Teabox

Today i decided to do a comparisonbrewing between red clay and glas on this rather bold autumnflush.
Its my first chinavarietal and it dows indeed remind me of the most basic of english black teas. As the other tastingnotes says its a tea that i could full well expect in a breakfast blend of very high quality.

ok, for the comparison.
On one side i used the sado red clay mumyoi pot and the other was a standard glaspot.
For water i used tap water heated in a Kunzan tetsubin.

I used the same leaf/water ratio, both 5 minutes with a temperature of slightly over 90C

first differance i notice is the body, the glaspot taste is thinner and noticable more watery. Whereas the clay is “thicker” and less watery. The aftertaste seems to linger more in the glaspot while the claypot seems to give more sweetness.
It is hard to decide which is better, however i personaly prefer a strong body with black tea.
The tea itself taste very different when brewed at 90 instead of boiling. The heavy astringancy is gone. Hm i think i will upp the temperature in the future.
China varietals may be simpler and cheaper but are well worth exploring, there will definetly be a china first flush in my collection come spring.

Next comparison will be for assam tea.

Mumyoi Kyusu

This chinavarietal autumnflush from jungpana sure packs a punch. It is VERY bold yes it never turns bitter although it finishes with a strong astringancy.
The viscosity is almost milky and the tea gives a warm feeling.
Clean taste filled with flavour. Very well balanced and one of the best AF i´ve tried.
However the slightly more sweet and flowery clonal from jungpana tops this by just a bit.

Restocked this as it is nice with breakfast.

Malty and strong with a bite. :)

Mumyoi-yaki Kyusu water from kunzan tetsubin

This is one of the better assams ive tried, VERY strong body. Brisk clean astringancy, some malt and sweetness. Will have to try this at a lower temperature as well.
Doing a resteep now! haha assam in the morning is wonderful!

Mumyoi-Yaki kyusu

Rather unremarkable assam. Not as sweet and malty as other varieties.
The taste is more like a lowland ceylon, sharper. However i brewed it hotter then recommended. A lower temperature might bring out more sweetness.
If given a chance i will try it out again.
I love weekends, lots of time to sip tea :)

Brewed in a Mumyoi-yaki kyusu (oxidationburned mumyoiclay by Shimizu Ken)

First i want to give my thanks to Shimizu Ken for making this wonderful pot. The clay is so compact and “heavy” the surface has been made supersmooth. Retains heat very well! And most important brewes a superb pot of Daarjeeling. The taste compared to the glaspot is astounding.

The tea itself has some qualities of a heavy firstflush like Singbuli clonals, mixed with i dont know what some tangy herbs? :) The flavour is very distinct and quite pleasing, like sweetly bitter. I might order some more of this!

3.5g / 200ml glaspot
5m @ 85C

Comforting, lychee, full bodied and slightly tangy.
Very nice! Loads better then Arya topaz. the only other darjeeling oolong i´ve tried.

After a hectic day in the city with my 5y daughter i really felt the urge for some tea to wind down. My choice fell on this wonderfull autumnflush, been my AF of choice for the last two years.
I used the breakfastpot 450ml ceramic thing with nice glace and stuff that i picked up in beijing some years back. Retains heat very well so i do like to use it for long infusions. Looks nice when serving guests as well, matching cups and all. ;)

Anyways the tea for me really taste AF, somewhat light yet with a bite. There is a good balance between a sweet body and a slight astringent aftertaste full of citrus.

This will be reordered year after year as a sure win. :)

Brewed in a glazed ceramic pot.

I do think i like the new steepster. :)
The tea is very clean, slight astringancy and perhaps a bit lemony on the aftertaste.
Flowery would be a good description just like the name implies.

3g / 200ml glaspot
5m @ 100C

I know i promised myself to drink up my spring teas before 2014 harvest is availible. However i just realized i restocked the -13 harvest of my previously favorite Autumnflush. Just had to try it out and found it was pretty much identical to the -12 harvest.
Very classic darjeeling flacour, flowery ^^ Slight astringancy.
The Jungpana Special Autumnflush has a bit more oomph though.

7g / 400ml ceramic pot
5m @ 100

Had to try this one brewed stronger/hotter. The result was surprising. Very little astringancy yet strong body. Sweet almost malty like an assam. This tea just went from decent to good!
Been sipping this one all day at work. A good thermos is every tealovers friend!

3g / 200ml glaspot.
4m @ 100C

Hmm classic darjeeling, nothing fancy but still decent.
Was perfect as a late night cup after a long visit to the gym ^^
Rather mild flavour, will try 100C next time.

3.5g / 200ml glaspot
4:30m @ 100C

this is a very nice powerful cup. A little bit to much astringancy, will brew 3g @ 4m next time.
However the body has a very clean thickish sensation, the flavour is malty, full, slightly sweet.
Will have to make another cup to get all the flavours, this one went down in a jiffy with some homemade banana chocolate cake from last nights getogehter. :) Where i also managed to convince my friends to try a chai tea ^^

7g / 450ml Glazed ceramic pot.
5m @ 100C

Very powerful cup. Yet it is well balanced, malty with an astringancy that balances the sweet undertones of honey and ripe peach. Wonderful tea.
The is just a hint of a dry grainy feeling to the body, otherwise this tea would be a perfect cup. As it is very inexpensive I might get a bag of this ^^ Best assam i´ve tried so far.

3.5g / 200ml glaspot.
4m @ 100C

Slightly bitter, would have to try 90C perhaps.
The tea taste very badly to me compared to any AF ivé ever tried.
Its like a mix between light oxidized oolong and autumnflush darjeeling. flavour is dry, perhaps a bit ruined by my to hot/long steep.
The wet leaf are very nice, small whole leaves.
I will not finish of this sample.

3g / 200ml glaspot.
5m @ 100C

WOW, this tea is very very good according to my tastes. Powerful with a briskness. A very noticable astringancy on the aftertaste mixed with a small bit of sweetness, i think of blueberries with honey ^^
Will be sure to remeber this one!

3.5g / 200ml glaspot
4m @ 100C

More leaf seems to add a bit more flavour. Still it feels somewhat of. Flowery with some astringancy, not a good balance. But better than previous tasting.

5g / 400ml ceramic pot.
4m @ 90C

Light but flavourful. Very like a first flush. Slightly sweeter with perhaps a bit of citrus?
Decent but lacks the oomph i want in a second flush.

5g / 400ml ceramic pot.
5m @ 100C

Decent breakfasttea. Remind me of a lowland ceylon of better quality.
Sweet but powerful. Somewhat uneven flavour.
Ripe fruit.
First of a whole bag of assam samples. Gonna find the perfect breakfast tea!

6g / 400ml ceramic pot.
5m @ 100C

This time around i used my normal water/leaf ratio for AF darjeeling.
The result was a slightly more orange brew and a sharper taste. Still very light and lowkey compared to my favorite AF badamtam flowery!
But it is more then decent.

5g / 400ml ceramic pot
5m @ 100C

Sample from Teabox. Classic darjeeling, astringance balanced by a fresh citrus, dry on the tip of tounge. Somewhat on the light side, will use less water in next pot.
First of 15 autumnflush samples! jummy!

I don’t have any experience, at least as far as I know (some tea shops just offer one “Darjeeling” or Nepali tea and don’t give any information about whether it’s a blend or what flush or any of that), with the less well known/celebrated autumn or third flush darjeelings, so this is exciting. And I’m quite surprised to find this is in fact markedly different, like different enough that if given a cup of this without knowing what it was I’d never initially guess darjeeling—it is very malty and rather bread-y, more like the chewy rich Chinese black teas I’ve had from spots like Teavivre and Verdant albeit with that woody darjeeling edge in the lingering aftertaste. It’s a bit like Assam too actually, given how it retains some astringency at the tail end of the sip. It would be good in a breakfast blend (and now I’m wondering if some of the delicious unusual breakfast blends I’ve had with darjeeling listed in them use autumn flush ones), smells a lot like some of my favorites (The Black Lotus comes to mind!).

I love how much flush matters, tasting that firsthand—I’ve had 2013 spring, summer, and autumn flush Jungpanas now with other conditions fairly well controlled for (all the same FTGFOP grade, from the same website, sealed the same, obtained at the same time) in the course of two days and it’s been marvelous seeing, smelling, and tasting how the tea changes over the seasons from lightly floral and green tea-like to sparkly muscatel brown to this bready satisfying chewy black.