On Tue, 09 Nov 2004 13:02:32 GMT, Michael Plant
wrote:



Karel,

Kyela is not as prompt as they perhaps should be. But, here in North America
I have never had the problem to the extent you describe. I am under the
impression that Germany is an excellent source of high quality Darjeeling in
general.

Michael


Michael,

I agree that in the recent past the Upton's has been offering only
average Darjeeling teas. Nevertheless, in 1997 I bought from them 6
really very fine teas (Singbulli Reserve, Chamong SF, Namring Upper
FF, Castleton SF etc.). These times their equivalents were hardly
available here in Europe. It was very hard time for any local
Darjeeling tea lover because even Betjeman& Barton, Harrods, Mariage
Fréres, Whittard, Der Teeladen etc. proposed poor Single Estate teas,
which had practically the same taste.
If you wanted to find 100 grams of good tea you finished with 2 kilos
of poor stuff and $300 wasted.
Yet only 3 years ago (in 1994) they had real gems we can now only
dream about.
Perhaps this story sounds familiar to you. Today I buy tea only from
the tea vendors who sell the samples of all their stock and I boycott
the others with only few exceptions (SRT and Kyela Teas overseas, 2
vendors in Germany and 4 vendors in the remaining Europe).
I believe that today the general situation is a bit better and Upton's
made an effort to improve their offer. Their TD93 Castleton DJ-124
(SF) and TD83 Namring EX-5 (FF) are eminently drinkable teas even for
the demanding tea lover like you. If not I owe you ten bucks!

Your are right that the steeping time and amount of tea is a matter
of the taste. The tea:water ratio and shorter steeping time you
suggest are excellent for very aromatic First Flush teas. This way you
get a really splendid cup of tea. Sometimes I use up to 4 g/180 ml and
only 2 minutes. It depends on the quality of the tea.
On the other hand, I believe that 4 minutes are the shortest steeping
time for the true muscatel Second Flush tea. Today, this particular
flavor is rather slow to appear in some teas. When chewing the infused
leaves you may often feel the remains of this flavor, which means the
steeping time should be a bit longer. Of course, this may make the tea
too harsh.
For this really short survey I steeped the teas in a row so I kept
the tea:water ratio and the steeping time constant.

Karel
P.S. I've just ordered Gopaldhara Oolong 29 from Kyela teas. I
couldn't resist Dean's description of it.
Michael, Germany is a very good source for tea but the german vendors
don't usually sell less than 100 g and many don't accept any credit
card.
You must usually pay the order in advance. Those who accept c.c. are
likely to be the vendors of the average or poor tea. Hope the
situation will evolve.