Michelle Butler Hallett

Astringent finish and aftertaste. Snappy. Lots of nuance. Oh, this one is GOOOOOD.

I’m guessing this is a multi-estate blend.

It’s OK to be snooty. I’m snooty about it in my own way too, but my Muscat love began with a dessert wine. I had my first excellent taste in Murphy’s,CA at Stevenot Winery. Here is their description.(Patience is a virtue when dealing with Muscat Canelli, as we wait until the latest possible harvest date, allowing for the highest sugar attainable, and the most concentrated complexity possible. The wine displays intense rose petal, dried apricot, peach, and mango, with a creamy toffee finish.) Remind you of tea reviews? I loved the short time when I could get fresh muscat grapes so small, pale and super sweet. Those experiences are my own measuring stick for anything MUSCAT.

Wow, that wine sounds amazing. I don’t drink alcohol, but that write-up sorely tempts me.

The first Darjeeling where I tasted muscat and fell in love was with, believe it or not, Stash Tea’s basic, entry-level, bagged Darjeeling blend. They don’t stock it anymore. It was gentle, with a creamy mouthfeel, but carried a wicked punch of muscat in taste and scent. Their Teas of India Second Flush Darjeeling comes close — and it one of my favourites, even bagged — but isn’t as sweet.

I’ve never been impressed with the tea from the Margaret’s Hope estate. I wanted to be; I love the estate name, and I love Darjeeling tea, but theirs always seems flat and a bit stale to me. The Seeyok estate’s is sharp and snappy, but not as heavy on the muscat taste as I’d like. And then you get some really awful alleged Darjeelings that taste like someone ground of a pine branch. Gah.

Have you tried the Himalayan Blend from DavidsTea yet? I’ve got that one in my sights. I’ve tasted some really, really good Nepal mountain teas that are grown outside the Darjeeling region but taste very similar to Darjeeling — soil and mountains, right?

ground of = ground up My typing is really bad.

The Darjeelings I’ve enjoyed most are the later flushes…almost NO flush from the Fall or after the monsoons. I think they remind me more of the Nepal tea’s that I love too. I’ve tasted a few Sri Lankan Green Tea’s that taste more like Darjeeling…especially a couple that I had from Stacy at Butiki. I’m not fond of astringency and find the later pickings mellower and deep with rich fruitiness. My opinion only. I tend to love full bodied tea, puerh, black tea, Nepalese tea. I’m a beast!

Thanks for the review! I have David’s Darjeeling and I like it (but haven’t tried any other ones for comparison). I wasn’t sure if this was a new blend, or just the old one under a new name. Guess I’ll give it a shot!