Spring Darjeeling

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Astringent, Bitter, Floral, Fruity, Grain, Grape Skin, Hay, Musty, Oats, Grapes, Sweet, Tangy, Wood, Flowers, Herbs, Honey, Malt, Orange Zest, Spices, Toast
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Cameron B.
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 30 sec 9 oz / 275 ml

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21 Tasting Notes View all

  • “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.” Read full tasting note
    96
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    80
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    84
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    75

From Adagio Teas

Our Spring Darjeeling is an early harvest black tea from the Darjeeling region of India. Different from later harvests, this first flush has a light body and layers of character that lean toward floral with a hint of fruity notes and a crisp clean finish. Grown on the Balasun Estate, it has all of the classic notes of a first flush that are highly prized by connoisseurs across the globe.

Famous for producing some of the best quality teas, the Balasun Tea Estate (est. 1871) is spread across rolling hills with moderately gentle slope. The garden altitude varies from 365 meters to 1375 meters above sea level and temperature ranges between 44 degrees in winter to a maximum of 85 degrees in summer.

About Adagio Teas View company

Adagio Teas has become one of the most popular destinations for tea online. Its products are available online at www.adagio.com and in many gourmet and health food stores.

21 Tasting Notes

96
336 tasting notes

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.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 45 sec
Excelsior

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.

inguna

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?

Excelsior

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.

inguna

Thanks for the advice; much appreciated.

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80
81 tasting notes

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!

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 0 sec
LiberTEAS

Rare Tea Republic has some amazing spring first flush darjeelings available.

Anthony Bazic

why tanks for the offer Liberteas, I will look into that.
Tony:)

TeaEqualsBliss

I agree with LiberTEAs!! I have also had some great new flushes from Happy Earth Tea – for Darjeelings – as well as Verdant :)

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84
66 tasting notes

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!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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75
87 tasting notes

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

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 30 sec

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100
67 tasting notes

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

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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94 tasting notes

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.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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3986 tasting notes

Adagio CommuniTEA – April 30th, 2023

The last one! \o/

Not the biggest fan of first flush Darjeeling in general, but this is nice enough. It definitely has the floral and fruity notes that I would expect, and then the foundation is a somewhat musty hay flavor. Overall, it’s a bit too floral for me, and there’s a hint of bitterness that sort of accentuates the sharpness of the floral notes.

But yay, I finished the month! It was interesting to try, not something I would do in the future. I wish they included more custom blends as I feel like that would be more interesting.

Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Floral, Fruity, Grain, Grape Skin, Hay, Musty, Oats

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec 12 OZ / 354 ML

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80
143 tasting notes

Darjeeling really is the oolong of India. I should look into how it’s made. Got this with the black tea sample pack. Has a very strong fruity/grape flavor that adds to the pleasant astringency. The sweetness is balanced by said astringency as well. Later sips provide a woody, slightly spicy flavor. I got a few good steepings out of this so far adding to my mug, so it doesn’t loose flavor too quick.

Overall its a pleasant tea. This would be great for spring when you want the caffeine kick of black tea, but something less heavy and malty.

Flavors: Fruity, Grapes, Sweet, Tangy, Wood

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 15 sec 8 OZ / 236 ML

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72
1048 tasting notes

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.

Flavors: Flowers, Grapes, Herbs, Honey, Malt, Orange Zest, Spices, Toast, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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85
17 tasting notes

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.

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