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first flush Darjeeling left, Mawlyngot Meghalaya oolong right |
A friend passed on an Indian tea I've forgotten the background on (that turned out to be an oolong), which I'll try along with a sample of Darjeeling I've been meaning to get to for months, from Tea Leaf Theory. It's a first flush Darjeeling that looks relatively completely oxidized compared to those sometimes being in between green and black; interesting. The other tea is made from slightly more whole leaf material, and it's relatively oxidized too.
That background should be clear to most, about how many Darjeeling first flush teas fall in between categories, not fully oxidized as conventional black teas, and definitely not intended as oolong. Some go by the designation of white tea instead; that would relate to passing on a bruising step, along with limiting oxidation. This isn't a processing background theme post, more about these teas.
That friend, Suzana Syiem, is the founder of a Facebook Tea group that I'm also an admin for, although I'm not the most active admin there. A lot of monitoring Facebook groups is about making judgement calls about posts or comments in relation to group rules, and it's easier to do that in the International Tea Talk group where I'm the primary admin, so the judgement call is however I happen to see it. Even something as seemingly clear-cut as member approval may not be; it's possible to flag which profiles are less "real," typically created for commercial purposes, or maybe for trolling (not so much an issue in tea groups), or some are commercial versus personal accounts.
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I met Suzana a couple years back; she's really nice |
About the teas, Tea Leaf Theory only lists producer background:
A lush green tea village on the mountain slopes of the Himalaya in Darjeeling at 5500 ft above sea level, known as Mandal Gaon. Like any other small tea grower in Darjeeling Mr Moktan also used to sell green leaves to the nearby tea factory but he hardly had any control over the price. With the liberalisation of the tea plantation laws in Darjeeling, Moktan also took to tea plantation organically.
The other tea is definitely more of an anomaly, produced in a small village in India, Mawlyngot, located in the Meghalaya state.
I reviewed this having no idea what it was. Indian oolongs tend to never really seem like oolongs to me anyway, more like a black tea with backed-off oxidation level, similar to how first flush Darjeeling comes across. This "Tale of Two Backpackers" blog post fills in some background (just not about the tea, so much):
The story of Mawlyngot is like that of a phoenix. At about 45 km from Shillong lies this somnolent village in the East Khasi hills of Meghalaya. The locals believe that the people from the Indo-Bangladesh border had migrated down the River Umsong and settled down here. The early villagers cultivated corn, millet, potato, chilli and banana in low yields that were not sufficient for their daily sustenance. And to aggravate the situation, the men were fond of the local country liquor ‘pyrsi’ made from rice and millet. The villagers had very little education and fought with penury. The place was infamous for alcoholism and drunken brawls...
...From a failed village, Mawlyngot is now producing one of the best teas in the North-eastern region of India... The Urlong Tea Integrated Village Cooperative Society now produces purely organic and high-quality tea and supplying their produce to different parts of India as well as in Australia...
Sounds good; let's check on their results.
Review:
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Darjeeling left, oolong right |
Mandal Goan first flush (Batch No. TTLT 19, Ramro Cha): a little smoky; that's different. Since that's not a natural flavor associated with Darjeeling (as it is with sheng pu'er, for example) I'd assume this has came into contact with smoke. In the right type and proportion that can be positive, but it is unusual.
Beyond that the tea is very interesting. Feel has some structure to it, and richness, but it's not astringent, edgy, or dry. Flavor complexity is good, and the range is interesting. Dark earthy tones stand out, along the line of dark wood or rust. To clarify, rust is at the edge of a mineral tone, or is that instead, and dark wood in this isn't mahogany range, more oak tree bark. A bit of fruit tone fills in behind that, light citrus, or something such. This may be a much different tea once some of the early round related flavor aspects shift next round.
Mawlyngot oolong: the color is a lot lighter; this isn't as oxidized a tea version. Interesting that came up in comparison with a Darjeeling first flush [then again with the missing back-story filled in that makes perfect sense]. I've drank a lot of types and styles of tea and this just isn't familiar; it's cool how that can keep happening. It doesn't taste like black tea, necessarily, not oxidized to that level, without the astringency edge or structure, with flavors in a different range. That's not good or bad, just different, but it does make for a double take when you first try it.
The primary flavor range is closest to something like pandan leaf, subtle, complex, rich in flavor, but light enough it's hard to place right away. I love pandan leaf tisane (herb tea); that's going to help in this case. Oddly there really is no black tea edge to this at all, no astringency, none of the associated malt and earthy flavor. Being well off the norm is one thing, not overlapping at all something else. The feel is rich and smooth, a bit full, as can happen with some herb teas, but typically doesn't.
Flavor intensity is low; that doesn't come up all that often across all tea types. For white teas it does, and an aged Yiwu had a similar effect not so long ago, diminished in terms of flavor intensity but not body / feel. Oolongs tend to be milder in character than black teas, with some exceptions where the form is just different, but even most of those contribute more flavor intensity. Someone not open to a broad range of tea experience wouldn't care for this; it's not within normal range. Judging it without that as a factor shifts related context to personal preferences. It works for me; I like it. I don't love it; it's not pulling off being completely novel in a way that's well above average for match to likes, but then it probably has some character transition yet to go through.
Editing notes: I really might have guessed that this was intended to be an oolong. It hardly matters, if it's an oolong or a much less oxidized than usual black tea, since the two are the same thing in the case of Indian oolongs.
Second infusion:
Mandal Goan: color has evened up; this is slightly lighter, the other slightly redder. Smoke lightened up in this too, and it never was a dominant flavor aspect, just noteworthy, odd for being present at all. There's still a faint hint of smoke but it's essentially gone. It's interesting the way that mild astringency and warm mineral flavor range seem to couple, and carry over to an aftertaste experience. It's cleaner than that probably sounds; not murky in any way, with a good level of sweetness for balance. Earthy tone is still slightly cured hardwood tree bark, maybe more along the lines of one year old hickory tree bark than oak. I worked with a lot of wood as a child; it's interesting how this brings memories of that back. We grew up a bit like Abraham Lincoln.
"Behind" that there's what I'm interpreting as a light fruit aspect. It seems to really be a complex range that's hard to distinguish for not being in the forefront, a bit of citrus, along with something like not completely ripe nectarine. It all works well enough; it makes for an interesting mix.
Mawlyngot oolong: this really sticks with the tisane character theme but shifts. Pandan leaf range is still present, but it adds more along the lines of warm root spice, or maybe even mild tree bark. Now I'm curious what this even is, or how it manages to fall so far from the entire range of Camellia Sinensis scope. I think it really is "tea," from that plant, but it's odd that versions never get this far out of the normal character scope. It has the depth and body that very few tisanes ever have, one of the main differences between real tea and every other kind of dried leaf that I've tried. I want to say it expresses more flavor complexity too, but that's only true in a limited sense. It hits on more levels but forward facing flavor aspect range is limited. A tisane blend could match this. One couldn't match both the flavor complexity and full feel; it tends to not work that way.
Editing notes: it is close enough to oolong scope, just not like Tie Guan Yin, or Jin Xuan, Wuyi Yancha, Dan Cong, Taiwanese versions, and so on. Low flavor intensity was different for those first two rounds but that shifts on the next infusion.
Third infusion:
Darjeeing: quite a bit of shift in how this comes across, probably in part related to pushing the tea a bit, letting it brew for around 15 seconds instead of 10. Feel is interesting; that one astringency related element definitely ramps up. The warm mineral starts to take on a salty character a bit stronger. Optimum for this probably was back in the 10 second range. Sweetness and other flavor (wood, light fruit) still work, just not as well in this balance.
Indian oolong: this is at optimum brewed stronger. One part even starts to resemble black tea more, a warm mineral and woody edge. It had tasted a little like hardwood before, or hardwood bark, but that's stronger in this round, more of a central aspect, with other complex tisane flavor range now filling in as secondary flavors. Feel is just right at this level; thick, rich, and full, but still soft.
Again the interesting part of this tea is the novelty; it almost seems like someone's take on novelty would define their reaction to it.
Fourth infusion:
I think this will tell enough of the story; I'll let the notes go after this.
Darjeeling: the balance is nice again after returning to a shorter infusion time (around 10 seconds versus 15; it's not that different). Woodiness and underlying mineral stand out, along with supporting sweetness and other complexity. Full feel, cleanness, and aftertaste fill in the experience, they support it. The fruit seems closer to grape now; that probably is transitioning. Did I just review a Darjeeling version without citing "muscatel?" Sure, like that.
I like this tea but don't absolutely love this character range. I'm more a fan of the cocoa / sweeter roasted yam and sweet potato Chinese black tea range. It's not the astringency edge causing that, just general character overall. For Darjeeling my favorite experience has probably been Gopaldhara's autumn flush versions, which are a bit mild in terms of feel, with lots of positive flavor aspects, and some degree of overall subtlety. This particular tea version I'm reviewing would work even better with the wood dialed back a little and the fruit cranked up, but it would still be in the same general range. It's quite good tea, very positive, balanced, and refined; it just comes down to style preferences.
Indian oolong: more of the same for this version; it hasn't transitioned. The flavor and feel structure is a lot closer to a standard tea version than it was for the first two rounds; probably someone brewing this Western style would wonder what I've been going on about, or think I just had it all wrong. Back to the idea of preference for styles, this works better for me than the other version. I would imagine that's not a relatively uniform response, that people would vary on that point.
If this had any flaws the entire experience would be quite different. By that I mean that I'm not interpreting the unusual character as a flaw, which I would assign to an off flavor, sourness or mustiness, texture aspect that doesn't work for some reason, sweetness missing, unbalanced effect from varying oxidation levels, etc. Including smoke could be seen as a flaw; that would just depend. Per my interpretation this is just an unconventional tea, not a flawed version, and it's instead very well made, and based on what seems to be good plant material.
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both on the green side; that Mawlyngot version is relatively whole-leaf as Indian teas go |
Many thanks to both the Tea Leaf Theory vendor and Suzana for passing these on; I might've added that earlier. It will be interesting messing around with this second version to see how it reacts to parameter changes. I don't get the sense it's even possible to screw it up, and careful brewing wouldn't seem to be required to work around any limitation (eg. pronounced astringency), but it might change outcome a little.
Oddly not much changes in interpretation or brewing process related expectations for not "getting" the tea category initially. Some people think oolongs should be brewed using relatively cooler water (kind of a long story), but I'd use essentially the same approach for a black tea or oolong, water not far off boiling point, related to using a heating and dispenser system that doesn't maintain full boiling point temperature. I always tend to go with a high proportion and base infusion timing off results the last round, across types.
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my wife never makes it into photos here, and Keo never smiles for one. |
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