Edited post on the 22nd of August 2014 for the new tea blog
I'm making this post about tea, more specifically, about the Darjeeling Namring First Flush FTGFOP 1 I tried recently and wrote about in my Tea Log. A good tea cupper should always have one [tea log] whenever he or she is trying out a new tea! Even an old one. One's palate is always on the path of betterment and rediscoveries.
First of all, there were no indication as for the time needed to steep the tea. I just assumed, around 4 minutes...
Bitter, burnt, bitter!
So I re-steeped a new batch, this time for 3 minutes. Better, but to my disappointment I could still feel a burnt taste.
Here's more before I dabble into more details:
The dry leaves were a nice mix of light and dark green, with a little bit of light brown. It smelled just like those sweet friend spinach you can get in some Chinese restaurant (usually buffet and only the friend ones that have been sugared). I personally love these so it was fairly pleasant. Lightly crispy, but mostly robust, the leaves were long and twisted and woud not easily break when squeezed in the palm of my hand. So I am to suppose, they were not old & dry, that they still retained freshness. I could easily discern buds with down on them. All leaves looked complete and well preserved. It seemed to me that the handing and folding had been carefully done! This was promising!
The leaves, once wet gave off a mango smell (cooked or not, I don't eat mango, so I wouldn't make the difference). It smelled like tropical fruits that used to be dried and were put into hot water. It reminded me of that sweet & sour beef I once had in a good Chinese restaurant. Upon opening, I discovered that some leaves were actually broken in half. Only the smaller leaves were complete and the humid mix contained some stem parts. The duvet buds didn't open which was disappointing, but to make up for all this, there was a huge amount of full small leaves. The best ones after the bud!
The liquor was a nice light golden colour and smelled of of honey, sweet bread and dried fruits such as apricots.
I gave it a few sips before drinking it. The 1st sip had a burnt taste and was a bit bitter. There was a slight peach/apricot taste at the end. It immediately seemed to me that this tea would greatly benefit from an addition of milk and sugar. The 2nd sip left a less bitter and burnt taste, then came a bit of that sweet bread I first encountered when smelling the liquor! Maybe a little apricot to finish with a rough feeling that I call "velvet". People associate velvet with soft, but touch (or lick! as example for the mouth feeling) velvet in the wrong direction! Or lick a peach! The fuzz is annoying and almost feels parched in your mouth. Then on my 3rd sip, since I couldn't bring anything new, I swallowed it and found a fruit bread taste which was pleasing.
I noted that I could tell by the taste it was a first flush by how "young" and fresh it tasted, easily recognizable when milk and sugar was added. The sugar enhanced the fruity and sweet bread part while the milk tones down the burnt and bitter taste revealing the "young" taste I was talking about.
All in all a good tea, disappointed by the smell vs the taste, and would not recommend it without milk and/or sugar.
Next time, maybe a green tea! Maybe maybe... a Lung Ching!
