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“AAAAAAHHHH!!! Paws submerged in bucket of cold water = sweet relief! Thus fortified against the onslaught of the heatwave, I decided to have some tea. I’ve been curious about this one for a while...” Read full tasting note
Darjeeling is known as the ‘champagne’ of tea. This tea is picked in April in the first plucking or ‘flush’. It is light in flavour and aroma with a slight astringency and undertones of muscatel, the sweet white grape taste which identifies a quality Darjeeling.
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Capital TeasAAAAAAHHHH!!! Paws submerged in bucket of cold water = sweet relief!
Thus fortified against the onslaught of the heatwave, I decided to have some tea. I’ve been curious about this one for a while now because there seems to have been a conspiracy among my Steepsterites to make me try it. Or, at least, a lot of you said nice things about it recently.
Been ages since I had a proper Darjeeling that wasn’t mixed into something else. I used to be infatuated with the whole concept of Darjeelings and immense prestige of the first flush every year. It had Speshul Factor. And then, for some reason, I just sort of rather lost interest. It wasn’t that I had one that was sub-par, it was just that the whole thing puttered out of existance. Probably around the same time that I really started getting my eyes opened for the yummy Chinese.
The leaves had a spicy note. Almost like curry. That was a bit odd for me. Curry! Odd! After steeping it thankfully doesn’t smell of curry. It has a rather thick, sweet aroma. There is a grass note and something quite fruity. I wonder if that would be the grapes that people keep mentioning in connection with Darjeeling.
It’s actually not bad. Not so harshly grass-y leaf-y as I generally associate with the area. It’s smooth at first and then on the swallow a slightly bitter touch of astringency comes in from the side and hijacks the flavour. It brings the promise of something unbelievably bitter if oversteeped, so it’s definitely a tea that it’s important to keep in check.
I was told a while ago that Darjeeling blacks aren’t really traditional blacks, as they aren’t generally a full 100% fermented, but technically a type of oolong. From what I understand the difference lies in the way the leaves are whithered. Knowing this, I decided to user somewhat colder water like I would for a greener type oolong. With that hint of bitterness up there, I’m glad I did. I think that would have been worse if I hadn’t.
As for the grape. Well. I can pick something up that I’m sure must be what people identify as grapes. I’m not sure how grape-y I think it is, but hey, that could just be me. It does make me want to eat grapes though. I wish I’d picked some up when I did the groceries earlier.
And my body heat has already made my formerly ice-cold foot water borderline lukewarm. Gosh…
