Sunday, July 17, 2011

Cupping 2nd flush Darjeelings

I finally cupped some Darjeeling teas from India! The best way to do this is if you have a cupping set. Then you can brew the teas at the same time and taste them side by side. I used 3 grams of tea. For the first steeping I used cooler water than boiling for 2 ½ minutes. I found the brews light but I could still get the characteristics of the individual teas. The second steeping was nearly boiling water and I steeped the tea for just over 3 minutes. The teas all showed well. There was also flavor, yet diminishing, in the third steeping. 


The three teas were Pussimbing 2010, Castleton Muscatel 2010, and Thurbo Muscatel 2010. The Pussimbing was the only organic of the three teas. All the teas were 2nd flush from 2010 as the 2011 2nd  flush hadn’t even been plucked when I was there. The dry leaf looked really similar for all the teas. There was a mixture of dark brown and golden leaves with some tips mixed in. The leaves were fairly uniform in size with no broken pieces.  
Pussimbing
Castleton
Thurbo
The brews were such a beautiful orange/copper color and by chance were darkest to lightest from left to right. I was wowed, again by the Pussimbing. The flavor is typical Darjeeling with the muscatel zing, but this tea is overwhelmingly peachy tasting. I remember why I bought it. I had not tried the Castleton while I was in India, but it is typically one of my favorite estates so I bought a little and was not disappointed. The third, was the Thurbo. Had I not tried them side by side, this tea would have been perfect, but it was an also ran after tasting the others. I might try a little more than normal leaf when I brew the Thurbo next time since it was a little lighter than the rest.  


If you are interested in trying the three teas mentioned, either send me a comment or email me directly.  Quantities are limited!

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