2011 Thurbo FTGFOP 1 CL - EX 5

Fresh tea straight from India! I’m actually pretty impressed it only took three days to arrive here. Before I begin, my experiences with first flush darjeelings is quite limited. I browsed around, curious to find somewhere to start. Most vendors have most of this stuff relatively high priced and depending on the garden it comes from, price fluctuates a lot.Out of a few websites, Lochan offered the cheapest available, so i went ahead and grabbed the cheapest and most expensive one they offer. (In truth though, i can’t say $8 for 100g is anywhere near expensive) Sites such as Thunderbolt and Tea Emporium charge up to and around $30 for a Thurbo first flush. Figuring I didn’t have much to lose, I put in an order. Story goes, that the wonderful folks from FedEx opened up the package from Lochan and opened up the tea too! Thankfully they only one they ripped open was the free masala chai they threw in with the order (a generous 50g too I must say) but I really didn’t care much for the chai at all so I was glad it was the only one they opened.

On to the brew, nice golden colour not getting much muscatel flavours. This one is really light tasting, a hint of malted barely sweetness and slight astringency. No spiciness from what I can tell (supposedly some first flush darjeelings have this flavour profile). It was not as fruity as I was hoping for, but still makes a nice cup of tea. The leaves are mostly broken but not dust like small. I’m actually currently preferring my Nilgiri Parkside from CS more than this, but as far as value goes Lochan has done fairly well. I cannot comment on how this would compare to a higher grade darjeeling and I am curious to find out really, how much of a difference it would make.

I’m going to go ahead and post my comments here, although my sample is labeled Thurbo FTGFOP 1 CH (SPL) EX4 (Experts, I know FTGFOP, but can you help interpret the rest of the alphabet soup)?

I’ll have a longer review later also, like Jillian, but this is really good stuff. My favorite feature is the aroma of the steeped tea—-smells like the tray of communion cups at my church, or the inside of a Welch’s unsweetened grape juice bottle. This Darjeeling has personality!

This is another review I’m writing up for Mike of the ’It’s All About the Leaf’ tea blog. Check it out here: http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/

I discovered upon opening the package that the leaves of this tea were considerably larger and more ‘whole’ than the leaves of the First Flush from Goomtee Estate that I also sampled from this same company. These leaves were an interesting and attractive-looking mix of dark green and silver, almost as though they were the buds of a silver needle white tea rather than a black tea. But then supposedly Darjeeling teas get fermented less than most blacks, so it makes sense, I guess.

The smell was sweet and hay-like with some floral notes, though brewed it took on a toastier aroma. It had a more typical Darjeeling flavour than the Goomtee first flush did – resplendent with muscatel flavours, though with considerably less of the drying astringency you’d taste in a later-picked Darjeeling. It was sweeter too, which becomes more noticeable as the tea cooled, and it had a nice, full flavour that lingered in the mouth and kept me from forgetting about it. As it cooled it also took on some fruity characteristics, with an interesting nutty undertone.

Of the two First Flush Darjeelings I’ve tasted now I think this one is my favorite of the two, although in my opinion both are excellent, complex, and interesting teas.

At 195*: Well blended flavour profile. Muscatel fruitiness, but not as blatant as some of the other FF. Overall, I love it, but I think I prefer the Giddapahar, just because it gave me more of a wow sensation. This is nice and mellow, yet still interesting. Not very sweet. Robust. A good first flush, and I look forward to Thurbo’s second. I realise a lot can happen in between flushes, but something about this one makes me think their second may really shine.

It’s too demure to really get me excited, but I would buy this tea and drink it consistently. I just wouldn’t find myself with the urge to weep when I used it up, like I have been tempted to do sometimes with other estate flush teas.

…Later: 205* Demure is definitely not a word I’d use to describe this baby when you up the temperature a little. It’s got great notes of muscatel and hay. Really aromatic and quite spectacular.

really one of the better tea’s