January 12, 2009

Risheehat Estate Darjeeling







Another Darjeeling for ya. From Upton,s Tea,s this is a SFTGFOP #1 SP/CL second flush. In plain English, super fine tippy golden flowery orange pekoe grade #1 special clonal. A 200 gm bag of this one will cost ya $35.64, not bad really considering it,s quality. Upton,s are definitely the go-to guys for Darjeeling and Assam tea,s. What I especially like about Upton,s is their lack of image, no gimmicky packaging, not a lifestyle oriented co. Ive always thought of them as being kind of a tea broker. I,m pretty sure some of the online vendors tea,s were purchased from Upton,s and then repackaged.
This tea is almost sold out so if anybody wants to try it you should order asap. Having barely even got the bag open I,m accosted by the extremely pungent aroma of the dry leaf. Floral, citrus and fruity. Pretty much in that order. You can smell this tea from across the room, extremely aromatic.The dry leafs color is a little on the dark side, a mix of dark browns, reds and greens. Long wiry, well twisted leaves. The aroma of the infused tea is also very pungent. This tea is very "bright" extremely floral and kinda lemony. The muscatel flavor and aroma that most people think of when it comes to Darjeeling is there, but taking a back seat to the flowers and fruit. There is the slightest trace of maltiness in the cup. As I had said in a previous post, Ive been stuck on various Oolongs and Japanese tea,s for a while now and I had forgotten how good Darjeeling,s could be. This is an exellent Darjeeling tea but it doesnt have the flavors that I most enjoy. Which is that full bodied fruity, muscatel thing.

2 comments:

  1. Darjeeling from Risheehat tea platation are sold here, in Slovakia, too and the 2007 First Flush was an awesome batch of tea.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree Risheehat,s tea,s are amazing. This one in particular got so many good reviews thats what tempted me to buy some. Glad I did because it,s one of the best I,ve had in years.

    ReplyDelete