Darjeeling - Makaibari Estate 1st Flush

Another contender in the lineup of Arbor Tea selections.
This tea is certified both organic, and Fair Trade.

First flush teas are not my favorite. Second flush teas are alright. Autumnal flush teas are beautiful. I enjoy the flavor profile of an Autumnal flush Darjeeling much more than I do first or second flush.
I do have a bias, but I will try not to let it get in the way of a review. I review a tea for what it is, not for how I see it. It is all about personal preference in the end, but I am not here to push my preference on readers. I take a tea for what it is.
That was my disclaimer.

Onto tea.

The dry leaf is good looking, and looks to be of a moderately high grade. I do not know the specific grade but I could guess that it would be somewhere along the lines of a TGFOP. I am no authority on the subject, but I had to make a guess, right?
Anyways...
The leafs aromatic qualities are delightful, much more fruity than floral. I pick up mango, guava and lemon. Subdued hints of muscatel are evident as well, but are lingering in the background.

The tea produces a liquor that possesses a heavy aroma, and outstanding clarity. Good sign for this tea.
Squash, zucchini and bayleaf scents are pungent and inviting.

First flavors encountered are of squash; the vegetal attribute, and mango; the sweet characteristic. There is a very clean citrus finish, and quite a light astringency.
I do not enjoy an overbearing astringency in a tea, so I was very pleased it was subtle (the tea is just trying to make a good impression on me).

This tea is not the classic profile of a first flush Darjeeling, but I believe that is what I enjoyed about this tea.
It is a standout and a palate catcher in the vast amount of Darjeeling teas.

Now for a bit of science.

I had my Father sample some of this tea, and one thing he said stood out to me;
"This tea has some oolong flavor to it."

When one takes a look at the infused leaf, you would wonder how this tea is not classified as an oolong.

There are obvious variations between the levels of oxidation of each leaf.
Darjeeling teas are a fully oxidized black tea, so why are there green leaves?

This is a direct result of the processing that Darjeeling teas undergo, mostly due to the withering stage.

Withering is a process in which the raw tea leaves lose moisture to make the pliable for rolling and shaping, and it is a time which the chemicals in the tea leaf change. This results in increased levels of caffeine, organic acids and polyphenol oxidase, the enzyme responsible for oxidation.

There are varying levels of withering.

-Soft wither: the leaves lose only about 25-32% of their moisture content, usually employed in the production of CTC and low grown, full bodied teas.

-Medium wither: the leaves lose about 32-40% of their moisture content, used in the production of low grown, full bodied teas, but have a more pronounced aroma than in the soft withered teas.

-Hard wither: the leaves lose about 40-50% of their moisture content, used primarily in the production of high grown teas. There is a noticeable increase in aroma and flavor.

-Very Hard wither: the leaves lose about 70% of their moisture content, used in the production of extreme altitude teas, such as Darjeeling. The result of this extreme moisture loss is the inhibition of oxidation. The enzymes in the cells become too dry to bond with polyphenols when the leaves are rolled. This enzymatic reaction is what turns the leaves to a coppery color we see as black tea. In the case of Darjeeling tea, this process only occurs to a certain degree. In essence, the leaves are fully oxidized, but the variation of color is due to the fact that the chemicals cannot bond to further oxidation levels. This is what gives Darjeeling its leaf appearance, and profound flavor profile.

Hope you learned something.

*All the facts stated are based on the manuals authored by the STI.



~billy

Huang Shan Hair Tip

This is another offering from Arbor Teas.

My first experience with a Huang Shan Mao Feng was a less than positive experience.
I bought a sample pack from a company I will not mention. It was a pack of the Top Ten Famous Teas from China.
This was one of the teas included in this pack.
I was just venturing into the tea world at the time and I had only read a few books and experimented with a few teas.
When I brewed this tea, I found it to be much to earthy, a bit bitter, and almost smokey.
I do not remember if this was due to my lack of brewing capabilities, or to the fact that this may have not been a very well prepared tea.
In either case, I was cautious whenever I ran across a tea like such.
This tea has changed my mind quite a bit.

The dry leaf emitted the aromas of almond, pine and cocoa.
Almond and pine were somewhat expected. Cocoa threw me a curve.

The infusion;
from the cup, there was a light aroma. There was a floral aspect to it; lavender.

Nutty aspects paired well with woodsy evergreen.
A fresh, well balanced astringency took hold of my mouth.
Captivating.

The liquor left me with a sweet and sour, green apple trait.

The infusions were drawn out much past my expectancy.

Hay became a pronounced flavor in the latter infusions.

To end the session; smooth butter.
A great finale to a somewhat simplistic tea.

This tea treated me to a wonderful session; a getaway.



~billy

Emerald Spring Lung Ching

Arbor Teas was gracious to send me a few samples.
One thing this company does that stands out against the rest; they go green.
This is a company driven by the idea of sustainability of agricultural products.
Their teas are all organic certified, their packaging is compostable (a clever idea) and a large selection of their tea is produced under the FairTrade label, which I believe to be beneficial to those who profit by it; the farmers. This is a touchy subject amongst the tea world though, so I shall move on.

The first tea being reviewed out of the set is their Lung Ching.

Dry leaf;
dominantly toasted notes, along with walnut and alfalfa aromas. The pan firing process sure imparted its scent into these leaves.

The liquor was lacking in aroma. All I could pick out was the toasted scent.
Sweet walnut comes through as the opening flavor of this tea.
A cooling basil taste follows, which leaves my mouth feeling quite refreshed.
The finish is of a very delicate toast, which I find surprising due to the pungency of this specific attribute in the dry leaf.

There was not much astringency to be found.

Following infusions display lemongrass and a light resemblance to basil, still.
The toast is definitely on the decline as well.

One aspect I did enjoy in the latter cups was the more potent astringency.
I enjoy a dragonwell with a bit more of a bite. Not bitter, mind you, but just enough astringency to leave a lasting impression.

This tea overall was not the best dragonwell I have tried.
I enjoyed it on the whole, but probably wouldn't order it.
The flavor profile was in line with the "classic" dragonwell profile, but this was not a shining star.
If I wanted to introduce someone to the vast assortment of green teas, this would be a tea I might use.

Another thing that did surprise me about this tea was this curious leaf.
Lung Ching teas normally have a plucking standard of "one leaf and a bud."
It was a bit of a random stumble to find a set of "two leaves and a bud."
This has nothing to do with the quality of this tea, it just seems that someone missed the extra leaf as it passed on through the stages of processing.

A thank you to Arbor Teas for this sample.


~billy