Tea Review: 2015 2nd Flush Thurbo (Leafull Darjeeling House)

2015 2nd Flush Thurbo (Shiny DJ-265)
Leafull Darjeeling House
Type: Black (FTGFOP1)
Origin: India, Darjeeling, Thurbo Tea Estate
Product Description: Not provided.

Temperature: 195° F
Amount: 3 grams
Steeping Time: 3 minutes

The dry leaf aroma is sweet and tart with notes of muscat grapes, dates, and fragrant wood.

The bright copper-orange liquor has a heady aroma with sweet muscatel and floral notes.  The taste is mildly astringent with floral and tart fruit (muscat grape) notes and with a long finish.

I purchased this tea during a visit to the Leafull Darjeeling shop in Ginza, Tokyo several years ago and am only just digging into it.  Fortunately, the years have been very kind.  The first infusion was a delight with complexity in flavor, a heady aroma you can almost sink into, and a non-drying finish that goes on and on.  A second infusion produced more astringency and a sweeter aroma with less nuance in flavor.  By the third infusion, color, flavor, and aroma had weakened significantly which I suspect is due to age.  While those looking for a more robust experience will enjoy this steeped at 208° F, I was most impressed with the results when steeped at 195° F.

This tea was purchased by me.

Tea Review: 2015 2nd Flush Sikkim (Leafull Darjeeling House)

2015 2nd Flush Sikkim (Temi Clonal SK-24)
Leafull Darjeeling House
Type: Black (FTGFOP)
Origin: India, South Sikkim
Product Description: Available on the website(Japanese).

Temperature: 208° F
Amount: 3 grams
Steeping Time: 3 minutes

The dry leaves have an aroma of flowers, sweet oats, and seasoned wood.

The infusion is copper-red with a heady floral aroma and notes of apricots and caramelized sugar.  The taste is floral and a little woody with mild astringency and a long dry finish.

A minute or so into the finish an intriguingly fruity taste made an appearance.   A second infusion brought out similar results with a slight increase in astringency and no loss in character and a third infusion was slightly mellower with the fruity apricot aroma moving to the front.  A pleasant finish to a full-bodied tea.

This tea was purchased by me.

Leafull Darjeeling House

Leafull Darjeeling House (リーフルダージリンハウス) is a Japanese online tea shop with licensing from the Tea Board of India.  In addition to their successful online business, Leafull Darjeeling House has brick and mortar shops in Tokyo's Ginza district and in Futako-Tamagawa (Setagaya district).

While waiting for a performance at Kabuki-za to begin, I visited the Ginza tea shop which is just a few blocks away from the theater.  Photography is not permitted inside, though you can see a nice interior photo on their official site.  Service was quite courteous during my visit and I was offered a complimentary tasting of a 2nd Flush Darjeeling from Thurbo Tea Estate.

The tea shop offers an extensive selection of 1st, 2nd, and Autumnal Flush Darjeeling, as well as other teas from India, Sri Lanka, China, Kenya, and Japan.  They also sell herbals, scented teas, custom blends, and teaware.  Regularly scheduled tea lessons are available for customers fluent in Japanese.

Address: 〒104-0061 東京都中央区銀座5-9-17 あづまビル1F
〒104-0061 Tōkyō-to, Chūō-ku, Ginza, 5 Chome−9−17

Hours:
11:00 am to 8:00 pm