Jaipur Estate Assam FTGFOP1 (SPL)

So lovely. It’s a shame that the teas I’ve been most impressed with lately—Assams from Capital Tea—I get in the mood to drink at night while snuggled up to watch Elementary, and by the end of that I’m too sleepy to write decent notes. I think I reach for them then /because/ I know they’ll be wonderful and that matches my excitement and comfort looking forward to the evening’s relaxation. Alas for them. But in short, this is yet another excellent, beyond-all-other-shops’-Assams experience for me. Remarkably smooth but chock full of deep, rich, dark-sweet flavor and lots of neat subtler nuanced notes. And just like all the other Assams from Capital so far, resteeps like a dream (and I’m normally very skeptical of resteeping black tea), like the energizer bunny (I don’t even add extra time the first couple, and I can resteep at least 3 or 4 times…nuts). I think the best way to describe this (and just about all of the Capital Assams I’ve tried so far) sloppily/lazily is that it’s like the heft and deep-dark-satisfying classic tea flavor quality one expects from an Assam (or any Indian or Ceylon tea, but with the harsh acidic lemony part removed), the smoothness, sweetness, and complexity prized in good Chinese black teas, pluuuuus an uber satisfying dark bittersweet brawn (but smooth, always smooth!) that hints at good coffee made from freshly roasted oily beans. With spice notes usually. Perfect. Assams! I love you so much right now. I just needed to find the right go-between for us to date again. Now the feelings I’ve got are getting serious. Cohabitation seems inevitable, ha.