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Organic black tea from the Darjeeling region of India. Spring-time Darjeeling tea is famous for its lively ‘bite’ and an abundance of fresh flavor. This tea is a spirited embodiment of these qualities. The ‘Spring Darjeeling’ is a highly aromatic first-flush (spring) clonal tea from the upper reaches (7000 feet above sea level) of the organically-certified Sungma estate.
$14/3 oz
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!
Rare Tea Republic has some amazing spring first flush darjeelings available.
why tanks for the offer Liberteas, I will look into that.
Tony:)
I agree with LiberTEAs!! I have also had some great new flushes from Happy Earth Tea – for Darjeelings – as well as Verdant :)
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.
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
I believe Adagio is selling their Spring Darjeeling for USD19 for 2 ounces. If you do the math, the prices of Mariage and Adagio comes out about even. 4 ounces is about 100g. 30 Euros is USD38.
You can find two great Darjeelings from Mariage(Jungpana Spring, Bloomfield Spring) for 28 Euros, which is a lower price than Adagio’s Spring Darjeeling. You can also find Mariage Spring Darjeelings (Orange Valley, Geille, and Princeton) all of them be less than 20 Euros.
One thing I hhate about Mariage Freres is they do not offer free shipping regardless of how much you order.
Thanks for the input. Shipping makes a difference + with Adagio you get customer loyalty discount and it all ads up. I still like Marriage teas; I think they are great. Do you know any other vendor that sells Spring Darjeeling?
I’ve had some good ones from Tea Trekker. They have great customer service. Thunderbolt also have some good Spring Darjeelings but sometimes it takes up to a month to receive your teas from them.
Thanks for the advice; much appreciated.