Darjeeling

So I followed the directions as I now I’m not a big fan of this type of tea. I will tell you it smells fantastic, a little flowery. Which is interesting to me as I’ve never noticed that with any other Darjeeling teas I’ve tried. The first sip went straight to bitter town. Which did not make me a happy tea drinker. I’m already having a bitter day (lots to do at work).

So I added a little milk and sweetener and that seemed to do the trick to cure the bitters. Now I’m getting more of a sweet (not all from the sugar) taste to this tea! Which turned my frown around. :)

Some of the best teas that I’ve tried, I’ve stumbled upon accidentally. Hampstead’s Darjeeling is another nice surprise that I just happened to notice on the shelf at our local Earth Fare market.

I steeped this tea at 212 degrees for three minutes. A reddish orange brew was the result.

There was no aroma to speak of so I didn’t have my hopes up for an explosion of flavor. However, at first sip, I was instantly struck by the mild but very pleasant and sweet taste of this blend.

Although the flavor is a tad lighter than I prefer my black teas to have in the morning, this blend left a delightful sweet and almost fruity taste on my tongue. Bitterness was nowhere to be found. It was also a perfect partner to chase down a couple of Scottish oatcakes.

I’ve only tried one other Darjeeling tea and that was in bagged form. It wasn’t bad but it didn’t pack enough punch for me to seek out other variations of the same theme. Now that I’ve tasted one of the finer loose leaf blends, I’m looking forward to the next Darjeeling discovery!

This is a very nice afternoon tea. Crisp and light. The muscatel tone to this tea is outstanding. I love the fruit tones to this tea, it finishes with a sweet yet tart taste of currant. Delicious.

This isn’t much for smell but the color is nice…a reddish-orange-brown. I don’t think it has that stereotypical Darjeeling taste to it but it has a nice silkiness on the tongue! It’s mellow with a slightly sweet end sip. This is a more relaxed black bagged tea it’s tasty but not what I would call a WAKE-ME-UP Cup!

There are few estates in India that can produce a tea as expressive as Makaibari. The estate does have better offerings but Hampstead Tea’s one is still very impressive. Fresh, muscatel, a hint of grass.

At the time of writing, this is the best Darjeeling available in the United Kingdom. For a black tea; it is light and it does offer a subtle fruity flavor. It still remains swirling in your mouth an hour after your have drank it. This is exactly what a Darjeeling should taste like. It is a staple of my daily tea routine at about 3:00pm. It’s perfect way to start signal the end of the working day and the start the transition into the evening.

Overall I am really enjoying this tea. I think I need to go back to make another cup or two today. It doesn’t seem to hold up well for a second steeping though. Perhaps giving it a fourth minute would have helped.