Nabbed a couple somewhat random samples from my box of teas from LiberTEAS to try out this evening. I really need to make some progress on samples I have! The goal was to get through as much as I can prior to Christmas… we’ll see how that goes… (it’s helpful that my roommate likes tea though, and is willing to share a cup or two with me each evening!)
So, this is my first darjeeling ever. Well, as far as I’m aware. The aroma makes me think boring black tea… it smells like a bagged Lipton, or other generic tea brand. Not that smell necessarily dictates anything, but it can be a bit of a warning sign sometimes!
The flavour… is definitely unexpected. I was expecting boring black tea flavour, instead I’m getting a kind of winey-ish, possibly muscatel flavour, with a black base. A bit floral, almost? Or, that’s how it’s coming off to darjeeling newbie me. Weirdly, I’m also getting a “rotten” note in here which is… rather unpleasant. Like, a decaying vegetal matter sort of note. Although it doesn’t seem to be appearing with every sip.
Hrm. I’m not going to write off darjeelings just because of this one, but as I’m not a fan of black teas in general (minus Laoshan Black and other similar ones), I’m not surprised that this one isn’t doing it for me. Oh well! Thanks for the tea education, LiberTEAS!