November 2024 Tea Subscription
Thank you for coming onboard Parchmen & Co and travel with us to savour our world in a cup!
We aim to bring tea drinkers into the world of extremely fine and exclusive teas. These teas used to be inaccessible to commoners in the past but today we are able to bring it to you via our extensive network of sources directly from tea farms owned by our friends in different countries.
In the month of November 2024, we are featuring two Darjeeling teas from the same tea estate and a post-fermented tea:
- 2023 Okayti Tea Estate First Flush FTGFOP 1 CH Organic/RFA 10g
- 2024 Okayti Tea Estate Second Flush SFTGFOP 1 CH Organic/RFA 10g
- 2022 Hien Minh Ha Giang Green Pu'er 10g
The first two teas are from the same estate - Okayti Tea Estate of the Darjeeling hills. From the plains of Siliguri at 200m to Darjeeling town at 2,045m, the climb of around 60km is along two main roads. The main highway from Siliguri to Darjeeling is National Highway 110, also known as Hill Cart Road. It is generally north-south orientation, passing through the towns of Kurseong, Ghoom and finally terminating at Darjeeling. The parallel road on its west is Mirik Road, extending from Siliguri to the town of Mirik, then changing name to become Rishi Road to continue northwards, where a 27km section of the road after Mirik forms the border between India and Nepal, before turning east to join Hill Cart Road at Ghoom town.
Located in the scenic Mirik Valley of Darjeeling, Okayti Tea Estate was established in 1870 by British planters and holds a long legacy of being one of the oldest tea estate and factory in Darjeeling. Surrounded by tall pine trees with a remarkable view of the Himalayas, the estate rises from 1,200m to 1,900m, making it one of the highest tea estates in Darjeeling. When you are the first few estates in the area, you get to choose the best piece of land, as well as the best scenery the hills have to offer. Okayti has one of the most picturesque estates in Darjeeling. Standing against the test of time, it was named Rangdoo Tea Estate when it was established 150 years ago. The home of the first owner still stands proudly within the estate’s vicinity flaunting its Victorian beauty. Not all tea estates had good teas then, and Rangdoo was one which produced decent and 'okay' tea, giving it a new name since then. It has a glorious history of being served at Buckingham Palace and other royal courts. Today, it is certified organic (India and Japan) and Rainforest Alliance.
With a long track record, the tea estate is known for its century old tea bushes of the historical Chinese variety, known locally as the chinary tea plant. Our tea is made using exactly that, as designated by 'CH' which stands for China or chinary. How the China variety of tea became the mainstay of Darjeelling tea is intriguing. The current 'CH' stock in Darjeeling estates were seeded from earlier Chinese varieties smuggled out from China in 1849 and 1850 by Scottish Robert Fortune who managed to remain under cover and collect tea saplings from Zhejiang, Anhui and Fujian provinces - in no less unbelievable ways than in disguising his outlandish look and huge Scottish build in Qing dynasty attire complete with a pigtail. Beside smuggling teas - totalling about 10,000 stocks of saplings over the three years from their own records, Robert Fortune also smuggled out 18 tea farmers, some of whom were left behind in Sri Lanka on route to India, and the rest safely reached India and kickstarted the cultivation and processing of Chinese tea varieties in India. His years spent in the heartlands of China exposed the weak domestic situations of the Qing dynasty beyond its strong international image as a superpower. This rare insight offered by the letters sent by Robert Fortune out of China set the stage for the subsequent colonisation of China by the western powers.
In adapting tea making techniques to local conditions and equipment, the techniques of processing Indian tea evolved differently from the Chinese. In fact, even the nomenclatures are different, with the Indians calling it black teas and the Chinese revising that old name to call it a red tea.
In the Indian technique of making spring tea, the first flush fresh leaves are picked 1 bud 2 leaves, in a short picking season of about 4 weeks. They are left overnight to whither in troughs in the tea factory, where they are turned several times to allow even drying and to prevent heat accumulation from the accompanying natural reactions from withering. In the morning, the leaves are rolled and given their final shapes before an extremely short 5 to 10 mins of oxidation. Very little oxidation would take place in the leaves, given its tenderness and short period of growth. They are then dried in a mechanical dryer and packed for the market. Such a technique produces a tea of varying tones of colour - mix of green lightly oxidised smaller leaves and silver furry buds to heavily oxidised red and brown larger leaves. Its flavour reflects this spectrum of colours - fresh, light and bright like a green tea and yet with the aromas and sweetness of ripe fruits that come with heavier oxidation.
When Parchmen & Co visited the Zhu family (朱氏) in the birthplace of red teas - Tongmu Village (桐木村) of Wuyi Mountain (武夷山) in 2019, we found the origin of this method - timeworn wooden withering troughs specifically for this purpose. However, the original Chinese method includes a step of concurrent oxidation and fermentation of the tea, which is lacking in the Indian method. In the Chinese method, the tea sits for up to half a day in a barrel covered with a wet cloth to promote a moist environment, a separate processing step between the rolling step and drying step. In the Chinese style, the step of trough withering and the step of concurrent oxidation and fermentation are about the same duration. For the second flush Darjeeling tea, the trough withering is long (overnight) while the other step is dry and open oxidation without the barrel and wet cloths, and at a shorter duration of about a couple of hours. The hotter and dryer summer of Darjeeling second flush teas could be an explanation for the shorter time.
Second flush Darjeeling aims to make a bolder and richer tea, made possible by the leaves that develop faster under the summer sun. The leaves are picked 1 bud 3 leaves, in a longer picking season of 4 - 5 weeks, with picking every 7 - 10 days. In the second flush, the processing style merges with the traditional Chinese style of red tea processing, allowing the leaves to oxidise heavily before sending them to the dryer. The result is a tea of darker shade, with occasional silver buds of low oxidation (by virtue of the lesser catechins in a young bud).
First and second flush teas of the highest grade usually come with a string of designations. SFTGFOP 1 means Super Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekeo Grade 1. Essentially, it means the highest grade. Peculiar to each estate, the highest grade is a designation adopted since their respective inception, and thus, they do not differ in quality although the grade may look different. In other words, one estate may designate SFTGFOP 1 as their highest grade, while another equally reputable estate may designate FTGFOP as their highest grade.
We are brewing the Giddapahar tea in our Parchmen Glass Gaiwan, at 3.5g to 130ml of 80°C water for 45 - 75 sec, shortening the time as we continue to rebrew.
For the first flush Okayti, the brewed leaves are forward on sugar browning notes in the form of caramels and gingerbread. These notes pervade in the brew, with a hint of light enzymatic tone of flowers and fruits coming behind accompanied by a peppery end when colder. The liquor is sweet and medium thick, almost juicy. It is a straight forward and masculine first flush, emitting an aura of boldness. It is a refreshing cold brew, showing its gentler side with more perfumy floral notes with a hint of pineapple. The tea can be brewed twice.
For the second flush Okayti, the brewed leaves smell of molasses, stewed fruits, grapes and matcha. The brew is bright amber, with the first flush notes retreating to the background. What comes forward are notes of black grapes, stewed fruits, ylang ylang flowers and even blackcurrant candy. The medium and sweet body carries a perfumy grapey and flora aroma into the afterflavour. There is a hint of cream and chocolates. Surely, it is bolder than the first flush, but without losing its elegance, remaining clean with slight bitterness and slight astringency. Its identifying note of white pepper connects the first and second flush.
Our last tea today is a raw pu'er from Vietnam. Pu'er tea is a style of post-fermented tea made with a clearly defined method from a clearly defined area of Yunnan China. It is called a post-fermented tea because it is made as a green tea but turned to a black tea with time. In a sense, the producer makes the green tea and the consumer makes the black tea as he ages (and naturally ferments) the tea after buying it.
Our tea is made in the style of pu'er tea in northern Vietnam. Where pu'er tea is made at the south of China in Yunnan, the mountain ranges stretches out from Yunnan towards its neighbours on China's southern border, namely Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. In fact, Myanmar and Laos are part of the Hengduan Mountain Range (横断山脉) that extends out of Tibet Plateau towards them, sculpting the three parallel rivers of Nu Jiang (怒江), Lincang River (临沧江, also known as Mekong River when outside of China) and Yangtze River (扬子江/长江). Ha Giang of Vietnam located on the eastern edge of Yunnan is not part of the Hengduan Mountain Range where the famed pu'er tea mountains are all located but is part of the greater historical habitat of wild tea trees.
Deep in these Ha Giang mountains, tea trees estimated to be hundreds of years grow wildly in pristine environment. Ancient tea trees of the Assamica variety - the same natural variety in Yunnan - are blanketed by thick fog throughout the year, especially after the long winter break. The cool weather and diffused sunlight slow down the already slow growth of ancient trees, setting the conditions right for an aromatic brew of thick mouthfeel.
The tea master and his wife spend 2 months in the mountains during the tea harvesting session to make tea in a small hut he built. From tea picking to firing to rolling to packing, he handles the entire tea making process with his wife. They even wrapped the cake in traditional handmade Vietnamese paper. We proudly added a stamp of Parchmen & Co when we received the tea.
The leaves are plucked from wild trees growing at 1,800 - 2,200m. The picking is 1 bud and 2 leaves, when the tea leaves are just fully open. The early and careful picking is clearly evident from the abundance of white buds in the tea cake. Exceptionally rich in nutrition, tea buds are sweet and floral on a heavy mouthfeel. Because they are tender, they impart a very clean pu'er taste. Picked in spring 2022 and pressed into cakes in 2023, the tea is extremely young. Pu'er tea are usually bitter and astringent when young, and turns mellow as it ages onwards of five years. We are surprised to note that the tender picking and the excellent growing conditions tone down this tea and make it suitable for brewing even at this young age.
We are brewing this tea in our Parchmen Glass Gaiwan, at 3.5g to 150ml of 95°C water, for 30 secs, continuously for 10 infusions. The tea cake smells intensely of flowers - marigold, jasmine and roses. The brewed leaves smells of forest, rain and sour plums, against a caramel base. The brew colour is pale cinnamon. The brew is exceptionally smooth, soft and silky for such a young tea, sweet, slightly greenish, with hints of spices - cardamon and white pepper - but without the earth and mushroom of ripe pu'er teas. Sometimes we get a hint of milk and chocolates. From the third brew onwards, sweetness becomes clear. There is a delicate cool feeling going through your stomach and back to your throat, with a sweet and bold flavor. It has a very long and sweet aftertaste.
Enjoy your teas of November 2024!
Thank you for coming onboard Parchmen & Co and travel with us to savour our world in a cup!