Numalighur FTGFOP1

I had another go at this today and this is not my favourite tea. I much preferred the Yunnan from MF that my parents picked up for me. Not that this is a bad tea, but i prefer others over it. Luckily i have tea friends with which to share this one!

Thanks Sil for sending some of this my way.

I don’t have much to offer in the way of insight. I think it’s good, but not great. It’s a decent black, but not really special to me. I’ve had a few cups worth today, and while it’s been enjoyable – there are other blacks that I prefer more, and there are other Mariage Freres teas I prefer.
Interesting experience.

Sipdown, 128. My last assam from Sil! So I discovered with a lot of these that I am not the biggest fan of assams. However! When the hot water hit this one I thought it smelled quite good! I still added milk and sugar because I am a weakling when it comes to assams.

I am enjoying this one more than the other assams I have had recently. It’s smooth, it’s rich, and it doesn’t have that roughness I have found in other assams. Glad I got to try this one out!

So I’ve been remiss in my tasting notes, but I have been working on Operation Sipdown today. I finished off two teas so far, and this one is a sipdown, courtesy of Sil.

I think I’m in agreeent with her that this is a decent tea, but not necessarily mindblowing. I want to add milk to it, and that is never a good sign. But, I’m happy I tried it because I had this impression i my head that Mariage Freres = INCREDIBLE.

second steep, less steep time (2 min) it is really better. As promised by the salesman I get strong honey notes.
A little astringency remains, I need to play more with this tea (I bought 50g as it was quite an expensive tea 16,50 €/100g and wanted to be sure I like it before buying more)
I think asap I’ll find the right way to brew it for my taste it can be a staple.

Sipdown!! (122)

Thank you Cavocorax for this tea. The dry leaf smelled really great but it did not transfer into the taste for me. I followed Mariage Freres instructions and I am getting a fair bit of astringency. It is malty and astringent and just not for me.

i love assams. especially before a long run on the weekend. or early morning before a gym visit.
and i always wanna get my tongue on more Mariage Frefes. this is a good one. my sister likes her Harney assam lots, so i will GENEROUSLY save my last tiny cup’s worth of this for her to try. ;)
thank you for the tea Sil!

This is a very good Assam tea. It should be at the price MF charges for it. It was not as malt-forward as many Assams, which at first caused me to question whether it could be my “favorite” Assam tea. Its astringency is less than others, too.
This first time, I followed the Mariage Freres instructions. I suspect that the five minutes step time may have been too long for my tastes, I’ll look forward to another taste soon.
The second infusion of this tea was for 6 minutes. It had more of the initial malty flavor like most Assam teas.

Looks beautiful in the cup – deep caramel color. Subtle, malty aroma, full-bodied flavor with moderate tannins and a long, long finish.

Paired well with this honey (http://www.quitokeeto.com/products/classe-ouvriere-churned-seashore-honey) and black pepper Boursin scones.

Another tea from Sil, I made a cup of this to enjoy with my breakfast: homemade suasage patties, greens, eggs, & almond flour pancakes topped with sauteed peaches, heavily spiked with cinnamon, nutmeg, & ginger. This breakfast required a potent tea, & this assam fit the bill. It’s a little on the astringent side, but nice & bassy.