Wanted: A nice, plain black tea with some good substance to the flavour.
Has: A white Darjeeling with a delicate flavour and a flowery note.
How did this happen? Your guess is as good as mine.
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It seems like all the tea growers are trying to expand their markets and are starting to make teas that aren’t traditionally from their region. The Indians and the Sri Lankans are now making greens, oolongs and whites. China is making senchas to feed the insatiable Japanese markets. And, for the most part, Yunnans and Keemuns are grown in China to export to the European and American markets, where black teas are the beverage of choice. The Chinese themselves would rather drink oolongs or greens. How long before Japan starts dabbling in black tea?
I’ve tried a Darjeeling oolong, which was very good. Didn’t realize Makaibari was now making whites as well. The guy who owns/runs Makaibari, Rajah Banerjee, is an interesting character. And character is the right word. See link below.
I haven’t been there myself. I got it as a gift from a friend who lives in the area along with a first flush and I think a second flush. Or an autumnal. Not sure. Those are both long gone. That must have been hmmm… last year I think. Anyway, from what I understood, she gets almost all the tea she drinks from there and it sounded like she bought it directly at the estate. This one is good, but it doesn’t measure up to the chinese whites.
I had a Darjeeling oolong once which was either from Puttabong or Puttimbing. I found it fairly boring and gave it away to someone who luckily loved it and claimed that it was capable of curing the common cold. :p I think it disappointed me because I was expecting something different. This has only occurred to me recently when someone over at LJ told me that the many Darjeeling blacks are oxidised for such a short time that they could be considered borderline oolong. Certainly explains why the leaves often look so green.
Sorry, that would be Pussimbing! I can never remember that name!
I heard a similar thing regarding the oxidation of Darjeelings — not that they’re oxidized for such a short time, per se, but that the oxidation process is deliberately very uneven, so that you get black leaves mixed with oolong-like leaves, and even nearly green ones. And that, supposedly, was why Darjeelings have such a melange of flavors, because they’re virtually a blend all by themselves.
I just which I still had some left of the other two she sent me. Now that I’m more practised at paying attention to flavours beyond ‘I like this’ vs ‘I don’t like this’
