Spring Darjeeling

One of my favorites. It has a lively “bite” and sparkling character.

Just checked Spring Darjeeling from MARIAGE FRÈRES. 30,00 € Hmmm … I’ll stick with Adagio for now.

I’ve been waiting for nearly three days for this tea to arrive and nearly a lifetime(not really) to actually taste genuine Darj! Its a welcome relief from the tasteless and tannin knock-offs or the “quality” and pricey Darj sold in a nearby Teavana. Yup! Those days are over and I could of wish I stuck with Adagio than Teavana… Anyways the tea has much of the floral and grassy smell and taste normally associated with Darj, yet this tea has a vegetal quality like steamed vegetables and a hint of citrus blossoms. In retrospect….its eerily similar to the Darj found in them wicked Teavana stores but without the tannin and the vague origin of the tea itself(which to my conclusion is a blend from different estates). A nice tea overall!

In character I agree with another taster that this is much more like an oolong than a black tea. The leaves are greenish, the scent in the leaf is light and citrusy, the brew is darkish golden and smells almost more richly flowery than my favorite Tie Kuan Yin, if maybe a different type of flower (orange? Hard to pin it down)! The taste reveals a slight darkness, though, that I wouldn’t know what to do with in an oolong. (Perhaps this is a function of the 3-min. steep?) And this isn’t as sweet on the tongue as an oolong would be. But otherwise? It’s light with a buttery quality, slightly vegetal, richly flavored, and yes, very floral. If you don’t like black tea, don’t worry, this really doesn’t resemble black tea in any substantial way. If you like less-fermented oolongs or flowery greens, you’ll like this one!

Adagio doesn’t specify what grade this tea is but from what I can see it is full-leaf Darjeeling. It has some broken leaves and stems mixed in but for the most part the leaves are intact.

My sample is at least a few months old so it obviously lost some of the freshness but the tea is still great. It fresh, floral, slightly astringent and a little sweet. I usually don’t care for sweetness in Darjeelings but here it doesn’t bother me at all.

The flavor and taste are not particularly memorable but every note is well-rounded and very pleasant. It would work great as an everyday Darjeeling, I can see myself drinking it even in the evening because it is so smooth and relaxing.

Photo-report: http://tiny.cc/CdncR

I can’t say enough good things about this tea. It’s great!

I got my mother a sample of this tea for Christmas. She loves Twining’s Darjeeling teabags so I decided to see if I could upgrade her taste buds.

She brewed a pot and claims it was only 2 minutes, but I’m pretty sure it was longer than that, at least 4 minutes. She remarked that the color wasn’t very dark… She tends to steep by color than tasting it (She hates green tea, I wonder why lol) and the tea turned out bitter. I’m pretty sure if it had a shorter steep time (a real 2 minutes instead of 4+) and maybe a lower temperature it would have come out better. I don’t think the tea was that bad, though over-steeped and slightly bitter. When I’m in the mood for a Darjeeling I’ll try it again, I don’t think my mother would mind me drinking her Christmas present, she got two boxes of Twining Darjeeling from me too.

It’s time to take a break from all of the green teas that I have been drinking lately and get back to reviewing some Darjeeling. This is one of the teas from Adagio that I I had never had before, and it was my first spring Darjeeling to boot, so I didn’t really know what to expect from this one. I finished the last of my half ounce sample packet of this yesterday evening, and now that I have had a little time to gather my thoughts, I can say that it isn’t a bad tea, but it’s also not really my thing either.

The infused liquor showed a pale gold in the glass. The nose provided fresh, delicate aromas of honey, flowers, malt, toast, wood, citrus, and grapes. In the mouth, I picked up delicately layered notes of honey, toast, malt, wood, orange zest, grapes, flowers, mild spices (perhaps a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg), and herbs. The finish was distinctly floral and mildly spicy, with nice grape, orange zest, and malt flavors. The tea held up to resteeping fairly well, but I did not take it further than three infusions (I know that resteeping Darjeeling is starting to become popular in some circles, but I typically do not resteep black teas of this type unless specifically recommended by the merchant). Later infusions provided a smoother and more distinct honey note with pleasant floral, spice, orange zest, and grape flavors.

All in all, I’m not quite sure how I feel about my experience with this tea and I do not think I would go out of my way to purchase it again. As at least one other reviewer noted, it can be very finicky, and one really has to watch the steep time and temperature closely in order to get the best results from this tea. This was the first tea I have had in a long time that I found to be a little bit of a chore to prepare and drink. The aromas and flavors are pleasant, but they are very light, and to me, such mild, mellow flavor is not much of a payoff if I have to watch this tea like a hawk when I’m brewing it. I can understand why people like this tea, and I wouldn’t recommend that curious drinkers avoid it by any means, but being the type of person who prefers more robust black teas, I am most likely not going to revisit a tea that I found to be a bit troublesome to prepare while not offering me something resembling the depth of aromas and flavors I typically enjoy.

I’m just finishing my third steep of this. It holds up pretty well to resteepings, and I think that the second was probably the best. It is just a bit finicky so the water temperature and steep times really need to be watched, but when it comes out good, it’s great. The first steep was a bit vegetal, but the second was distinctly sweeter and reminded me of apples a little.

Never realized that Darjeeling could be so light with a fresh smooth taste to it and not the sharp taste to it that turned me off very early on in my tea days. The leaves appear to be a bit on the green side and honestly this Darjeeling seems a bit more like an oolong than a black tea in many ways. I was able to get a second infusion out of the leaves but the second infusion was not as smooth and more astringent so I’d recommend against doing so.

Delicious and fresh