Hattialli Estate Assam STGFOP - 2010

Decided to go with a straight assam this morning, because it has been a while. I think I either overleafed or oversteeped this initially, because my first cup had a bit of bitterness. Not enough to make me not drink it, but enough to distract from the other flavours. It improved slightly as it cooled. I took the leaves for a second steep, slightly cooler water and same amount of time. Now it’s smooth, malty, and surprisingly sweet! I’m holding off on rating it until I brew it properly, but I like this.

The dried leaf of this tea is beautiful with the blade being a little wider than some assams I’ve had and there being quite a few quite downy golden buds. Its quite beautiful to look at.

The first time I made this tea I made the mistake of both overleafing and oversteeping this tea, thinking that I would need to compensate for its age, and it turned out to be dominated by oatmeal and bitter cocoa and malt notes and its rich sweet notes were hidden.

To compensate this time, I stuck to 1 tsp/ 8 oz / @95°C, and after an @ 3 min steep the tea brews up to this beautiful red ochre tinged orange, and smelled of a blend of spice, red fruits and honey underlain by malt, cocoa, and a hint of oatmeal.

The flavour was sweet with malt and oatmeal first, followed by honeyed fruit ( red fruit with a touch of raisin), with spice and finishing with bitter cocoa. The dominant flavour is honey, spice and bitter cocoa. It has a good dose of caffeine.

Very nice and it makes me want to try Capital Tea Ltd more recent offering from this estate.

Thanks very much again to Joel for comping me this tea!