Darjeeling Blend

This is a review for their regular Darjeeling. I thought I would just love this but its meh. It doesn’t really handle milk that well since its so light. I think thats why I don’t think it is memorable. I need to pow, pizazz, and oomph.

This Darjeeling tea from Harney & Sons is a blend of First Flush and Autumn Flush teas. The First Flush gives it a green, floral, vegetal flavor while the Autumn Flush gives it body. It’s still a pretty light-bodied tea, though. Probably light to medium-bodied.

The steeped tea reveals delicate floral, vegetal and muscatel notes, typical for a Darjeeling. There’s also a good amount of astringency – unlike most other black teas. Also unlike other black teas, it has that vegetal, floral flavor that’s so typical of Darjeeling. There are also some woody notes and maybe a hint of fruity citrus, but absolutely no malty notes like in an Assam.

I don’t think Darjeeling black teas are technically black teas (someone correct me if I’m wrong), because they contain a mixture of leaves oxidized to different degrees like an oolong. Some of the leaves in this are bright green, some are brown and some are completely black.

I have also tried Kusmi’s Darjeeling tea which is a Second Flush. That tea is also excellent. If I remember correctly, it is a little stronger in body than this tea and with more robust flavors but it doesn’t have the green, vegetal flavors like this one does – which comes from the First Flush teas.

Overall, this is a nice Darjeeling tea with flavors typical for that region. The flavors are very delicate, and completely different than other black teas like Assams and Ceylons.

I can see why Darjeeling is called “Queen of Teas”.

I find myself drinking this tea both with and without milk.

Dry leaves, appearance:
Big, whole, curly leaves with many different colors.
Mostly bright green, brown and black.

Dry leaves, aroma:
Light floral, vegetal and woody notes. No maltiness whatsoever.

Liquor:
Medium orangish brown.

Packaging:
4 oz. loose tea tin.

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #19
#drinkwhatyouown January slot 4/25

Today is day 2 of 3 morning shifts in a row. Was planning on drinking this to start my day but wasn’t feeling it, so waiting for my coworker running late at end of my shift I made these 2 sachets steeped 10 mins half boiling water half lukewarm water the took tumbler home and had it as a cozy cup on the couch. Black tea (especially plain straight ones) are a tea type I struggle with so it was pleasant but not something I’ll have again (other than the other two sachets these 4 came in a Sipsby box eons ago).

#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown #sipdownchallenge

Decent but muddied, a fairly generic blend aspiring toward some sort of archetypal Darjeeling ideal without having enough personality to get there. I drink it as a maintenance tea a fair amount but rarely recommend it. Honestly I’d probably say to save your money and save for a better a single-origin Darjeeling if you have the option.

I’m sorry but this tastes like Lipton black tea! Somebody had to say it.

The scent is just absolutely lovely when it reached my nose. The taste was equally as enjoyable, with first a woodsy taste and later the sweetness surfaces. It truly holds to the name “the Champagne of India”.

This is my favorite black teas. I’ve read a few things about teas from the Darjeeling growing regions and the leafs are supposed to be of higher quality (at least in regards to taste) than the more prolific areas of Assam. This tea is soft and gentle in taste in spite of being a black tea. I would comment on the particular flavor notes but I’ve ran out of this tea and would like to drink it and slowly tease apart the taste while writing this review. Definitely one of the best black teas out there.

Doesn’t have much of an scent to it like other teas. I smell a little undertones of honey. The taste is smokey with a hint of raspberry. Overall, this tea is good, but nothing to write home about. If you are looking for a simple black tea, I think this would be a good option.

Having a cup of this while I try finishing the knitted scarf for my husband that was SUPPOSED to be a Christmas gift, but I just didn’t have time to knit (and, this double seed stitch, while super easy, seems to take me longer than other patterns have…)…..
I love the brightness of this tea, along with that brisk lift at the finish. It’s not my favourite Darjeeling I’ve had (and, admittedly, I have not had too many…), but I really do like this tea. I swear I was picking up an almost cinnamon thing going on, but it was fleeting in each sip…enough to make me feel a bit of spice in the note, though.
Really lovely.

H&S sent me a sample sachet of this; I’m not crazy about darjeeling but neither do I hate it. Unfortunately I screwed up my one shot to try this as immediately it was done steeping, I got distracted by people and dogs and didn’t remember the tea till it was decidedly tepid. At that point it tasted like very standard bagged darjeeling, nothing special. And maybe it IS standard, but I’ve no way to tell now, so I’m just noting the fact that I don’t know. This is a non-note. A note of what wasn’t noted. (Sorry guys, some people always have to take a thing too far.)