Lochan Tea Limited

Additional notes: This one is still a delicious darj. I really wanted to place a smaller Lochan order, but I just can’t right now. I have so much tea at the moment, even if I have one teaspoon left of everything (I don’t) it’s still a lot of tea. I just counted and there are at least 62 teas that will next be sipdowns (I have a sipdown list.) So I’m on tea buying hiatus (though I usually try to be all the time) except for an eventual purchase of teas from Ost. Even though I wanted to buy a few favorites from Tealux, Zen, Steep City (though they seem to be MIA)… I’m trying not to think of any others!

ETA: And Justea! It’s so sad that so many of my favorite tea shops on my favorites list are gone now. Many of them folded this year. :/ Not a good year for tea I guess?

A TeaBoxB tea! I woke up thinking I wanted a Darjeeling — definitely not usually my favorite tea, but luckily somehow the teabox has a few to try! This one has that classic Darjeeling flavor, very smooth and very sweet. The cup color looks like a light amber. Probably the nicest Darjeeling I’ve had (not many!) It was perfect for my Darjeeling craving, and I think I’ll save a bit of this one in case of any more Darjeeling cravings (there is a lot in the box!)

This has a greenish, hayish, honeyish scent. Hard to pinpoint but very pleasant.

The taste is also a mix of these. The main flavor is quite green…reminds of spinach or zucchini, but not as heavy. Then there’s the dry, warm, beige taste of hay swirling into the sip after a while. A faint sweetness on the front of the tongue.

The finish is long with the green flavor.

Made at 185 degrees and 2:30 minutes.

Drinking this again today, I have to mention it having a very light fruity bit to the end of the swallow.

This is an earthy Assam. Gives the mental tone of reddish-brown. Slightly burnt tasting, but not overwhelming… just enough of the typical Assam edge to let you know that’s what you’re drinking. It’s mildly astringent.

It’s finish is mostly in the back of the throat, that same dark flavor as the mouthful.

Yum. Rich, deep, malty, sweet. Also, the leaves were so fluffy and soft! I would like a bed made of tea buds, please.

This type of tea (I think I’ve seen it called king’s tea?) fascinates me whenever I see it, so I figured for the steep price of $4.34/50 g I should throw some into my Lochan order.

It’s proved very interesting. It smelled like an herb shop but very mild. I thought I could make out the scent of licorice which I think is added to these sometimes. The rolled-up leaves look completely encased in a powdery substance and took longer to open up than normal. I expected it to taste pretty strongly of ginseng, but my first sip really surprised me; it just tastes like a dark, toasty oolong. But, as I proceed and especially on the second infusion I’m getting a strong aftertaste and a sweetness that really lingers at the back of my tongue. I’m still not sure what I’m tasting, but it’s an interesting adventure.

My original review contended this nice Assam (I just love the name…purr…) didn’t need additives. Got a little happy with the half-and-half this morning, and while I think I like this better as a standalone, it takes milk OK.

Will be reviewing this one soon for itsallabouttheleaf.com, but further research necessary. (Oh, shucks. I’ll have to make more.) Even with likely user error on my part—I think I didn’t make it strong enough—it promises to be a nice Assam.

Addendum: got it figured out—-full review @ http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/1077/tea-review-lochan-tea-harmutty-golden-paw-first-flush-2010/

This is very dark and black tea tasting to me. It has a little tiny bit of maltiness in the back of the throat.

About average. I’ll likely trade it away.

I’m a sucker for Darjeeling oolongs. Heck, I’m even a sucker for the one and only Assam oolong I’ve tried. Nilgiri oolongs…um…they mean well. This one out of Bihar is hard to pinpoint. So we’ll start with the obvious.

Do I like it? Oh, hell yes. Character-wise, it has the nuances of a Nilgiri OP (Tiger Hill-ish), but a lot of the fruity bend of a Formosa. There’s also a smoky aspect on the end, but it’s very minor. One thing of note, though, this tasting note was from trying it Western-style. It held up well in a “wrongfu” prep, but not quite as well. Go big and boiled with this one.

It also almost became the subject of a tea fiction story (along with one other Doke tea, a Taiwanese sencha, and two Nepalese whites), the “DVD commentary”-ish blog on that trainwreck can be found here: http://lazyliteratus.teatra.de/2012/10/03/blending-tea-and-fiction/

I really like Lochan Tea, and I dig the family behind it. Their Doke garden also puts out some quality stuff. I received this in a swap thanks to Tea Trade HQ. I was psyched to see that Castleton’s new Moonlight was among the teas delivered. Last year’s Moonlight was my favorite Darjeeling of 2011.

How did this measure up?

Well, I hate to be frank…but not at all. Granted, it was fair, but nowhere near the excellence of last year’s. I’m not sure if something went wrong in delivery, or if I stored it wrong…but the entire gongfu affair started off kale-like and ended up with woodiness – at best. It reminded me quite a bit of a Chinese yellow tea rather than an oolong, which is too bad.

The Purrfect Cup Sent me this – thanks a million!

This has almost a fruity and honey yet grainy type taste to it – it’s very different than I expected but quite pleasant.

I do agree with Rumpus Parable that there is a Zucchini type flavor to it as well! This is an interesting and tasty cuppa!

Special thanks to The Purrfect Cup!

I was unable to find this on their site or here on steepster so I created a new one :)

Dry – the leaves smell…well…like fresh leaves…gently scented…barely-there

The liquor infuses to a light brown.

The flavor is VERY fresh leaf/earthy with that astringency (for lack of better word from me at the moment) that you would find in a darjeeling. It tastes herbally but fresh and crisp.

Due to the lack of aroma I wasn’t expecting this powerful ‘smack in the face’ type flavor. But this tea can ‘hit me’ any day!

Thanks Purrfect Cup!

This is a solid darjeeling. Slightly bitter and astringent but in that stereotypical and welcomed darjeeling sort of way! I think this is my first Dooteriah, tho, so that is super awesome!

It’s a mighty fine darjeeling!

The leaves are intensely aromatic, spicy, sweet-smelling like caramel; I’ve rarely smelled a tea that’s so enticing. While some Yunnan teas can be overbearing, these buds are flavorful but pleasingly sweet. A backbone of spice makes this tea seem exotic. Rich flavor is what Yunnan Golden Buds is all about, but it’s the kind of taste that you always want to come back to. Especially nice paired with a light biscuit.

A bolder leaf than your typical Castleton, whose leaves is more uniformly chopped with the First and Second Flush harvests. (Their rich Second Flush is a favorite.) The dry leaf is coppery and surprisingly bold, with a generous amount of whitish tips mixed in. But the flavor is predictably special: deep amber color, with a spicy flavor, but I can’t find the Muscatel that accompanies the very best Darjeelings. Deeper and somewhat more complex than the 2nd Flush, this estate can’t seem to do wrong.

Maybe it’s my taste buds today but I’m not impressed with this tea. It’s rather thin, not very tasteful. What it has it a flat wheat flavor. It calls for sweetener just to give it another flavor for more depth. It has more of an after-taste than what I’d call a finish.

If there was more to the sample I might play around with temperatures and times, but there’s not.