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An 80 on the tea scale yet not recommended? Why? Read through to the end and you will find out.

Last year, 2013, it seemed important for Mariage Freres to get the very first picking of the Spring Flush teas and I feel they chose immediacy over taste. It’s nice to know in 2014, this is not the case for a small portion of their Darjeelings. Like this 2014 Margaret’s Hope Supreme FF. At DJ38, it has lost the “greeness” in taste and color but this is not particularly a bad thing as it has been replaced by more body and depth.

I had an extremely difficult time trying to find the best brewing parameters for this tea. As a whole, 1st Flush Darjeelings tend to be temperamental but this tea took it to a higher level where even plus/minus 10 seconds of steeping would alter the taste and characteristic of this tea. I tested numerous steeps at 3, 3;30, 4, 4:30. I found the sweet spot at 3:45. I was adjusting tea leaf amount as well. 3Tpsp, 4Tpsp, 5Tpsp, 6Tpsp, and finally the amount which really hit the spot was 7(!)Tpsp. The water temperature remained constant at 195F. After everything was said and done, I settled at 7 teaspoons (actually 2 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon), water at 195F, steeped for 3 minutes and 45 seconds.

Brew this tea too short and you get a flat light taste. Brew it too long and the astringency begins to assert itself. Use too much tea leaves and you get an overly rich, berry tasting tea. Nail everything down and this teas yields a great tasting cup. It has great depth, moderate body, with a slight taste of astringency complementing and balancing all the flavors this tea has to offer. It also reminds me of why I like 1st Flush Darjeelings so much. Yet requiring 7 teaspoons for 360ml of water is an awful lot of tea to use. Couple that with the premium price of 50 euros and purchasing this tea becomes hard to justify. Is it good enough to command a 14 Euro upcharge from the standard Margaret’s Hope. No. In some ways, I prefer the taste of the standard Margaret’s Hope better than the Supreme.

The Castleton was a bit of a surprise as the first two Darjeelings I tried from Golden Tips were not all that good. I enjoyed drinking the Castleton. Although it may lack some of the complexity and depth when compared to top tier premium Darjeelings, this tea had all the basic characteristics of a good Darjeeling along with a slightly nutty taste enhancing the flavor. For a sunny Sunday afternoon in Southern California, it was a good tea to have. Very easy to drink and very easy to like with a slight astringency to balance out the overall Darjeeling flavor of this tea. I would like to have given this a slightly higher rating but since the tea is going up against Darjeelings from Mariage Freres, I can only rank this at 75 but I will mark this tea as recommended with reservations.

Change of pace ad reviewing a high mountain Taiwanese Oolong tea rather than the Darjeelings I’ve been tasting and reviewing.

What I like about Oolongs is it’s more forgiving than the temperamental Darjeelings. Meaning, I eyeball the amount of tea and the amount of water. I really don’t have to measure carefully like I do with the Darjeelings

I flash rinse the Oolong tea for 5 seconds.
1st steep 20 seconds-moderate aroma very light, vegetal and fruity taste.
2nd steep 20 seconds-very grassy and vegetal taste. The fruity taste is still there but slightly overshadowed by the above two tastes.
3rd steep 20 second- very good aroma and the fruity sweet taste is really coming out. The leaves have unfurled and the sronger fuller taste and aroma of the Oolong is very very good.
4th steep 25 seconds-The tea is becoming smoother yet still retains the fruity taste

I can probably get 6 very good steeps from this Oolong with the taste giving out and becoming thinner on the 7th, 8th, and 9th steep. This is avery good tea from Taiwan Tea crafts and I have to thank them for this sample. I am always amazed at how much change the Taiwanese High Mountain teas go through between steeps and I enjoy every steep for different reasons.

It does not have the aroma of a first flush Darjeeling. It does not look like a first flush Darjeeling. When steeped, it does not exhibit a golden yellow of a first flush Darjeeling. So the question I have is, is this a first flush Darjeeling?

The color of the unsteeped leaves is dark brown with a few tips sprinkled in. The photo on their website does not resemble the tea leaves I received. I steeped the leaves first with a full tablespoon of tea leaves per 360ml of water. the tea took on a dark brown/black color. For the next pot, I used two teaspoons of tea, and still the color was a dark/brow.

Upon tasting the tea, it definitely did not taste like a Darjeeling. Not even like a second flush Darjeeling which the color of the leaves and the color of the tea slightly resembled.

This tea falls far short of what I was expecting with it’s higher price tag compared to the other first flush Darjeelings listed on their site. Sorry Golden Tips. I really wanted to like the two teas I’ve tasted so far, and I have tried several different parameters but to no avail.

As always, i preheat the pot before brewing any tea. I approached this tea with optimism which only lasted until I opened the package. The tea leaves had no scent. I could not detect any type of aroma from the unsteeped leaves.

The first brewing I tried was 1 TBS of tea leaves for 360ml of hot water at 195F for 3 minutes. The prepared tea had no taste except for a slight floral note. The tea had almost no flavor and it was like drinking hot water with a faint floral flavor.

For the second pot, I tried increasing the tea to 1TBS and 1TSP and steeped for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Again, no taste. So for the third pot I tried 2 full TBS for 4 minutes. Finally, very faint taste came out but in no way resembled a Darjeeling tea.

So there is not much to write about as this tea had almost no aroma, even when steeped, a very very light taste, and no character.

360ml of water at 195F
1 heaping tablespoon of tea
Steep for 4 minutes
1/4 teaspoon of highly refined sugar

It’s described as a Namring Poomong Upper, but with the DJ2 designation, and an SFTGFOP1 ranking, it is classified as a different Spring Flush Namring tea at Mariage Freres. Yet the similarities are there coming from the same estate, same flush, same year. However, this tea is not as good as the Spring Flush Namring was last year.

The taste is very light and I tried bringing out more of the flavor by adding more tea leaves. The taste became sronger but did not necessarily heighten the flavor of the tea. The Namring last year had a refreshing floral note while retaining all of the flavor of an exceptional Darjeeling. It had great body as well. The 2013 Namring has less flavor, does not have the floral notes, has more of an earthly quality to it, and is flat in taste.

I really wanted to like this tea and it is still a good Darjeeling, but it misses the mark of the stellar Darjeelings Mariage has released in previous years.

400ml of water at 195F
1 level tablespoon of tea
Steep for 4 minutes
1/4 teaspoon of highly refined sugar

As a Spring Flush tea, this Jungpana represents a difficult tea to judge. In 2011, the First Flush Jungpana was among my favorites, highlighting all the tastes a fine Spring Darjeeling has to offer. In 2012, the Jungpana lost some of its flavor and was a very light tasting Darjeeling.

This 2013 Spring Flush Darjeeling is more similar to a Summer Flush than a Spring Flush. It has the bold, brisk, astringent taste of a Summer Tea. It retains some if it’s fruity flavor of years past but this is all together different when mixed in the the astringency and the bold taste.

As a Spring Flush Tea, it fails to please. It has none of the complex, light tasting, multitude, of floral and fruity notes. The stringency is strong, harsh, overbearing and does not accentuate the overall taste. Gone is the very slight, not at all sour stringency which brings together and heightens the taste of all the complex flavors.

Hopefully all the other teas of my purchase, will live up to the gold standard of a Mariage Freres Spring Flush tea.

400ml of water at 195F
1 generous table spoon of tea
Steep for 4 minutes
1/4 teaspoon of highly refinded suger

Teapot warmed and rinsed with hot water. Tea leaves placed into the teapot and left standing for 30 seconds to build up the aroma.

This was quite unexpected. A first flush Darjeeling to arrive in JANUARY of 2013. Mariage Freres always provides a wide spectrum of Darjeelings always pushing the boundaries of what a Darjeeling should taste like. The Namring Poomong is no exception.

Very large green leaves with silver tips mixed throughout the tea. The scent of the leaves is light. The leaves yield a very yellow tea after being steeped for 4 minutes. Yet even at 4 minutes, the tea does not exhibit any atringency which gives way to the delicate flowery/fruity flavor and aroma, with a hint of nuttiness.

This is not a Darjeeling having a bite to its taste. This is a delicate and smooth tasting Darjeeling where all of the individual light flavors can be enjoyed. This tea is a worthy addition to first flush line up of Mariage Freres Darjeelings.

400ml of water at 205F
1 heaping tablespoon of tea
Steep for 3 minutes
1/4 teaspoon of highly refined sugar

Rating Darjeeling teas from Mariage Freres is a difficult proposition. Why? Because the benchmark is so much higher which is reflected in the price of their teas. USD48 for this Spring Flush Arya. Would it be fair to compare this tea to other retailers selling their Spring Flush Darjeelings for half or even a third of this price? Maybe not, but I will say this. The Arya from Mariage Freres is a fine Darjeeling when compared to offerings from other retailers, yet when compared to its Mariage Freres peers like Namring, Castleton and Margaret’s Hope, it falls ever so slightly short.

The color of the leaves is a mix of green and brown. The scent of the leaves is surprisingly strong and alluring when compared to other Mariage Freres FF Darjeelings. However even when properly brewed, the taste lacks the depth I expect from FF Darjeelings. It also lacks complexity in its taste.

I have tried most of the FF Darjeelings from Mariage this year. Some are exceptional (FF Margaret’s Hope, FF Namring, FF Castleton, FF Ambootia), some are very good (FF Jungpana and FF Sivitar). Others are just satisfactory (FF Moondakotee, FF Nurbong, FF Chamling, FF Happy Valley, FF Bloomfield, FF Turzum).

For those not accustomed to the taste of Darjeelings, or for those disliking the grassy nature fo the taste, I would recommend the neutral taste of FF Sivitar and FF Jungpana Upper. For those accustomed to the tase of Darjeelings, then the FF Castleton, FF Namring, and FF Margaret’s Hope are the best teas for 2012. For a tea with a complex taste and very different from other traditional Darjeelings, then try the FF Ambootia. Arya just floats in the middle somewhere. Lacking taste, depth, complexity, and flavor to justify the 37 euro price tag.