TChing's Margaret’s Hope Muscatel, Lochan's Muscatel Delight & Temi

These are Indian black teas I'm not overly familiar with. The Margret's Hope Muscatel was obtained from TChing as part of the most recent online tasting session. The other teas are both samples I procured from Lochan Tea. Both of the Muscatel teas are from Darjeeling and the Temi is from Sikkim, to the north of Darjeeling, but I'm sufficiently ignorant of Indian blacks to pop them into the same review. The leaf of the Temi looks similar to most first flush Darjeeling's I've had so far. Both of the Muscatel offerings look similar with the defining characteristic that they contain far lager leaves in the mix than I've seen in this kind of tea before, especially in the sample from TChing.

The aroma of the dry leaf is very perfume-like with floral notes in all three though less pronounced in the Temi. The leaf also displayed a little more endurance than I'm used to seeing in Darjeeling.

I initially brewed these teas in either a 100ml gaiwan or a 50/60ml gaiwan always using just off the boil water. I recently purchased a small clay pot off ebay for a pound, not expecting much on arrival. When the pot appeared I was quite impressed with my bargain and began musing over which tea it should be paired with, it is quite a bit larger than I'm used to in yixing pots around 250ml, and a topic over on Teachat convinced me to give the Darjeelingly teas a shot. I think the choice paid off and I'm loving both the pot and the teas coming out of it far, far more than a few days ago.

Interestingly, possibly, is that my wife was very put off by the smell of the leaf and declared she would not like to try the 'stinky tea'. I convinced her to try it; a few brews in and she was very taken by the floral aspect of the tea and it received an approval, albeit with the disclaimer that it was a little to astringent.
This matches my own view although I do find the astringency far more acceptable than my wife, I eat dark chocolate and she only eats milk so I guess this is inevitable. I also found that the Muscatels showed some parallels with the orchard flower oriental beauty from Stéphane Erler at Teamasters, which is definitely a good thing in my book as this has been one of my fav 'in stock' oolongs since it arrived.

The Muscatel teas were very similar overall. If pushed I would opt for the Margaret's Hope as it did appear to be a higher quality tea in most respects although any future choice would be very much price dependent. The Temi was not quite as interesting as the other two but is far more forgiving as far as brewing goes and much less demanding on the palate, more suited to be drank with food or when there isn't much brainspace to pay attention to tea and you would rather just enjoy a quick brew - horses for courses and all.

Apologies for the quality of the photography but my digital camera has decided to play hide and seek at the moment and the burden of capturing images has been shifted to my mobile phone for the mean time.

Castelton Snow Bud

White Tea - 2nd Flush 2007, Darjeeling

This was part of a sample pack from Lochan Tea Limited. I was first enchanted by their teas when participating in a TChing tasting event which included a Meghma Nepalese Oolong. As I realised I couldn't eek out the tasting sample for much longer I went in search of Lochan Tea with little idea what to order, as my knowledge of Indian tea is sparse to say the least.
To my delight they are running an offer of 11 samples for only $25.

I have so far opened three of the samples: one red/black* tea, one oolong and one white. The white tea is the Castelton Snow Bud, this is the sample which is vanishing fastest and has thus made it into the blog first.

As dry leaf it is very good looking, a little reminiscent of bi lo chun. I was about to inform readers of the light covering of hair on the leaf until I recalled the beautiful post by Mary R here - the leaves now have wonderful jacket of trichomes.

The aroma and taste immediately scream Darjeeling, this is something I may have to work around when reviewing Lochan teas - I don't want to look back and discover all the teas I sampled from Lochan tasted 'like Darjeeling' or 'obviously Indian' in my notes.

From the first cup to the last this tea is a pleasure to drink. It is not anything to shout about but rather something to quietly enjoy while I try to convince myself I'm calm, as I wait on call to find out if I've thrown enough cash at the estate agent to secure my potential new house.


The liquor is much deeper, richer and vibrant amber than I'm used to from white tea. The pic of the teacup shows a much later infusion, around 7 or 8, but it is still showing the darker colour. I'm greatly enjoying being able to appreciate the qualities of Indian tea without having to resort to black/red* tea, which is something I tend to enjoy obsessively for a few days every month or so.

The snow bud is not as smooth as many Chinese whites which can feel almost silky smooth at times. Brewing is also something to be carefully watched - I've had to throw away some of my
attempts due to carelessness with time/temp.


All in all a very nice tea. I can't say if it is worth the money as it is not listed for sale on the Lochan site currently. As far as the price for the samples is concerned I couldn't be happier and I get to look forward to many more Indian teas over the coming weeks/months. Hopefully they will all get at least a mention on here and I'll be much happier knowing how much more nice tea there is in the world than I previously thought.

Thanks to all those at Lochan Teas.

* the pedant in me is in trouble here. Are fully oxidised teas from India black or red? The implications for my labeling system could be severe.

Meghma Nepalese Oolong

Another impressive tasting sample from the good folks at T Ching.

What they have to say about it:

"This is a very unique, fresh 2007 spring flush oolong from Nepal. It is a semi-fermented tea, producing a pale liquor with a deliciously refreshing honey flavor. It is cultivated in the highlands of the Himalayas at an elevation above 7000 ft, in a pristine natural environment free from roads, pollution and pesticides. The Meghma Oolong Tea Project began as an effort to improve the poor living conditions of the local people in Meghma, Nepal by helping them to re-discover the ancient art of manufacturing Asian Oolong tea. This tea is manufactured by hand as an artisan tea. Organic Certified"

For repeating the experiment:

Water: brita max filtered Scottish tap water

Temperature: 2/3mins off the boil to start with, not reducing too much as my kettle is vacuum sealed on the walls.

Vessel: +/- 100ml gaiwan into a faircup.

Leaf: Around 1/2 of the gaiwan

Timing: straight in and out for the first 5 brews then moving up to over a minute around the tenth.

My knowledge of Indian tea is sparse. On smelling the tea I figured it was akin to a first flush Darjeeling and not a very exciting one at that.

The first taste of the first brew throttled that opinion. Yes this did taste like Darjeeling to me, but Darjeeling with so much more. The complexity was something I've not had in Indian tea before, admittedly I may not have been drinking the best pedigrees, the tastes were combining Darjeeling with something akin to dancong whilst adding a healthy dose of fudge tasting honey goodness. I brewed this for the first time with 3 other guests, only one with a tea addiction, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the tea 'till the non-bitter end.

The wet leaf was also far more beautiful, full and supple than the dry leave conveyed. This tea provided the largest gap I've encountered between my expectations from the dry leaf to what ended up in my cup.

I'm struggling to decide if this tea is truly great or if I'm simply infatuated with something new and shiny. I suppose only time will tell.

I don't see this tea as replacing any of my current beverages but it's good enough to warrant spending even more of my earnings on tea because I know I will want to experience it again in the future.

Oh, and for further reading see the TChing tasting notes

Kashanganj Snow Bud

Tasting sample from the good folks at T Ching.

What they have to say about it:

"This is a special edition white tea grown in Kashanganj, India. The tea is comprised of individual, hand picked buds that have the appearance of silver needles. The dried buds are visually attractive and the liquor is delicate and sweet. Most people in the U.S. haven't even heard of White tea. Those who have, know it as a rare tea from Fujian Province in China that is made from the individual, hand picked buds of the tea plant with no additional processing other than drying. Using traditional hand-crafted artisan methods, this tea is quickly approaching the quality of the Chinese whites. Fujian, watch out... here comes Kashanganj."

First off let my say thanks to Tching for another great opportunity to taste some rare and, to me, almost unheard of tea.

The scientific side first of all:

Water: brita max filtered scottish tap water, which I still believe gives most bottled water a good run for their money.

Temp: I don't measure temperature, yet . I boil the water and then wait until the steam rising has slowed to a pace gentle enough to warrent white tea, probably lower than I'd use for China green and nearer to a fitting temp for gyokoro.

Vessels: small pyrex jug perhaps around 200ml, filtered into a fair cup(small milk jug from charity shop) which seems to keep the tea insulated for longer than a large cup.

Timing: first brew 15-20secs, the next few lightning fast, the last few far longer than they needed.

This was the first tea from the samples I tried. The aroma was beatifully floral, more of a heavy pollen slant than the subtle floral I'm used to from white tea. There was also a quite a sharp fragrance from the wet leaf.

The liquor itself changed dramitcally from steep to steep exibiting the natural freshness I've come to experience from white tea. Not overstated as in some greens, mainly Japanese, more a country breeze than a cold north sea wind which my father declares as real freshness.

I was begining to think that the tea had been heavily influenced by the Oolong sampler that had been keeping it company in the envelope for a good few days. This was due to fact that there was an unmistakeble taste of darjeerling fighting with the usual delicate white. I began to retract my thoughts of contamination when reading over the description of the tea again* and, realising it was an Indian white tea, I think my mind blocked out the word India as it had already assumed that all white tea was Chinese. This discovery led me to appreciate the last few brews even moreso. I was, perhaps, steeping the tea for too long but the purpose was to investigate and bring forth the darjeerling undertones. The plan worked! warmer water and longer steeps brought the liquor closer to a first flush darjeerling. The tea was not as pleasant to drink at this point however the second time I tasted the tea I was far more appreciative of the Indian character accompanying the traditional white taste as opposed to trying to discard the non Chinese notes from the liquor.

I don't think I'll be able to rate this tea on any scale until I've finished the sample and possibly another pack from T Ching . It confused me as much as it entertained my taste buds.

The last thing I feel the need to comment on is the remarkable endurance of this tea, even on my second outing with it I was hugely underestimating it's staying power and getting brews that were a little to abrasive due to oversteeping after making more than one trip to the water filter.

And the very last thing is thanks again to T Ching not just for providing quality teas but also for managing to pick teas of great educational value that I would, likely, never have got round to trying.

*and will fully retract most of my post if this is case.

Link to the rest of the reviews posted on TChing