MINI-REVIEW: Darjeeling FTGFOP1 Avongrove, 2nd Flush, Tea Gschwendner

MINI-REVIEW: Darjeeling FTGFOP1 Avongrove, 2nd Flush, Tea Gschwendner

(This was first posted on Facebook.)

My first sip of this tea made me gasp, it was so delicious. Sharp, rich, almost creamy it's so smooth. I'm eating dinner (brown sugar-carmelized ham and smoked cheese frittata, with onions, cilantro, sauteed corn, on a bed of wild bitter greens and oil).

It's like my teeth are holding a party for my mouth!

SLIGHTLY EXTENDED REVIEW:

This is an amazing tea, and I hope someone out there will buy some. It can be purchased by Tea Gschwendner online.

Leaves: Dry, you can see silvery-golden tips throughout the mix of black leaves, nicely furled. Bright, sharp smell to the leaves.

When steeped, the leaves take on a grapey smell and an orangey-brown with bits of green throughout. No evidence of stems. Leaves are not enormous, broken. Very lovely smell to the leaves.

The liquor is a typical reddish-brown, transparent color. I steeped it 2.5 minutes with just-boiled water.

I love this tea. It's creamy in mouth-feel, but it has a great sharpness that hits you in the back of the mouth. It is not at all vegetal in flavor; instead, it's very mild and dewy. It's second flush, so it has this very complicated unfurling of flavors in my mouth, changing over time. I can see that if I will be patient, after the last sip has finished, I'll be tasting this for the next 10 minutes, still surprised at how good it is. It has a mild melon undertone-- very harmonic, very balanced.

If you don't immediately buy a sample of this, you, sir, are worse than Hitler.

http://www.teamerchants.com/buy/1/1/33/Darjeeling-Avongrove/269.aspx