A coworker, Gautam, was going back to India for a few weeks and asked me if
I wanted anything so of course I asked for tea. I asked for a fully withered
dark Darjeeling, the way Darjeeling teas were when I was a kid, and he went
into a couple tea shops and brought me back some very interesting stuff. I
have spent the past month or so drinking these along with a couple other
Darjeelings that I am more familiar with and here's what I have been sipping:

1. Fabindia "organic Darjeeling black tea," in bags. This claims in very
small letters to come from the Ambootia tea estate, and it's really very
nice for a bagged tea. The first cup I made was quite astringent but
later cups made with the same time have been fine. It has got a little
bit of woody burlap aftertone but none of the green flavour at all. It
clearly would benefit from having a little more tea in the bag, though,
or the bag made into a 6 oz. cup.

2. Fabindia "pure organic Darjeeling black tea" in a wooden box, labelled
below "OF O Tea Black Darjeeling Sycotta 100g." Same retailer as the
bags above, but this comes from the Chamong tea estate. Less astringent,
still not thick or deep but a very pleasant cup of tea, and it will
remain respectable on the second and maybe even third steep.

3. Basilur "Darjeeling tea" in a tin marked "Specialty Classics" and imported
into India by SVA India Ltd. Basilur is a Ceylon tea vendor, who apparently
blends Darjeeling tea and re-imports back into India.

This tea is very different than all of the others tried, it's got a much
larger leaf and is much more flowery-tasting. It has much more of a nose
to it, and given the amount of counterfeit Darjeeling tea out there and
the fact this was blended outside of India, I am apt to suspect that this
may not really be Darjeeling at all.


REFERENCE TEAS:

4. Upton DJ-141 "Makaibari estate 2nd flush Darjeeling" which is what Upton's
sent me when I asked for a fully withered Darjeeling. Clearly a higher end
version of the same sort of style. Much more malty and thick, but it also
has more of the green "grassy" flavour which I don't like so much.

5. Rohini Enigma which I got mail order from Lochan Tea in Darjeeling. This
seems to be a classic second-flush fully withered tea, and it seems very
close to the Chamong tea up above, maybe a little darker.


SUMMARY:

All of these were good in some way and I have to say I think I liked the
Basilur the best of the set even though I suspect it's not really a Darjeeling
at all.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."