Once more: Darjeeling black teas

My favorite estates (so far) are Gopaldhara, Makaibari and Puttabong. A close second rank is Goomtee, Jungpana, Lingia and Castleton.

I use a rounded-to-heaping (depending on leaf style) dessertspoonful of tea per 8 fluid ounce cup, and infuse 3 minutes. I don't use milk, but I do usually add a level spoonful of sugar, because I find it takes the edge off the astringency and enhances the floral/fruit flavors.

The muscatel business is interesting. Teas that are described as having that character often have a noticeable tobacco note to me. I don't find it unattractive, but "muscatel" would not have been my first choice of descriptor.

Michael, if you're reading this, notice that someone else thinks "oolong" when he drinks Darjeeling!

Regards, Dean

Dean MacinskasCcQPb.12841$ snipped-for-privacy@nwrdny03.gnilink.net1/22/04

08: snipped-for-privacy@junk.com

Jaggary.

So noted, Dean. BTW, as a man who has taken his cigars pretty seriously in past lives, those notes are OK by me. Prefer a Bordeau, but who's counting?

Drinking Shan Shui Korean Green (Saejak) to the strains of Beet Garden's string quartets. What could be better? We're talking vegetal here. With an astringent note. (tea, ie)

Michael

While intrepidly exploring rec.food.drink.tea, Dieter Folz rolled initiative and posted the following:

As for types - Gopaldhara, Makaibari, Castelton.

I RARELY add milk to tea. I generally make my teas with a little less tea than typical, for a little less time than normal, at a little less temperature than average. They end up smooth and tasty

- even the Darjeelings - with no need to thin them with milk.

You are right. Some Darjeeling taste like Oolong. But those are not well-fermented.

The truth is Darjeeling is a very delicate tea and I have been told the timing for shiping of Darjeeling from India to US- kills some fresh aroma of Darjeeling. For your information- Fresh Darjeeling, from good estate always have fruity,flowery,sweet taste sometimes with muscatel and light almonds falvour(only in very good qualities Darjeeling).

I have posted my latest research report on top 10 Darjeeling estates. Infusion time always depend on your personal taste and the quality of you darjeeling tea. But apo. 3-5 minutes, one full tea spoon of tea for 6-9 Oz. tea cup. Well, about milk- it's depend on my mood. Most of the time, i drink Darjeeling straight. Sometimes a little milk doesn't bother me.

I hope, I have answered your questions. If you are not satisfied yet, please send me a offline message. Thanks.

Ripon (Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Derek wrote in news:Xns947863CD1EDDBdagwinn@130.133.1.4:

I've been taking my tea different ways, experimenting, often adding milk- like things (not having had any actual milk in the house for a couple of weeks). Mostly this is with Assam or Earl Grey, though I do drink thess without whiteners as well. Darjeeling or oolong I take straight.

Recently I got some keemun to try and find I like it blended with Assam. Something whispered in my ear this evening and bade me make a small pot of

*very* strong keemun, which I took straight. Wonderful, but I think I'll be up for a while.

[...]

That's my favourite tea for breakfast.

I love that too, working late in the evening with a Keemun (sometimes with a little milk) -- aehm, not loving the working,of course ...

Yes, I never believed in that "Keemun is a nice evening tea, because it contains very little coffeine", so, drinking Keemun too late, keeps me up too.

Dieter

Hm that is a standard at least here in Germany.

Well, for ff Darjeeling, we have "Flight-teas" here in Germany -- but they are nearly green teas. For the shipping, as far as I know, it takes about 15 days for the tea to arrive in Hamburg haven. The tea itself is packed in sealed boxes. I don't think there is much aroma lost by transporting. I think, the German tea merchants only buy those light, greenish Darjeelings, because nobody asks for real black Darjeeling tea (in fact, we have a real pure green Darjeeling hype at the moment). Most German tea drinkers seems to prefer a very light brew, if they want to drink Darjeeling, even with sf. For the "strong teas", Assam is prefered (or an East Frisian Blend) - - but I think it's less strong than typical British teas. Germany isn't a tea drinker nation (as far as I know, only 10% are tea drinkers (statistically about 220 gr tea per person and year, 40% are using tea bags, mostly very cheap (and disgusting) blends), most of them living in northern Germany (East and North Frisia, Hamburg, Bremen regions). Germany is a coffe nation (except for Bavaria, there the people only drink beer, while eating Sauerkraut and Wurst, sitting there in their Lederhosen ... ok, just joking :-) ).

Well, I tasted teas (sf) from Teesta Valey and Kaley Valley, both were also more greenish, the same it's with Germany's most famous Darjeeling of the "Teekampagne". Here ff and sf show no difference in their taste.

Hm, well I mostly use and used about one (weak) spoon per 0,25 l (that is about a mug (or between 8 and 9 US fluid ounces?!)), or about fout spoons per litre water, infusion time about two to three minutes. Using more, the tea is getting much to bitter (can't taste more than the bitter taste at all) and I'm getting a bit nauseaish.

Sure, it's always interesting to read from you.

Dieter

snipped-for-privacy@gmx.de (Dieter Folz) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

Keemun blended with Assam? Or Keemun or Assam straight?

Well no :O) But I can see where the Keemun would be helpful in that situation.

I did not know about that alleged characteristic of Keemun. However, since it was Friday night and I could sleep later today, I went ahead and tried the same thing with an Assam, making it very strong. It was too much. I think that works much better with the Keemun.

fLameDogg wrote in news:Xns947A7C3625Bimamidnighttoken@130.133.1.4:

Sorry to respond to my own post, Dieter, but I found the answer in another of your posts. You like the blend. I knew I was on to something, but I've only had it in the evening. I'll have to try that one morning :O)

You are missing one step here my friend. When tea come from tea estate, they re-open those chests again in Calcutta for clean up the tea for export market. I have been to Premiers teas tea processing unit in Calcutta. When they buy the tea from the local auction house then they brings those chests to their processing factory. Believe me if you see- what things come out after clean up the tea, you will never drink tea. Lots of small piece of stones, small pieces of irons(some tea estates add some extra weight -:)), fibre, pieces of glasses( the woman who pluck the tea, they wear some kind of glass bresslate) etc. etc. In the processing unit- they open the chests and spread the tea on a belt. One stage the fibre come out then three stage magnets are used to remove extraneous matter. At the end some people manually check the tea and find something more. Then they pack for international market inside a three layers of sack pack. This process is only for foreign buyers. Don't you think during this time-teas are expose to outside for a while. While I was in calcutta- I saw this news in the newspaper- Japanese buyers threatened the Tea board of India to improve their quality of tea processing. Moreover personally I have tasted fresh tea there, never got the fresh, aromatic, sweet flavour from on-line vendors.

I think, the German tea merchants only buy those

I have been told- German tea brokers are number one buyer for First flush Darjeeling tea. Though German's drinks coffee more then tea but in the tea industry Germans are a big player- not only in India, also in China. They sell it too middle-east. Some top tea buying companies are runs by German. Some famous blending companies are German too. Yes, east Frisian blend is not a strong blend- compare to Bangladeshi and Indian masala Chai.

Whats wrong with Darjeeling in Germany? -:)

Thank you. I try my best.

Ripon (Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Dieter snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com1/24/04

10: snipped-for-privacy@gmx.de

Dieter,

I **want** to believe (that Keemun contains very little caffeine). Can you cite a reference? Thanks.

Michael

For what it's worth, this page lists one Keemun among its caffeine measurements of many different teas. The Keemun's caffeine rating isn't terribly high, but its caffeine content could hardly be called "very little":

/Lew

Hi!

Interesting. I didn't found references in English, just in German. All of them don't offer an English site. So, the only one I could find, is this Interesting to know that, because of this, Keemun tea is said not only to be a perfect evening tea, but also to be suitable for children (that is a "standard" recommendantion here in Germany)! Referring to the site mentioned by Lewis, I would not agree with it.

Less caffeine seems only to be working if you compare with coffee (app. 10-15% caffeine with a decent cup).

Dieter

THAT I dindn't know! Well, snakes, spiders and cockroaches would be more disgusting ... tea drinking as "fear factory" (btw which program format recently reached Germany :-( ... well, listen to the radio is nice, too).

I can imagine that.

Hm, interesting ... so, you say, we can't get real fresh tea taste here? That is a pitty.

Seems logic to me, because export has tradition in Germnay and Hamburg has ons of the biggest harbors worlwide and really many warehouses (for duty free storage and processings like tea blending). One example of this tradition is the old "Speicherstadt".

I don't know. Mybe I didn't pay eough for it (Teesta Valley and Castelton produce also "average quality" tea, as far as I know). Esp. in Geermany we have a huge amount of cheap teas from Darjeeling (Kampagnentees), there one klilo Darjeeling ff or sf costs about 15 to

25 Euros (average 18-20 EUR / kg). There is a critique from many tea merchant sides, that these "Kampagnen" force Darjeeling to produce more cheap teas and less quality teas. The Kampagen say, that they buy the same stuff like the "normal" tea merchands, but make the tea cheaper, bacause they ship directly large quantities to their customers ("campaign principle")-- the initiator of this was , also in English. The Kampagnen say also, their tea is high quality, but I'm not so sure about it. And because of this, I think, it ruined the prices, so that also the "normal" single estate teas can't be too expensive (and therefore has to be of less quality). The second pont maybe is, that most Germans want fresh greenish Darjeelings (therefore, here in Germany ff is very much more popular than sf).

THX, Dieter

Dieter snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com1/27/04

03: snipped-for-privacy@gmx.de

Thanks, Dieter. It is very interesting. If the German references are on-line, please cite the sites. I can muddle through them, and I have friends who can help.

Michael

The site you mention says Keemun has less caffeine, but it doesn't offer any numbers.

Sure, coffee in general has lots more caffeine per cup than tea.

/Lew

Hi Dieter

I would like to add a few comments to your texts. Germany indeed is not a nation of tea drinkers, they drink mainly bad tea, but in my opinion also rather mediocre coffee. And yet, comparing here with other countries, I think that we can buy the best tea here, not from mail order, but from many tea shops on the corner. You have no problem finding Castleton, or Risheehat, or Fancy Superior Oolong or Uva Ceylon, or even estate Kenian tea. Try that in the UK, not to talk about the US. I have worked in a tea shop 20 years ago in Bavaria, where Castleton tasted quite similar to Castleton now, then there were no Teekampagnen. Then, in the UK, I had to do with Twinings from the supermarket, although I sometime came across some loose tea as well, situation is improving. I have taken a kg of top Darjeeling home with me from Calcutta,India, directly from the wholeseller, the taste is not that too different to what we get in Europe. The secret is always in brewing it. I have always found that it is best to go to a merchant with a relatively large turnover and get tea that sells well, so it is not exposed to air for too long (weeks, not months). Then the taste is good, especially if you get a good Oolong, my weakness.

With regards to caffeine: Recently I took to Irish breakfast tea, in the evening: this is CTC from Kenia and very strong. I discard the first 20 seconds of the brew (sobbing) and use the second infusion, with milk as it is still very strong in taste. I sleep like a baby. Normal Keemun keeps me awake. I suppose you can do the same with East Friesian tea or any other CTC, the finer it is the quicker and cleaner the caffeine gets released and can be sacrificed into the sink.

JB

I just had a look at

and they now offer half a kg of second-flush Chamong (# 4 among gardens, according to Ripon's poll) for 12.50 Euros. They also claim to have some responsibility for *improving* wages and working conditions at Darjeeling gardens. This makes me wonder if they're for real. Dieter sounds rather ambivalent. Is there a Teekampagne drinker out there with a strong opinion? For that matter, Ripon, do you know something about Teekampagne?

/Lew

Here some (few) links, which I could find quickly:

I read it also in some books I'd lend from a local library some time ago. Also, it is told at some tea shops.

Dieter