27 August 2008

Flowery Darjeeling Risheehat

I got a sample of this fine tea from Salsero (thank you again!) today, so when I get to office and sat down I decided not to drink oolong today, but darjeeling tea instead.

This Indian tea from Darjeeling province is, according to information provided by Salsero, sold by Tea Emporium as Flowery 2nd Flush SFTGFOP Darjeeling tea from Risheehat tea estate.Darjeeling Risheehat

Second flush (second harvest, mostly in June) of darjeeling teas is quite different from first flush. While the nature of first flush teas is much more green and fruity, the second flush teas I encountered before were closer to black teas. Judging from the color of leaves the fermentation in this darjeeling gone quite far. On the other hand, the “flowery” attribute turned on my imagination.

The tea makes dark orange color brew with distinctive fresh smell. While I found 2nd flush darjeelings quite heavy for my taste, this one is much lighter, though I will call it “fruity” instead of “flowery”. I can smell apricot and passionfruit in the brew. The taste sticks on tongue and leaves a light aftertaste behind.

It’s lovely and enjoyable tea, a welcome change in my everyday tea-life.

As always with the darjeeling teas, I prepared it in cast iron tetsubin using small amount of leaves with longer infusion time.

3 comments:

Salsero said...

The term "flowery" applied to this tea puzzled me also. I found this to be a dark, traditional Darjeeling unlike some the greener ones that are on offer these days. It reminded me of baked goods, sweet rolls with the caramel of melted brown sugar cut by the pleasant bitterness of walnuts.

Unknown said...

the seller of this tea is www.teaemporium.net and not teaemporium.com ,there has been an error with the link of Tea Emporium on your page- thank you

Tuo Cha Tea said...

I updated the link, thank you.