Tippy Orthodox Assam GFOP

ha ha .. you are welcome to try any service you think good... :)

My local English tea shoppe told me there is a movement to get away from the Indian alphabet soup grades:

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions for brewing parameters.

I have a little more testing to do, but this tea works best for me at about 2.0 g/cup, a slightly cooler temp (~190), a fairly short steep time (less than a minute), and with a pre-rinse in cold water.

I was about to throw this out. I'm glad I got better data. This probably won't ever be a favorite, but it might be good for an occasional change of pace.

I appreciate the help from those with more experience.

I have a tin of this same tea and haven't had much luck with it either. As you said, nothing really bad about it, just not good. I've tried an assortment of preparations Qty, temp, time, no luck. When I get a tea like this I usually end up blending it, but this one doesn't seem to want to blend well either. I'll prolly end up using it to take the edge off some mini tuo cha puerh's I have. I'll give it a 2/5 review and not buy any more. Every time I order I try to get something I haven't tried before (125gm...enuf to mess with but not a great loss if it's not good) and this was one of those. Paul Q

I'm actually starting to like this a bit more, now that I'm getting closer to the right brewing parameters. I'm playing with 180 degrees and having better results.

Is a "wash" just a quick rinse in cold water (room temperature)?

No, hot. Almost all the Chinese people I've ever seen brew tea gongfu style start out with a hot water rinse of the leaves.

/Lew

lewis is right... was with warm water not boiling... cold not recommended...:)

Ive never seen an Indian rinse tea leaves. Maybe the pot.

Jim

So cooler than the steep temp?

Is this a good account of the procedure?

How about this video?

Yes.

That sounds about right.

Not a tremendous amount, no. There have been threads about how long it takes to dissolve how much caffeine here before.

/Lew

I have to say that I have had some excellent cheap assams this season, some inexpensive bulk teas that have good scent to them and make a pleasant pot. Not in the same league as some of the great single estate teas, but they make my mouth happy.

So much darjeeling isn't darjeeling at all, that buying the estate teas at least increases your chance of getting what you think you're getting.

Incidentally I have recently had a couple of Sikkim teas that tasted very much like the older-style more heavily fermented darjeelings. Can you make any recommendation for some of these?

--scott

i guess you havent come across the right indian tea lovers... :)