Monday, July 30, 2012

2012 Castleton Estate SFTGFOP 1 CL TPY Seond Flush Darjeeling


After all the moaning about Castleton's pure, vibrant, energizing high notes one thought to try a sample from this year's harvest that was kindly gifted with this year's order. What a better time to try this on a cool Summer day. As one soon found out, Castleton's Second Flush still has it...


The large, very light coloured, and fully intact leaves are full of white buds in the mix. They emit light, flowering, fruity, sweet notes which dominate the nose with each breath in. There is a subtle misty forest and bubblegum sweetness found underneath.


These leaves are added to the heated pot and water that has reached boil is poured over the leaves. The first infusion pours a clean, light, yellow-brown. Vibrant, sweet, fruit muscatel taste emerges first then develops into a ghostly coco and light wood on the pallet. The mouthfeel is full and coats the mouth in a fine painting of sensations.


The second infusion presents sour-sweet high notes which come first with noticeable muscatel fruit impressions. The tea liquid is very full in the mouth and tugs even at the upper-mid throat. The taste rounds out leaving a slight bitter-sweet grapey peel aftertaste behind. Qi is vibrant and uplifting and travels smoothly to the head.


The third infusion is light, sweet, long, grapey-muscatel notes which stretch into the aftertaste. They are now thinner in the mouth but the high notes seem more free and clean here. The nose starts running as the light qi floats up into the nose and eyes.

The fourth infusion is light, watery, with slightly floral notes which are overcome by long, bland, coco and flat wood aftertastes. The mouthfeel has become simple here. Ones mind is uplifted over the clean qi from this tea.



Peace

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Matt,
I can see you are a tea lover and would like to present our large selection of authentic Darjeeling teas for review. Please give us your address where we can send tea samples and we would very much appreciate your review and a link to our site http://www.darjeelingteaxpress.com/

Matt said...

Darjeeling Tea Xpress,

Just send you an email regarding your kind offer.

Peace

Tea Fanatic said...

Beautiful looking tea. Particularly enjoy the length of the leaves.

Looks like a much better quality Castleton than I got to try!

Matt said...

Tea Fanatic,

There are many nice fury tips in the mix of leaves which is evident in the above pics. It makes for a great tea, no doubt.

Peace