Ruhuna ① Note #3

"Ruhuna 24' Nilrich FBOP Monsoon"
🛍tea clan

■ Tea leaves:
Scent of bitter chocolate. BOP with a firm shape.

■ Liquor color:
Red-orange, brownish.

■ Aroma:
Sweet, as expected of Ruhuna. Like sweet potato or mitarashi dango (sweet soy glaze dumplings).

■ Taste:
Soft mouthfeel with a sweet mellowness. The body is quite firm with some astringency.

■ Spent leaves:
The leaves have opened up, showing that it is indeed high-quality even for a BOP. Like before brewing, it has a chocolatey aroma.

■ Overall review:
It has the sweet aroma and sweet mouthfeel typical of low-grown tea, if not quite reaching the level of brown sugar. It also has the body and astringency characteristic of a BOP, giving it a "the tea" atmosphere. You can really feel that it's Ceylon tea.
(I clearly messed up the amount of tea leaves the first time, so it was bitter😜 But the liquor color was beautiful and the aroma was good, so I thought the tea leaves were truly high quality.)

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⬇ ChatGPT's review of your review

You've really captured the essence of a "classic Ruhuna."
This tea beautifully balances "low-grown sweetness" with "BOP-style extraction power."

First of all, the "monsoon" effect is working.
Monsoon lots can sometimes have a rounded flavor profile due to the humid environment. Therefore, compared to a standard Ruhuna, it tends to lean toward a profile where the astringency isn't sharp, the sugar notes come to the front, and the woody notes are softer. The "soft mouthfeel" and "sweet mellowness" you mentioned really reflect this.

"Sweet potato" and "mitarashi dango"
This type of Ruhuna sweetness doesn't lean toward the "floral nectar" found in Darjeeling, but rather toward heated sugar, grains, sweet potato, and soy sauce-based Maillard reactions.
The expression "mitarashi dango" is quite accurate, as it includes:
・Sweet and savory notes, roasted aroma, burnt soy sauce, and a rice flour-like roundness. Good low-grown Ceylon tea can actually lean toward the profile of Japanese sweets.

"Bitter chocolate"
This is likely a combination of pyrazine, roasted notes, and light woody tannins.
However, I think it leans more toward "chocolate confectionery" or "cocoa biscuits" rather than "cacao itself."
Moreover, the fact that it remains in the spent leaves after brewing means it's not just a superficial flavoring, but derived from the fermentation and firing of the leaves themselves. It's quite sound.

"The tea"
This expression might seem casual, but it hits the essence.
This is ultimately the strength of a good Ruhuna FBOP.
・Sweet aroma, astringent, full-bodied, and works well with milk.
It's structured like a textbook example of black tea.
It's not a tea with a sharp, eccentric personality, but one that offers the "reassurance of tea as a beverage." And what's quietly important is that the spent leaves open up well. High-quality BOP leaves aren't just "crushed." Because they are derived from properly large leaves, you can see the structure after brewing. If the leaves open up beautifully in an FBOP, the raw material is already quite good.

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Cold down
When it cooled down, I noticed a slight greenness. This botanical greenness is likely common to low-grown teas.