By the virtue of being a tea hoarder, my tea cabinets hold various unintended experiments in aging. I was eyeing my recent load of India teas wondering about the deadline for optimum consumption. The Charles A. Bruce 1838 FAQ mentions 3-4 years for hongcha which is too brief a span for someone like me. Then I remembered I had a teaspoon of 12+ year old Nilgiri orange pekoe stored in a plastic baggy that a Russian colleague and tea-lover shared with me sometime between 2002-2004.
India teas are not meant to be aged but this does not mean one cannot drink such an aged tea- at worst it will be stale and flat. The first sniffs of the tea leaves in a warmed pot before brewing were faint dark sweet notes of dried plums. The taste was surprisingly pleasant and the leaves gave forth 3 good rounds. The brew you can see is browned from the decade of oxidation- fresh Nilgiri tends to have more reddish coppery hues. Because I have no taste memory of the original fresh brews, I can't claim an improvement or a decline. I have to take it for what it is here and now.
This aged sample is good but not so amazing that I want to order kilos for aging. Of course this is but one data point. When searching the web for more, I see MarshalN (that guy is everywhere) also had an inadvertent aged darjeeling experiment of 5 years where he enjoyed more positive effects. But perhaps 5 years is a more optimum ceiling for aging such teas. I'm not explicitly going out of my way to age these India black teas, but I will happily drink aged black teas and hongchas I've forgotten about.
Nilgiri tea is produced South India at higher elevations than Darjeeling- the most interesting Nilgiri are the winter plucked "frost teas" that have a peppery tone. I am happy there remains tea genres I have not yet tried and I want to save the experience. The younger me would have ordered them long ago but now I can value the preciousness of being able to experience new things.
India teas are not meant to be aged but this does not mean one cannot drink such an aged tea- at worst it will be stale and flat. The first sniffs of the tea leaves in a warmed pot before brewing were faint dark sweet notes of dried plums. The taste was surprisingly pleasant and the leaves gave forth 3 good rounds. The brew you can see is browned from the decade of oxidation- fresh Nilgiri tends to have more reddish coppery hues. Because I have no taste memory of the original fresh brews, I can't claim an improvement or a decline. I have to take it for what it is here and now. This aged sample is good but not so amazing that I want to order kilos for aging. Of course this is but one data point. When searching the web for more, I see MarshalN (that guy is everywhere) also had an inadvertent aged darjeeling experiment of 5 years where he enjoyed more positive effects. But perhaps 5 years is a more optimum ceiling for aging such teas. I'm not explicitly going out of my way to age these India black teas, but I will happily drink aged black teas and hongchas I've forgotten about.
Nilgiri tea is produced South India at higher elevations than Darjeeling- the most interesting Nilgiri are the winter plucked "frost teas" that have a peppery tone. I am happy there remains tea genres I have not yet tried and I want to save the experience. The younger me would have ordered them long ago but now I can value the preciousness of being able to experience new things.
I love tea. You have a great blog, thanks so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteDear Linda,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. I wish I had more to share but I am slowly winding down.
H