Hi,

some hours back my schnotz went on yet another strike, so this is about
a DJ FF I had the pleasure to sample two days ago. Mr.R.who gave me the
sample has an excellent knowledge of DJ teas, I learned a darn lot from
this guy. His samples are always pretty
generous, in the 20g range, and he carefully packs and seals them in
special aluminized sample bags - that little detail makes a big
difference to me.
When I came to see him on Sunday he handed me over one more of those
bags: "Here, try this; this is a GOODDD tea from an "unknown" (his old
game) garden".
However, whenever this guy says "gooddd" (high-pitched, Nepali style)
he means it and so I smiled, expressed my thanks and went straight back
to the hotel to give it a shot.

Appearance:
Heck, what's that - a first flush ? Can't be. The palette is that of an
high-class autumnal flush, nothing reminds of a FF here. Interesting
from the start.

Dry blow: warm balanced profile, again reminding me more of the
collected autumnals in my stash box. A few single ethereal herbal peaks
shining through, slight notes of grass.

Time to steep them up.
With enough leaves at hand I grabbed a 5oz gaiwan, prewarmed it, poured
it out and added 2.0g of those uncommon FF leaves.

Moist sniff:
Almost the same aroma as in the dry blow, the herbal peaks slightly
shifted along the spectrum.

Time for the flooding, "Kingfisher" at 95 Deg C.

1st steep - 2'30" - cup: pale naples yellow
a delicate fruity cup with notes of ripe pears

2nd steep - 3'00" - pale medium naples yellow
some delicate adstringency here AND what's that ? A beautifully
selected, expressive arrangement of ripe fruits. In order of dominance:
pear ... shhhlrp, shhhhlrp ... passion fruit, just a moment, some
water, sllrrrrp, shhhhhhhhhlRp, banana with lots more to discover in
the background. All enframed by autumnal, woody peaks. And yet another
sign of good leaves. The aftertaste is there to stay. The aroma over
the cup is a bit weak, here I'm somehow not too surprised. But the cup,
haha ...

3rd steep - 3.30 - darker, with some amber added
again no surprise here, adstringency kicking in with a moderate
vengeance, now woody autumnal notes dominate, the fruits retire behind
the moist exotic trees, and a complex aftertaste lingers on. Pretty
delicate autumnal aroma hovering above the tasting cup. A sniff of the
cold leaves speaks of nothing but warm, moist autumnal notes,
dominating notes of exotic wood. Tsk, tsk, what sort of a FF might that
be ?

Answer: Next morning I asked my moodily tea guru about that tea and he
told me that this kind of FF results from "mid-skiffing" the tea bushes
in late autumn, as opposed to the more commonly practised, less radical
pruning. A technique someone introduced some 10 years ago. He knows
that guy fairly well :-)

Bottom line:
A lovely, "GOODDD" tea for sure, 70/100 points on my rubber scale, and
2 more pounds of tea making it into my already overloaded backpack,
couldn't help it ...

PS: Impressions of the Makaibari follow as soon as my sniffing unit is
back on track.

Greetings from the hills,
Karsten / Darjeeling

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi,

some hours back my schnotz went on yet another strike, so this is about
a DJ FF I had the pleasure to sample two days ago. Mr.R.who gave me the
sample has an excellent knowledge of DJ teas, I learned a darn lot from
this guy. His samples are always pretty
generous, in the 20g range, and he carefully packs and seals them in
special aluminized sample bags - that little detail makes a big
difference to me.
When I came to see him on Sunday he handed me over one more of those
bags: "Here, try this; this is a GOODDD tea from an "unknown" (his old
game) garden".
However, whenever this guy says "gooddd" (high-pitched, Nepali style)
he means it and so I smiled, expressed my thanks and went straight back
to the hotel to give it a shot.

[snip]

Bottom line:
A lovely, "GOODDD" tea for sure, 70/100 points on my rubber scale, and
2 more pounds of tea making it into my already overloaded backpack,
couldn't help it ...

PS: Impressions of the Makaibari follow as soon as my sniffing unit is
back on track.

Greetings from the hills,
Karsten / Darjeeling

Thanks - great notes.

My local supplier of choice (Upton) just got their first 2005 autumnal -
Makaibari DJ-293. I'll post my impressions when I get a chance to properly
cup it. The leaves smell nice, though g.

Regards,
Dean

If you want to learn more about tea, you can find them here
http://www.teahistory.net/Article/Index.html. i bet you will find your
info in this site.

Dean,
is it the "Vintage" ? That was my favorite DJ of 2005. Could you add
some impressions of the cold leaves aroma please (in 15-30 min
intervals) ?
I'd be really interested.

Best,
Karsten