, a wide variety of flavors. I can only guess that Darjeeling
is especially sensitive to amount, water temp, and steep time.

Justin Holmes > wrote:
>I got the basic darjeeling sampler from Upton a while back, had a few
>cups of each, and was kind of unimpressed. I just went back to it
>yesterday, and the Aray Organic Second flush was just amazing. Natural
>sweetness, a wide variety of flavors. I can only guess that Darjeeling
>is especially sensitive to amount, water temp, and steep time.

This is pretty true of any delicate tea. It's true that it's not always
easy to bring out the best in a tea, but with a little tinkering and a
little care you can often find something good in even cheap teas too.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

(Scott Dorsey) writes:

> Justin Holmes > wrote:
> >I got the basic darjeeling sampler from Upton a while back, had a few
> >cups of each, and was kind of unimpressed. I just went back to it
> >yesterday, and the Aray Organic Second flush was just amazing. Natural
> >sweetness, a wide variety of flavors. I can only guess that Darjeeling
> >is especially sensitive to amount, water temp, and steep time.
>
> This is pretty true of any delicate tea. It's true that it's not always
> easy to bring out the best in a tea, but with a little tinkering and a
> little care you can often find something good in even cheap teas too.

Amen to that. At the risk of taking some of the fun out of it, if you
want to be able to reproduce your *good* results once you first obtain
them, you probably need to measure and record what you do. To some
extent, that is: there are lots of ways to do this, and you certainly
don't need to measure and record every time.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

I wish I knew what I did with the Araya. Had some more today and it was
nothing special. Water temp was the same, but I didn't bother measuring
last time, nor did I really clock it. Doh!