I used a well-heaped teaspoonful to a half-pint mug. The instructions for this are for two minutes’ brewing at 85° – 100°, so I let the water go off the boil for a couple of minutes and then brewed for two minutes. I noticed that all the tea had not sunk to the bottom – the instructions say you can get a second infusion.
It was quite a strong colour in the mug, a dark orange-brown, but I couldn’t detect anything much with the nose. In the mouth it had a little basic tea flavour – not a lot, at all – and, perhaps, the tiniest hint of butter smoothness.
I made a second infusion from the same tea and that was definitely a bit watery.
So I made another mug with a well-heaped teaspoonful and this time I used boiling water and brewed for three minutes. It really wasn’t much different. There may, possibly, have been the tiniest hint of fruitiness and a metallic hint, but they were very elusive and I only really detected them at all on the very first sip.
That was all yesterday. I made another boiling water stroke three minutes mug today, remembering how other Darjeelings have struck me differently on different days, but this one was no different.
This is a disappointment for a comparatively expensive tea, but it’s quite innocuous – nothing at all unpleasant about it – so I’m going to give it a neutral 50 rating.
A postscript: this tea prompted me to experiment with my kitchen scales and some of the teas I have in quantity, to work out the weights of various teas, and I am definitely using at least the recommended quantity (Imperial Teas recommends 1gm to 100mls for this one).
