Darjeeling de Triomphe

I got this tea a week after I visited the local Teavana store in Los Angeles. The price for buying 2 ounces of tea gold?! Twenty dollars for 2 ounces! Needless to say, I just bought a cup of freshly brewed Darjeeling de Triomphe instead of being stuck with a possible low grade Darjeeling tea. So , the nice guy scooped what looks like about 1 teaspoon or two , and added one teaspoon of German rock sugar. He let it brew for three minutes, after the three minutes I prepared myself to drink ambrosia itself that’s till after I fork up five dollars! He poured it poured in a tall sized cup(Starbucks), I waited for a minuteor two while looking at one their small handout catalogs. I flip to the black tea page section and found that my Darjeeling was a graded SFTGFOP-1 first flush of 2011! Like in the description it detailed that it tasted floral, a light astringent and light muscatel finish, its sourced from one their nondescript “secret” tea gardens, its leafy composition where exactly what I first saw of the tea: silvery, wirey, small leaves. To me it meets the superficial standards of SFTGFOP, its definitely a flowery orange pekoe, its also tippy as the tea is composed of unfurled leaves but it has yet passed my taste of approval! After waiting two minutes for my tea to cool down, I first took a sniff which it has a honey-ish smell, the liquor has a light brownish color. The taste was of distinct muscatel flavor that is very light, and has a light floral taste tone to complement that scent of honey. Bitterness was none existent which was quite expected. Is it worth buying for the steep price? I say try before you get into the Darjeeling that Teavana offers before paying a hefty sum for a lousy 2oz! For anyone out there, surely adagio, elmwood, upton, etc anywhere online will be of the same price that Teavana offers but more bang for the buck! Teavana good and all, but its too aristocratic and less appealing to the middle class despite being in a middle class suburb! Hell, its should be on Rodeo Drive instead!

1 Reply

I would recommend trying Rare Tea Republic. Last night I enjoyed the Temi SFTGFOP1 and it was amazing… $14 for 50 grams… not really any better in price, but, I would certainly say that this tea is worth that price.

http://www.raretearepublic.com/content/temi-sftgfop1-first-flush

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