So, what is with all those letters? FTGFOP means Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, which is a lot of words to describe high grade tea. Orthodox tea grading is based on a standard size of Orange Pekoe, which is a small leaf size, rather than a flavor or variant of tea. In my limited experience, orthodox tea grading is a cumulative system, in that the more descriptors we add, the better the quality of the leaf. (I may be over simplifying this a bit.) There are other systems of grading tea, but the old fashioned Orange Pekoe based system is still in use for a lot of high quality teas.
So, FTGFOP Castleton is pretty high grade stuff, and additionally, it comes from a highly regarded estate. So, it was a bit of a letdown when my first cup was a complete bust. I brewed the tea at a full boil, like I did with the Soom Darjeeling, and the tea was completely scorched: burnt, smoky, and flat. I did some research, and found that brewing Darjeeling is even trickier than I originally thought: tea from different estates is processed differently, and therefore needs to steep at different temperatures. So, I gave the Castelton a second go, brewing at a much lower temperature, but it turned out to be too low, and the tea came out weak and bland.
Success came when I treated the Castleton as an Oolong, and brewed the tea with water at just under a boil. Finally the Castleton was delicate and nuanced, with a nice interplay of flavors: a hint of dry smokiness, mild natural sweetness and a hint of fruit. The texture is delicate and astringent, and the finish is excellent, leaving a slightly sweet and extremely clean mouthfeel. This is a very nice tea, but I'm not sure it's quite the cream of the crop, so to speak, that it's reputation claims. I like it, but I don't quite taste anything that sets it that far above what I've found of Darjeeling thus far. Then again, perhaps my palate just isn't nuanced enough. Score: 88 (B+)
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