Halmari sits in the Moran area of Dibrugarh, on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, and this TGFBOP grade shows why the estate's name carries weight: small, rough leaves threaded with plenty of golden tip. That grade itself is worth knowing about — Tippy Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe sits between standard FOP and BOP, a blend of the two rarely seen outside pockets of Assam and Darjeeling, and it tends to mean a higher share of tips than either grade alone.
In the cup it's spicy and malty at once, with the tasting notes running from lemon, orange and honey through malt, milk, peppermint, spices and even a coffee-like depth — enough range to suit someone who wants a straightforward Assam and someone hoping for more complexity in the same cup. A cup holds around 45mg of caffeine, on the lower side for a black tea.
Black tea of this kind has long been drunk with an eye to hair health, credited partly to its antioxidants and partly to caffeine's effect on the hormone DHT, though it's far from the first thing people reach for on that front — camomile, rooibos and peppermint tend to get more of that attention.
Steep it for about four minutes off the boil in a mug or infuser. Take it with milk, sugar, honey or lemon, or leave it black.
