Darjeeling Margaret's Hope 2nd Flush

Today was a sipdown of this one, sadly. It has become one of my favorites in the past few weeks.

I knew I was getting low but I saved just one final serving until I thought I was going to have something similar on my shelf. I saw that my order of a similar tea had shipped and was finally in my state, so I decided to have the last of this tea this morning.

After I finished the tea and got to work, though, I checked the status of my order and saw that it now says that the package needs to clear Customs before being released for delivery. Damn. They always say, “don’t count your chickens before they hatch…” :(

I’ve tried this tea western style and so far haven’t much enjoyed it so I thought trying it gong fu style might give me the chance to experiment some and see if I can find a way to get more flavor out of it. Today’s experiment rating: meh.

I stepped for 5, 10, 5, and 5 seconds. The first steeping was a bit thin but still somewhat bitter. The second was more tannic and bitter. The 3rd and 4th were a bit lighter but still fairly bitter. None were undrinkable but any other flavors in the tea were mostly masked by the bitterness.

I’m wondering if I might have been sold old tea that has been sitting around for a long time or if it’s just been so long since I’ve had Darjeeling that I’ve thought I liked it better than it seems I do.

Either way, I’ll continue my experiments trying to find a combination of water temperature, amount of tea and steep time that works for me. I’m thinking that the next one I’ll cut the amount of tea down and see what happens.