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Thor left, Maharaja of Darjeeling right, in all photos |
Trying two additional teas from the set sent by Gopaldhara, really more for sharing than review, but both. Thanks to them again for that!
There isn't much background to pass on so I'll introduce these teas with their descriptions and then include tasting notes here, largely as I wrote them prior to seeing any description, beyond the tea name and type.
Gopaldhara Gold (Thor) – Rare Hand Rolled Second Flush 2021
Gopaldhara Gold (Thor) is one of the best second flush teas in the Darjeeling hills, made by AV2 bushes. The tea is extremely full and expertly fully oxidized to extract all the flavor. It takes a lot of different processes to oxidize, without crushing and cutting the leaf. Every time you crush and cut the leaf you introduce harshness to the cup. This tea is very clean with absolutely no hints of astringency and harshness. It is honey-sweet with a very well-rounded Muscatel finish and notes of ripe fruits. It has been the best lot in the second flush muscatel category.
It is 100% handpicked with no machinery involved. The garden workers are very careful in their plucking to make sure only the best shoots with prominent buds are plucked. The top elevation of Gopaldhara Tea Estate which stretches up to 5500-7000 Ft is planted with the best quality AV2 bushes, the most preferred clones in Darjeeling.
That pretty much matches the description that follows, with a bit more on experienced aspects, with a lot implied about moderate oxidation level as an input, but not explicitly discussed. They list the oxidation level as "semi-oxidized" on a table of information along with that text.
Gopaldhara Maharaja of Darjeeling – Second Flush Muscatel 2021
Maharaja of Darjeeling is one of the best second flush teas in the Darjeeling hills, made by AV2 bushes...
It is 100% handpicked with no machinery involved. The garden workers are very careful in their plucking to make sure only the best shoots with prominent buds are plucked. The top elevation of Gopaldhara Tea Estate which stretches up to 5500-7000 Ft is planted with the best quality AV2 bushes, the most preferred clones in Darjeeling.
..It brews into a very bright orange and clear cup having smooth fruity taste and muscatel character. The finish is long, honey sweet & captivating...
These notes don't say anything about that whole-leaf issue, which I've went into before. This version seems slightly more oxidized than the "Thor" but it also lists as "semi-oxidized," which would span a range.
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Thor left, Maharaj right |
Review:
Thor: lighter than the other; it looks like I got proportion slightly wrong (not identical), and this version is significantly less oxidized than the other. It's lighter in flavor than I expected, which I take to be needing a round to get going. The character it does show is just great, as usual. It's smooth and rich, complex, with good sweetness, and only positive aspects. The range is warm, like rich scented flowers and dried fruit, with a bit of extra earthiness adding depth. Probably it will all shift a bit by the time I get to a fuller flavor list description next round, but I'll hold off on details until then.
Maharaja: completely different; that should make this interesting. Even for being a somewhat light initial round astringency edge stands out in this, a pleasant feel structure and dryness. In that sense it's much closer to a conventional black tea. Flavor complexity is also evident, just in a warmer range. Where the other might have included dried apricot this is more like date, which I'll clarify more in the listing next round.
I'm tasting this outside (it's too loud in the house, with the television blaring and my wife yelling at the kids, our normal routine) and that earthy edge is from a scent from the garden; interesting that doesn't come up more. It seemed faint and in the background at first but my wife's mother is watering the garden now, and it's easier to flag. It shouldn't throw things off.
Thor, second infusion: this is a really interesting style. It's listed as a second flush tea but it's really in between what I'm accustomed to in first and second flush character, a lot lighter and brighter than second flush usually is, probably mainly due to being lower in oxidation level. Smoothness and richness stands out, and usually those are the kinds of things you notice second, after flavor and astringency edge. It has some of that bright, fresh character of first flush Darjeeling, that bright floral range, and also some of the warmer richness of second flush, leading into heavier flavors. It settles into a range like bright sweet fruit, like dried apricot, and complex floral range that's in the middle, not bright and light or warm, heavy, and rich, but balanced in the middle. It's a cool effect.
Astringency is limited but that is what's giving it that rich and full feel. Dried apricot and complex floral doesn't seem like enough of a flavor list, for how complex the flavor range is. Some warm mineral base adds to the effect of complexity, and beyond that it's hard to "split apart" the fruit and floral range further, which I'll get back to next round.
Maharaja: I went a little faster on this version this round and the brewed intensity level balances. For both these teas you get a sense of a lot of complexity and balance along with the initial impression; they're refined, and have a lot going on. I tried a tea not long ago that I thought was quite pleasant but it seemed like part of the normal range was missing, as if there was a gap in complexity across some aspect range, which was hard to pin down or describe. The effect with these is the opposite, that they are not only covering a complex range but are also quite intense, refined, and well-balanced across the entire range.
Back to that flavor list: citrus stands out. Maybe this is related to muscatel, maybe not; I've been questioning what that even means. I take it to be exactly that, a citrus-like range of heavy flavor that leans a bit towards grape and brandy. Warm, rich fruit seems to fill in beyond that, not in a form that's easy to identify. That early guess of date isn't too far off, although maybe closer to dried Chinese date than the Middle Eastern version more familiar in "the West."
I think Chinese dates, jubube, is really a category, not a single fruit, with dried versions seeming much different than fresh ones. Interpreting this as closer to dried longan would also work, not that the description would add much for American readers. I just had one of my favorite deserts yesterday, a Chinese ice and beans dish, that includes both dried Chinese date and dried longan juice (and a mix of beans, and dried candied lotus root; it's so nice). Maybe that's influencing this general warm dried fruit range interpretation. To me it all leans a bit towards cocoa but that's not it.
Thor, third infusion: honey flavor and sweetness bumped up a good bit. I suppose it tasted a bit like honey before too, filling in that rich flavor effect, but it's hard to miss in this round. That other flavor is pretty close to dried apricot but that may well not be it. It's harder to identify for so much rich, mid-range floral tone filling in as well. A bit of citrus edge supports it, as does a warm mineral tone.
It all integrates so well that it doesn't come across as that set of things at all, but as one unified experience. Breaking it down to parts almost adds error, describing it in a way that it really doesn't come across. Some of that fruitiness isn't far off a bubble-gum flavor, the non-distinct pink cube kind, Bubbalicious and such. It's more refined than that description probably makes it sound.
Maharaja: this is great for tasting like one would expect from second flush Darjeeling, maybe just projected in a better form than is typical. The flavor complexity, in particular fruit edge, intensity, feel structure, and slight edge all balance perfectly. Where the other is cool for being something novel this is great for being a better version of something familiar than is familiar. The flavors are so complex that the right person could just keep on free-associating, and no interpretation would necessarily be wrong.
I'm noticing more raisin in this round, and a hint of cinnamon spice. It's impossible to describe the effect of those warm tones being offset by lighter fruit and floral range, then balancing with just the right amount of feel structure. It's a higher level effect, one that emerges from all the other layers of experience.
Even though these are great teas, and are evolving, I'll probably do one more round with detailed notes and a second I barely mention and move on with my morning, now almost onto afternoon. Ten small cups of tea is about my normal dose but it's really about demands on my time, things to do.
Thor, fourth infusion: more of the same; the last description still works. Balance and overall pleasantness really stands out, which I think I've covered enough.
Maharaja: the same is true of this version, that it hasn't shifted enough to warrant a new description, and that I've already went on and on about the complexity and layers of aspects working well together.
Conclusions:
Really nice teas, just different in character. I think citrus changed form and picked up even more for the Maharaja over the next couple of rounds. The Thor stayed relatively consistent, with a nice toffee flavor picking up in place of the honey, and brewed a good bit more pleasant tea.
Even though throwing 3 grams of either of these in an infuser basket for two somewhat intense brewed rounds wouldn't really optimize results these both would work ok that way. The warmer tones of the Maharaja, as a more conventional black tea, with slightly more edge and feel structure, seems better suited for a breakfast tea role to me.
These two teas stood out for being complex, well-defined, refined, and well-balanced. That doesn't necessarily come across as intensity, but it all adds a fullness to the experience, an extra dimension, beyond novel and positive flavor range already doing that. There was nothing negative to balance out or brew around; that helps too.
I didn't really mention aftertaste effect for these I'm reviewing, and it's not something that stands out, although there was something to that. Feel was nice for both these teas, in two different ways, just with moderate "structure" effect, full but still on the soft side.
As I see it Darjeeling of this quality level are underappreciated in "tea circles," because they're not usually this good, or this isn't the most typical character / style. Someone could drink Darjeeling for decades and not have any idea that this general style for this "Thor" version even exists, never mind experiencing and appreciating this degree of success in a version in this style. Maybe it just didn't exist 5 years ago; that seems quite likely to me.
I'm not sure that Western style brewing would really bring across just how good this tea is; shifting brewing style over to the Chinese Gongfu approach probably draws out extra potential. It would be possible to notice that these are better than conventional Darjeeling prepared Western style, and a really dialed-in Western brewing approach probably would get most of the potential out of them.
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