A Tea Addict's Journal

Somebody’s response to my entry on Cha Dao (same as the one I posted here two days ago) mentioned how Darjeeling is rarely talked about, even though it is quite popular among tea drinkers. Indeed, I don’t know quite why it is that us tea bloggers tend to be drinkers of Chinese teas. So in response to that… I thought I could dig up a darjeeling.

Unfortunately, the only thing I have easily available is something that I bought many years ago… almost… 7 years now, I think? It was purchased at T Salon of New York City. They have a website, but it’s basically non-functional (everything is still “coming soon” except the chatty video) so I won’t bother linking you. I should also mention that the last time I went there was at least 4 years ago, and I remember buying some basically stale tieguanyin. That, and the snotty attitude of the owner (the other saleswoman was nice enough) was enough for me to not go back again.

But I still have this tea. It’s not drunk because I just really don’t drink that much Indian teas in general, and between all the teas I have I rarely get to this little tin, almost forgotten among everything I have. I can’t remember what they called it, but it’s a first flush darjeeling, one of those lighter ones with green and red mixed in the colour of the dry leaf.

Perhaps it was a good idea I bought a tin along with the tea, because otherwise it probably would’ve lost a lot of the flavour by now. As it is, however, when I opened up the tin it still smelled strongly of the fragrance of darjeeling, and when hot water first hit the gaiwan that scent of a darjeeling, first flush… you can smell it distinctly. I must say that while there are many darjeelings out there, I generally only find the differences between first and second flush to be really meaningful. The differences among the different estates are generally quite subtle, and given some of the very high prices they charge, I’m not sure if they’re worth all that much.

The tea is holding up well. The first infusion was brewed too strongly, even, and came out a little too bitter. I had to be quicker about it and poured water out of the gaiwan as fast as I could, basically. The tea then came out smoother and lighter, just right, with a long aftertaste that I like out of my darjeelings. I think when it comes to teas like this I’m rarely very picky… and they are usually pleasant enough. I still think, however, that indian reds are generally not meant to be brewed with a gaiwan, and when brewed that way it can get a little boring. Perhaps I should try this tea just in a mug tomorrow.

The wet leaves are typical…. chopped up, with a mixture of colours. It might’ve gotten a little redder since I got it, because I remember it being fairly green, but it’s really too long ago for me to remember.

I went for something simple today, a Yunnan Gold I acquired some time ago from Rishi. I brewed it simply, in a cup with some hot water. The tea is not too bad, has some vanilla flavour and rather robust, without an overpowering bitterness even when obviously overbrewed.

What concerns me about this though is that the tea tastes remarkably similar to some somewhat aged puerh I’ve had. This tea, I should add, is a Yunnan Gold that only has a little gold tippy buds in them — most of the dry leaves are of the black variety. The combination of sweetness, bitterness, and aroma in the tea reminds me strongly of some 3-7 years puerh I’ve had before (and not just one). I wonder if this is going to be a common thing — puerh that was, perhaps, undercooked, so to speak, and thus has too much of its enzymes still active and working to oxidize the tea.

In many ways, this, and the overcooking of tea (green-tea-ization) are perhaps far, far, more dangerous to any puerh collector than any sort of price gouging, misinformation, or the like. I think I have some rudimentary idea as to how to tell a green-tea-ized puerh to a regular one, but how does one make sure the tea is not undercooked when it’s very young? That, I’m afraid I really don’t know.

I suppose it’s time to start praying.

Rummaging through the samples I have today, looking for something to kill, I found a blue box with a label on it saying “Gopalhara Tea Estate — Red Thunder oolong”. Hmmm, I’ve neglected to taste this tea! It was kindly given to me by DH, a Boston area tea friend. He got it from somebody in New York, who apparently buys these small lots of premium Indians teas and resells them. There was a few grams in the tin left, perfect for a session with my small gaiwan.

The leaves look a little like oriental beauty, with the mixture of colour and type of leaves.

The tea brews a deep orange, with clear and somewhat thick liquor. The taste… is intensely floral. The first two infusions, as I’ve noticed with these Indian oolongs, coat your mouth with whatever taste the tea has. I was expecting this thing to drop off after a few infusions, as some other Indian oolongs I’ve had tend to do, but this one stayed strong — I brewed probably 10 infusions, and it still had decent taste. I’m impressed.

The floral quality of the tea reminds me of a dancong, actually, or at least the non fruity dancong. The affinity to dancong is most obvious around infusions 2-3. Later on, it came back to a taste that is mostly like a first flush darjeeling. In fact, I wouldn’t know this one’s supposed to be an oolong were it not for the floral qualities in the early infusions. It’s got less of the astringency that one gets from regular darjeelings, and but in some ways, I prefer those more. I think there’s something weird to me when I drink one of these teas — perhaps it’s the fact that the floral/fruity qualities are so concentrated in the first two infusions but then fade away. When I drink teas like this, I always wonder if they’re coated with a layer of artificial flavour. I’m sure they’re not, but it just seems that way sometimes.

This is easily the best Indian oolong I’ve had though. Depending on the price, I could get some of this. If it costs more than what I have to pay for reasonable dancong though, I’d pick up the dancong instead. The novelty value isn’t enough to keep me that interested over time.

You can see the wet leaves also look somewhat like an oriental beauty… I wonder how they did the fermentation, kill-green, and rolling/drying.