Ed Fladung Send Message

I had a lovely cup in the late afternoon yesterday and this tea really is something special. It has deep darjeeling flavor without heavy briskness. It’s nothing like a first flush, having good body and an etherial after note of smell and taste probably from the Rose petals in the tea. Wish I had brought back a lot more of this one.

I keep forgetting about this one. It’s such a fine tea. I feel like a old Chinese Zen poet when I drink it. ;-)

I tried a batch of this one yesterday afternoon. Mary and I were both feeling the need of a mid afternoon Chai lift. I tried adding a few thin slices of fresh ginger and I took the seeds from 3 cardamom pods and crushed the seeds in a mortar and pestle and added the powder to the milk/water mixture before adding the tea. I think it really improved the tea. That being said, it is also very fine without the additions when I don’t have the time to fiddle around.

I have been sort of off chai all summer but with the cooling weather, yesterday afternoon I decided to brew up some of this chai. It is as good as I remember it. I did note however that I wish it had a touch more cardamon and a touch more ginger. Cardamon is a tough one to put into a tin. Ideally it should be fresh ground as it has aromatics that decrease markedly over time. The same with ginger. Dried ginger just cannot compete with fresh ginger.

That being said I really enjoy this one a lot. I might try this afternoon crushing a cardamon pod and adding a slice of fresh ginger. In India they only add the ginger during cool weather since it is very warming. This morning the temperatures dropped significantly so maybe more ginger is the ticket.

Ah! An Afternoon first flush experience! My timer says it’s done!

One thing I love about this one is when I pour the water into my Bodum carafe, this wonderful flowery aroma comes wafting up and smells so good. I was never a great fan of first flushes, but the last few years they have become one of my favorite afternoon teas. This one is really special: flowery and soft with a light brown-green liquor.

I’m not really an experienced green tea drinker, even though I’ve drunk it for years. Lung Ching comes in a large variety of grades, which I can’t really speak to. This one compares favorably with the ones I’ve drunk from my Chinatown supplier and from Mark T Wendell. This Lung Ching has that grassy, fragrant, fresh scent and nice yellow liquor I expect from a Lung Ching. It’s smooth and delicious. I always notice a really fine sense of alertness that accompanies the cup. Sometimes I brew it in a brown clay tea pot and give it several pours. Today I wimped out and used my Bodum glass press pot, 4 minutes at 90 degrees celsius.

I’ve about finished my first tin of this tea. It’s a fine Darjeeling with all the qualities I love in a Darjeeling. I like it with a tea spoon of sugar to mellow out the woodiness. It’s brisk, but not too brisk that it would need milk. It has the light Darjeeling like floral notes that I associate with first flushes. As it turns out there is some first flush in the blend. I could drink this one on a regular basis.

This is a really beautiful Darjeeling. My first impression was that it was the best Darjeeling I’ve encountered. The flowers in the tea add a very subtle soft fragrance that is wonderful. It is a full bodied Darjeeling, very smooth with a lovely finish. More as I get into this one…

Amba Ceylon again this morning. The more I drink this tea the more I fall in love with it. It is beautiful and subtle. I find myself lingering over it and inhaling the perfume. Very satisfying.

I’ve been drinking this tea for a month or so and for a few days have been having it as my morning tea. It has that briskness of a Ceylon, but not too much. It makes a nice brown liquor and is very soft on the palate. It is a very coarse tea, meaning that the leaves are whole leaves not broken bits. It also has some of the camelia flowers in with the tea. All in all I have been really enjoying this tea, stronger than my usual Darjeeling but really nice in the drinking and nice in the finish.

I’ve been playing around with the water temperature and lower temperatures don’t do it justice. I let the kettle stop boiling for a minute but hardly longer than that. 5 minute steep time.