On Wednesday, November 13, 2013 9:07:39 AM UTC-6, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> A coworker, Gautam, was going back to India for a few weeks and asked me if
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> I wanted anything so of course I asked for tea. I asked for a fully withered
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> dark Darjeeling, the way Darjeeling teas were when I was a kid, and he went
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> into a couple tea shops and brought me back some very interesting stuff. I
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> have spent the past month or so drinking these along with a couple other
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> Darjeelings that I am more familiar with and here's what I have been sipping:
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> 1. Fabindia "organic Darjeeling black tea," in bags. This claims in very
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> small letters to come from the Ambootia tea estate, and it's really very
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> nice for a bagged tea. The first cup I made was quite astringent but
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> later cups made with the same time have been fine. It has got a little
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> bit of woody burlap aftertone but none of the green flavour at all. It
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> clearly would benefit from having a little more tea in the bag, though,
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> or the bag made into a 6 oz. cup.
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>
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> 2. Fabindia "pure organic Darjeeling black tea" in a wooden box, labelled
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> below "OF O Tea Black Darjeeling Sycotta 100g." Same retailer as the
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> bags above, but this comes from the Chamong tea estate. Less astringent,
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> still not thick or deep but a very pleasant cup of tea, and it will
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> remain respectable on the second and maybe even third steep.
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>
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> 3. Basilur "Darjeeling tea" in a tin marked "Specialty Classics" and imported
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> into India by SVA India Ltd. Basilur is a Ceylon tea vendor, who apparently
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> blends Darjeeling tea and re-imports back into India.
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>
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> This tea is very different than all of the others tried, it's got a much
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> larger leaf and is much more flowery-tasting. It has much more of a nose
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> to it, and given the amount of counterfeit Darjeeling tea out there and
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> the fact this was blended outside of India, I am apt to suspect that this
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> may not really be Darjeeling at all.
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> REFERENCE TEAS:
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>
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> 4. Upton DJ-141 "Makaibari estate 2nd flush Darjeeling" which is what Upton's
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> sent me when I asked for a fully withered Darjeeling. Clearly a higher end
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> version of the same sort of style. Much more malty and thick, but it also
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> has more of the green "grassy" flavour which I don't like so much.
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>
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> 5. Rohini Enigma which I got mail order from Lochan Tea in Darjeeling. This
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> seems to be a classic second-flush fully withered tea, and it seems very
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> close to the Chamong tea up above, maybe a little darker.
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> SUMMARY:
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> All of these were good in some way and I have to say I think I liked the
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> Basilur the best of the set even though I suspect it's not really a Darjeeling
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> at all.
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> --scott
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> --
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> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
I sort of gave up on Darjeelings after only trying a few- too weak, too flowery for me. And the Assams and Africans seem too strong. What I like are the Ceylons... Toci