About Castleton Estate
Castleton Estate is located near Kurseong in the Darjeeling district of northern India. Castleton Estate is considered one of the top estates in Darjeeling.
How is the tea graded?
This particular tea that I got is graded F.T.G.F.O.P.,and is in the upper 10 percentile of Castleton’s quality.
*What is F.T.G.F.O.P.?? Far Too Good For Ordinary People? No, in the orthodox black tea grading system, it means Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe(2nd highest grade). 200 years ago it could have been "Far Too Good For Ordinary People" because tea was compared to gold in value in the old days.
As you can tell from the picture, the leaves are whole leaf type with lots of tips(youngest tea buds), and only the tea buds picked from the very top of the tea twig/sprig can be considered a Flowery Orange Pekoe. So as for the quality of the leaves, F.T.G.F.O.P is a very good grade. The grading is for orthodox black tea only. It is used to tell you the quality of the leaves but it doesn't tell you how to tea taste like.
How Good Is It?
So, ok this tea is F.T.G.F.O.P., it looks like a quality tea, but what does it taste like? Taste very good, not so surprising huh. The infusion is bright tending light. It has got the wonderful trademarked mascatel notes from a premium 2nd flush Darjeeling tea. Winey but not too astringent. Middle bodied and full of floral/grape like hints.
How does it compared to the Margaret's Hope Estate that we carry in our shop?
Castleton has a mellower taste and more refined. Margaret's Hope tastes more astringent(expecially when over steeped). Yes, Castleton is a better 2nd flush. But is it worth more than 3 times as much as the Margaret's Hope? Don't think so. If we are ever gonna carry Castleton, it is going to be priced at about $25 dollars per 1/4 lb. For less than 1/3 of the price($7.99 per 1/4 lb.for Margaret's Hope), I can enjoy a very good 2nd Flush Darjeeling however I want(hot, iced, sweet, with milk, latte...) with out feeling so guilty.
So for now, I am going to stick with the Margaret's Hope as our current Darjeeling 2nd Flush selection.
The Tea: Castleton 2nd Flush
Grade: F.T.G.F.O.P.(Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe)
Steeping Time: 3-5 minutes.
Amount of Tea: 1 tea spoon for 6 oz. cup
1 comments:
Thank you for this very interesting website.
You will certainly be interesting about the film " The Lord of Darjeeling".
It deals about Rajah Banerjee, owner of a familial and traditional tea estate. He was the first to choose biodynamic farming and fair-trade commerce, while producing one of the most appreciated teas in the world.
It's a very nice film and he's avaibale here:
http://www.aloest.com/boutique/product.php?id_product=5
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