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On Friday, September 12, 2014 at 10:39:12 PM UTC+5:30, Scott Dorsey wrote:

I tried two steeps of each of four fully-withered second flush darjeelings. None of these have the strong grassy odor that has become typical of modern first flush darjeeling teas, they were all selected for being dark and mellow.

I took 30g of each with 250mL of boiling water, steeped for 2.5 minutes.
I then followed the same procedure again for a second steep. Almost certainly the second steep should have been for at least a minute longer. This was performed single-blind.

TEA ONE
-------
Namring Estate Darjeeling FTGFOP1 (ordered from Upton's, TD35)

The odor of the cup was flat and woody. The overall flavour was rounded, malty, and a little tannic but without anything distinctive. The second steep was even less distinguished.

TEA TWO
-------
Puttabong Estate Darjeeling SFTGFOP1 MUSC (ordered from Upton's, TD45)

The odor in the cup, rather than being fruity as you might expect from something that says "muscatel" on the package, was very strong of bamboo.
It was as close to a grassy odor as any of these teas got. It was a
somewhat flat flavour, but much more rounded than the others. The second steep retained that odor, but retained none of the flavour of the first steep. This tea was distinctly different than any of the others.

TEA THREE
---------
Margaret's Hope Muscatel (from Harrod's, item 955639)

The odor was slightly fruity, holding up the muscatel banner properly, although that fruitiness was not retained in the cup. Very clean and deep.

TEA FOUR
--------
Chamong Tea Estate Darjeeling (Fabindia Organics)

The odor was flat but slightly strawlike. The second steep kept the odor
and flavour well, definitely holding up better on a second steep than any
of the others. Malty, less tannic than the others but not so fruity.

Interestingly enough this was my everyday tea for quite a while and I was unable to identify it in the blind comparison

CONCLUSION
----------

I would drink any of these teas at any time and they are all of the same basic style. However, the Puttabong definitely stood out as being different in basic flavour profile, and the Chamong stood up better in the second steep.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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So, talking about the whole fully withered darjeeling thing on the
##tea channel on freenode (which appears to consist of refugees from reddit), someone suggested I try the "First Flush Jungpana 'Clonal Spring Delight'"
tea from What-Cha, saying it was pretty dark.

And.... this is GREEN. This is so green. Not only that, it has the sort
of fishy, seaweedy taste that some Japanese greens have, which I have never experienced in any other teas.

So I'd count it as interesting but diametrically opposed to the style I am looking for.

However.... in order to make up the order, I also ordered a mystery tea kit from What-Cha, and they sent two teas that were themselves much more interesting than the darjeeling.

They had something marked "Azores Orange Pekoe Black Tea." I had no idea
they grew tea in the Azores at all. Very smooth and rounded with no real tannic bite to it at all. It's not something I'd pick as a daily drinking
tea but it could sure be nice for blending to smooth out a harsher tea.

They also included some of the "Wild Boar" black tea from Vietnam which was again very smooth and rounded but with a much thicker mouthfeel and a deeper taste.

Anyway.... just wanted folks to know about some of this stuff. None of it
was really to my taste but all of it was interesting and might be to yours. --scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) writes:

So, talking about the whole fully withered darjeeling thing on the
##tea channel on freenode (which appears to consist of refugees from reddit), >someone suggested I try the "First Flush Jungpana 'Clonal Spring Delight'" >tea from What-Cha, saying it was pretty dark.

And.... this is GREEN. This is so green. Not only that, it has the sort
of fishy, seaweedy taste that some Japanese greens have, which I have never >experienced in any other teas.

So I'd count it as interesting but diametrically opposed to the style I am >looking for.

I’m afraid you aren’t going to find a first flush Darjeeling that isn’t green these days.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin / perin@acm.org
http://babelcarp.org

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Lewis Perin <perin@panix.com> wrote:

kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) writes:

So, talking about the whole fully withered darjeeling thing on the
##tea channel on freenode (which appears to consist of refugees from reddit), >>someone suggested I try the "First Flush Jungpana 'Clonal Spring Delight'" >>tea from What-Cha, saying it was pretty dark.

And.... this is GREEN. This is so green. Not only that, it has the sort >>of fishy, seaweedy taste that some Japanese greens have, which I have never >>experienced in any other teas.

So I'd count it as interesting but diametrically opposed to the style I am >>looking for.

I’m afraid you aren’t going to find a first flush Darjeeling that isn’t >green these days.

Sadly true. Even so, this was green even by THOSE standards.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)