Darjeeling 1st Flush Gopaldhara SFTGFOP1 Black

This was included in the recent shipment from What-Cha. I’m not really sure what to say about this tea. It was not at all what I expected from a Darjeeling. I don’t even think I’ve ever had even a first flush this delicate. I brewed it Western style according to the instructions on the packet for a first try.

It’s very light, slightly sweet and I think a little floral and nutty. It’s a very high quality tea, but I’m glad for now that I didn’t get more. It just didn’t sit quite right for winter (I hadn’t realized until recently how season-oriented teas seem to me). For the future, I think I’d prefer to brew gongfu if drinking it hot. And it’s so delicate that I felt I missed out on some of the flavor when heated, so I want to try it cold in the Spring.

I recently tried the autumn flush from the same estate. They are day and night different. I only thought I knew what Darjeeling looked and tasted like. This one dry has a hay, grass, and orange blossom aroma. The leaf appears more like a green or a white peony. Steeped the liquor is honey yellow with a slight green tint. It certainly has no traits at this point to suggest black tea.

The wet leaf is freshly green and mostly whole leaves. Due to settling there are some large broken pieces but nothing to suggest this is less than top quality.

The wet leaf does have some woodsy muscatel notes to confirm it just might be a black tea after all.

Copying from my blog post concerning the taste: The What-Cha description on the sample label nails this tea, “A brilliant sweet start with a spicy finish.” Attempting to expand on this a little – after the sweetness I catch the first notes of muscatel. It is a light grape leaf like flavor. It fades quickly into a moment of mineral. Just as quickly it moves right into that spicy finish with the leaf taste moving below the spice. The aftertaste lingers well in a sweet fruity note, as just a touch of cheek tingle moves in to further please the senses.

If you find Darjeeling interesting (or if you know almost nothing about them) I highly recommend getting a sample of this one and the autumnal flush to experience the wide range of this tea.

So, you may or may not know that I dabble with Influentster, recently they had an ebay related campaign involving creating guides and collections. I finished the collection campaign a week ago and just finished the guides section, meaning I got $10 ebay gift card and have another one on the way. This babbling is inevitably leading up to the thing I bought, Dark Swords Elven Princess, a sculpt inspired by Larry Elmore’s (think most Dragonlance covers) art that I am much enamored with. If my plans go…as planned, then I will be doing a little green stuff alteration to make her more like one of my RPG characters.

Excitement about painting aside, I am not feeling too hot today so onto the tea! Specifically What-Cha’s Darjeeling 1st Flush 2014 Gopaldhara SFTGFOP1 Black Tea, an exceptionally high grade (special finest tippy golden flowery orange pekoe…that means it is really good) first flush Darjeeling from Gopaldhara Tea Estate. For some reason my brain just cannot register the name of this estate, no many how many times I read it or type it, I will always want to pronounce it Goldaphara…really brain, do try to keep things from getting too jumbled. I think this is why my reviews will always be in text, no one will have to hear my letter jumbling. So, the aroma of this tea is so light and so sweet, it just kinda lays on my nose like a silken scarf. It is a blend of muscatel (specifically very fresh scuppernongs and muscadines) honey, wildflowers, and a tiny touch of pepper at the finish. It reminds me of nasturtiums and growing things and the more milder aspects of summer.

In order to let the leaves dance around and have fun while taking their bath, I decided to steep them in my alchemy equipment (as I have taken to calling my glass double boiler thingy) as they unfurl, the colors of the leaves is quite beautiful, a mixture of greens, browns, and golds. It reminds me of sunlight streaming through leaves. The aroma of the leaves is so fresh, like muscadines straight off the vine, sweet sun warmed honey right off the comb, wildflowers blooming, and peppery nasturtiums. It is such a soothing aroma, and a very happy one at that, at least for me, it reminds me of summers from my younger days. The liquid is delicate and sweet, like honey and nasturtiums with a touch of muscadines. Ah, this is heavenly!

Oh man, I love that nasturtium note! I do not run into that one very often in tea, it is awesome! If you have never had the pleasure of eating nasturtium flowers, they are peppery, a bit sweet, and have a very clean and green heat to them. Similar to a very mild horseradish and flowers. Now this tea is not all spicy flowers, in fact the first bit of taste is the clean nasturtium and then it vanishes, quickly replaces with juicy muscadines and honey. It is just like biting into a sun warmed muscadine picked off the vine, an experience I seriously advise everyone to do at least once! The finish is mild and sweet, a wildflower honey taste that lingers.

I did a second steep for this tea and it was very similar to the first, the notes of honey were stronger and the peppery notes were almost diminished, it reminded me a little of daikon without the root taste. I was in one of those great tea bliss moments and as my notes finish for this tea, my usually barely legible handwriting just becomes a sideways mess. This was (le gasp) my first ever first flush Darjeeling, and I can see why so many people are hooked on it! I need more, lots more, if the taste is that intoxicating!

For photos and blog (my tea frogs got a little crazy this time): http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/12/what-cha-darjeeling-1st-flush-2014.html

I’m away from home for work this week, so I brought my Discover Darjeeling samples from What-Cha and… I’m kind of regretting it, because I’m getting a bit bored of Darjeelings? Oops. :) So this was a nice enough 1st flush (but seriously, how are these called black teas? they’re so green) but not particularly memorable. I don’t have a thermometer, so I’m kind of winging it re. temperature, so it’s possible I just haven’t figured out the right way to brew these teas to really bring out their full potential. I just have this ridiculous craving for like, Assam all of a sudden, lol. Hopefully I can get my head into Darjeeling Appreciation mode for the rest of the week!