Week #5 of Tea 103 PT2:
So, despite having A LOT of shit going on on Tuesday (that was moving day), I still managed to find time to do all five tea tastings I had left for class, as well as set aside an hour for the class itself. I wish they were recorded for us too, though – my mind was all over the place and I think I probably only retained half of the class information. This week, aside from talking about the cuppings, we talked about the ideas behind tea and food pairings. That’s something that’s really new to me – and I do look forward to learning more about it. Actually, the next class I signed up for was Tea 107 which is food pairing and cooking with tea!
So – five tea tastings!
- High Grown Ceylon (Same as earlier in the month; again not a big fan)
- Low Grown Ceylon (Ditto to the above)
- Indian Orthodox Assam (Tried this one too; but really liked it)
- Chinese Keemun
- Nilgiri
This last year I’ve done a fair bit of exploring of Keemun tea; enough exploring to know that I don’t like Keemun. So when I saw it in the package for week five I was not excited at all. It was very typically Keemun. Smokey, raisiny, kind of a “rye” flavour, and a stonefruit sweet finish. I’d call it a good quality Keemun, actually. I still hated it though.
The last one, the Nilgiri, was optional – but since so many this week were teas we’d done in previous weeks I really wanted to do it too.
The Nilgiri was a lot better; I’ve had a couple Nilgiri teas before but not enough that I’ve really ‘learned’ the agreed upon flavours for that growing region. On one hand that’s good because I didn’t have any preconceived notions for what the tea should have tasted like but on the other hand it’s annoying not being able to compare to see how accurate what I’m tasting is. What I did observe, though, was that this tea tasted really bright and round with a crisp citrus note and maybe a little bit of a pithy, bitter flavour. Pleasantly so, though. I also thought there were weaker, less distinct floral and malt notes and an overall feeling this was a very Autumnal tea. Not quite a full bodied tea. I Immediately after finishing the cupping I looked up the agreed upon flavours to see how well I did, and an overall citrus-y liquor and medium body are all common descriptors! So good on me! I really, really am learning!
