Tumsong SFTGFOP1 Second Flush Organic

This is a sample I picked from the RtR website – I thought, due to the description it sounded more on the sweet side. This most definitely IS a darjeeling. I didn’t think I liked them but I got some samples to try anyway.. lol

I steeped this for 4 minutes at about 180 F. I could have gone hotter on the water, the package says to use 200.

I have to admit I was sorely tempted to put soymilk in this but I think it would have ruined the really delicate flavor here. It’s light and delicious! Very fruity tea but I do get the pine needle thing they are describing here. Quite a fragrant aroma which I believe is described as the “muscatel finish”. Well I am a complete newbie to darjeelings since the one I had before was Twinings I believe and that just gave me a stomach ache. This is definitely a different experience and I am enjoying it. I am a little nervous about the astringency but it doesn’t seem to have much.

Now I’m going to have to get familiar with what all these letters mean. SFTGFOP = Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe , you got that? ;-)

One of last Darjeeling 2011s in my stash. Gotta say it was a good year. Thankfully, it’s ending on a good note with this one. While not as strong on the spice-‘n-grape profile as others I’ve tried, this was a very even muscatel mouthfeel from start to finish. It is quintessentially Darjeeling with none of the weaknesses.

Full Review: Pending on www.teaviews.com

Being that green tea is my favorite, I typically expect 1st flush teas to be the best. At the very least, the little that I’ve read has given me the assumption that the best flush is the first, followed by the autumn, whereas the summer is kind of there at the bottom.

This tea happily changed that assumption for me.

It has a refreshing apple-like aroma at the end of the sip, and it reminded me strongly of the way I imagine apple hookah smells (without the smoke). Similarly, it had an intense quality that I will describe as the way rosewater tastes, without the rose/flowery aroma. RTR describes this tea as having a strong jam and sap aroma, or pine needles, and perhaps that how they describe the same flavor I’m calling rosewater.

I very much enjoyed this sample, and this would definitely go into consideration as a good daily tea, if I decide at some point to drink black tea more often.

Another day, another sample from Rare Tea Republic finished. This wasn’t my favorite of the teas that I picked out, but it was still a delightful tea, with a very pleasing complex flavor. Since this was literally the bottom of the bag, there was a bit more tea dust than usual, but other than that, this tea conformed with my previous tastings. See my previous notes for more information.