Wojciech Bońkowski
Master of Wine

Impressive tea from Nepal

The power of blogging. Although I don’t write about tea in Polish, my tea reviews on this blog were read by the good people at Polish web tea shop Čajografia, which resulted in a nice e-mail and a box of samples arriving at Domaine Bońkowski. Having tasted one of Čajografia’s excellent black teas in the past, I was excited at the prospect of tasting through their specialities: Nepalese teas
Aneta and Artur Woźniak travel the tea regions in search of good teas and people. They’re offering a limited range of interesting stuff from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Darjeeling and even Malawi. Judging by these five teas they really have a good nose. Their offerings are also extremely affordable, ranging from the equivalent of 4 to 5€ / 100g.
Green Hill (I assume 2009) is a Nepalese green tea from Ilam Tea Factory. For those familiar with Himalayan green tea e.g. from Darjeeling, this tea will come as a shock. It has nothing to do with the under-oxidised black teas that seem to be the common denominator in the region. Instead, it is made like a Japanese sencha, with moderately fragmented flat needle-shaped leaves being steamed and then fired. These Nepalese leaves are very well-processed. The steaming here has been light (asamushi), resulting in a transparent light green brew that would easily pass for a sencha in a blind tasting. It is perhaps a little darker in colour and stronger in flavour than a good asamushi, and the finish is less grassy, with an echo of nuttiness (as well as mint and lime) on the finish that is more Chinese in style (Longjing coming to mind). It also lacks the glutinous umami expansiveness that is typical of Japanese tea when brewed at lower temperature. Some bitterness here, although that seems easy to control with brewing parameters. My preferred ones are water at 70C, and 60 seconds. This is definitely good-quality tea and a very good imitation of a Japanese green. 
From the Jun Chiyabari estate comes this Himalayan Somabar black tea that is a 2009 SFTGFOP1 1st flush. Small Darjeeling-styled leaves with a mixture of brown and black colours, some tips, (photo above) and a strongly herby, almost sulphury aroma. The spent leaves are predominantly green in colour, showing some good careful processing (photo below). The colour in the cup is also rather light: more orange than ruby. 
This is a simple, rather unaromatic tea with a degree of tannic bitterness (perhaps derived from a bit of breakage in the sample). Bone-dry in taste, with a good moment of fruitiness (dried apricots?) and reasonable activity. Clearly losing a bit of freshness already, though surely not the most declined of 2009 1st flushes. Good. 
I also tried three teas from the Kuwapani estate in the region of Dankhuty. White Peony is, you guessed it, a white tea: looking at the dry leaf above it is easily identified as a Chinese baimudan style (containing both leaves and hairy buds). I drink little white tea and tend to go for the higher yinzhen grades when I do, but I’ve not seen such an immaculately processed baimudan before. There is not a single broken leaf, and the two-leaves-and-a-bud systems are impressively presented. There are minor signs of oxidation on the stem ends, otherwise you get tea leaves in a beautifully unadulterated condition (photo below). Brewed 4 minutes at 70C, this is a clean tea of good character, not very intense, showing a certain pea-like vegetality or even fishiness on top of the more usual flowery, herby notes. Unaggressive and seamless without the faintest shade of bitterness. Very flexible in terms of brewing parameters, this can also be infused 10+ minutes. Typically for baimudan styles this is not showing the ultimate finesse of yinzhen, with a bit of extra body and ‘grit’ on the palate. Really an enjoyable tea. 
The Makalu Mellow is a 2009 2nd flush black tea graded as STGFOP1 ‘Tippy’. The latter is certainly true, and the leaf is well-processed with moderate fragmentation in a Darjeeling style. Very good aroma: high-grade bitter chocolate and orange spice are added to the usual dried herbs. Infused leaves are a consistent high-oxidation brown. A clean good-quality cup: medium deep ruby colour in the glass, moderately intense aroma, getting rather chocolatey as it cools down. I like a longer infusion on less dosage here, for its thick body and impressive consistency. Not a very distinctive tea but as good as a high-profile 2nd flush Darjeeling (and remember this is very cheap). 
The star of the tasting is another black tea from Kuwapani, the Makalu Flowery (a 1st flush STGFOP1 ‘Tippy’ 2009). Opening the pack with its explosive dried herby, smokey, bergamottey bouquet reveals some outstanding tea leaves (see photo above). Huge leaf-and-bud systems are impeccably processed with no breakage whatsoever and little oxidation on the leaf. And look at the infused leaves: I don’t think I’ve ever seen such immaculate leaves in a black tea, anytime, anywhere. Predictably this brews a rather light peach colour, with the aroma of a light, herby, mildly firsty-flushy Darjeeling. The flavour on palate is expansive with quite a bit of power and bitterness on end, perhaps lacking a bit of mid-palate body and intensity (typically for a whole-leaf tea). But this tea holds back a lot, and can be reinfused several times atypically for a black tea, behaving more like a high-oxidation oolong (when steepings are kept short). There is also some outstanding huigan sweetness in the aftertaste. This is a tea of impressive integrity and fantastic personality, one of the best blacks I’ve tasted. What a surprise this should come from Nepal.


Disclaimer: There is a growing concern on the internet about the integrity of bloggers and hidden conflicts of interest. For the sake of clarity I will now be indicating the source of teas / wines tasted, trips made etc.


Source of the 5 teas reviewed above: samples provided by the importer.

Himalayan oolong

 

As part of the ongoing Lochan Tea Co. online tasting on Facebook (see here
for their profile and contact them if you’d like to enroll for the second
round, to be organised soon), I’m tasting the 2009 Oolong from Meghma Estate in Nepal, and thought I’d compare it
with a 2009 2nd Flush Oolong from
Glenburn Estate
in Darjeeling which I got also from Lochan earlier this
year.
Darjeeling and Nepal have historically specialised in black teas. However
with the increasing popularity of new types of tea in the West, the market
pressure on Himalayan tea producers is to introduce green, white, yellow, and
oolong (semi-oxidised) styles. These remain marginal but it’s interesting to
compare them with the classic Chinese examples.
The usual feeling is one of disappointment. Indian greens and oolongs
are rarely exciting and often fall short of ‘the real thing’. It’s important to
say that non-black teas in the Himalayan regions are produced with the same tea
plants that yield black tea (in China, it’s almost always a separate tea
cultivar, although green and black tea are produced from the same leaves in
some regions, and classic oolong varietals such as qingxin and tieguanyin
are occasionally used for black tea in Taiwan). And it’s also often argued that
Indian tea makers lack the expertise linked to green and oolong production in
China – although tea manufacture might seem a simple task there’s a number of
intricate processing steps such as wilting, roasting and rolling that need to
be very carefully timed.
I think no-one would argue there’s no oolong in India at the moment that
can challenge the iron-cast structure and longevity of a Dahongpao, or the
inimitable buttery texture of a high-grown Lishan from Taiwan. Green tea is
more open to debate but being produced from tea plants suited for black tea,
with its tannins and deep taste, Darjeeling green teas usually lack the finesse
and lightness of the best Chinese examples. Yet I often feel it’s a bit unfair
to compare the two. Indian (and Nepalese) green and oolong tea need to find
their own original style. The two teas tasted here go some way along that path,
I felt.
The 2009 Glenburn Estate Oolong is a 2nd flush tea with strange  looks: as much as 40–50% tips mixed with small, fragmented, ‘black’
Darjeeling-looking young leaves, but with a silvery and green colour. Smell is
equally odd: a democratic mix of oxidative black-tea herby pungency and puer smokiness. The puer reminiscence continues on the nose and palate of the brewed
tea. 
Brewed competition-styled (2g of leaf for 5 minutes), this is coming
really close to a black tea both in body and in the chewy, earthy register, but
when dosed high at ~4g and brewed gongfu-style
like a Chinese oolong, the oxidation is lower (~50% I guess), the whole is
lighter, a little walnutty, and generally lacks grip. (I prefer a longer infusion
here). Not so much texture or intensity at mid-palate but a decent profile.
Perhaps wrong to expect this to conform to any known Chinese or Taiwanese
oolong type: it’s just tasting of a slightly less oxidised Darjeeling.
The 2009 Meghma Estate (Facebook
profile
) Oolong (also a 2nd
flush) is another modified-Darjeeling ‘oolong’, but a more successful one. The
oxidation is higher (~70%), and the dry leaf appearance is quite different:
fewer tips, medium-sized leaves that seem a little larger than those used for
black tea. The dry leaf aroma is very smokey and mildly spicy, with a vague
reminiscence of Oriental Beauty from Taiwan. Really good leaf quality here: it’s
no coincidence the tea also tastes good. Look at the expired leaf
photo with its intact bud-and-leaf systems:
I followed the Lochan recommended parameters (4g of leaf / 250ml boiling
water / 3 minutes) and unlike the 2009 Doke 2nd Flush Silver Needle white tea
tasted on Facebook yesterday, found them very successful. While the steeping
is a bit longer than I would have dared on my own, the result is a flavourful
and balanced tea,  not overbrewed
and only medium-bodied,
lighter in colour than expected:
A simple tea as befits its small-size leaf, this has in
fact quite a bit in common with a Darjeeling-styled black tea, including a
bergamottey and dried fruits spiciness, but lacks the tannins and remains a
little lighter. Interestingly but consistently with the wet leaf appearance the
subsequent brewings taste much like a ‘redded’ (partly oxidised before the shaqing stage of processing) puer, and share that crisp beany
character and a similar chewy constitution to the tannins. A gongfu session on lots of leaf and 30s,
20s, 30s etc. steeps yields similar results: initially very smokey, later with a
more pronounced black tea dryness.
In short, this has nothing to do with a Chinese or Taiwanese oolong but
builds a style of its own: that of a less-than-fully oxidised black tea,
lighter in body and less astringent but similarly flavoured to a Darjeeling (of
the more chunky style). Is there any interest in that? I would say so.
Glenburn 2009 Oolong (left, 1st infusion, 30 seconds), Meghma 2009 Oolong (right, 3rd infusion, 30 seconds):
the difference in oxidation is clear.