Organic Darjeeling Autumnal

All right, Steepsterites. I tried this at a shorter steep time and it was still noticeably bitter, though not nearly as much as before and a weird part of me [my elbow, maybe] didn’t mind it. Maybe I need to drop the temperature down a bit, or wash the leaves before I let it sit. I don’t know, but what I will tell you is that the second steep of this was absolutely phenomenal. Grape-y in a lovely, lovely way. I can’t get into it much more because I need to study for a test I’ve got tomorrow, which allows me to segue somewhat clumsily into the next paragraph.

I’ve been drinking a lot of tea lately, but I’ve got finals coming up, and that means that I don’t have time to log things like I’d like to. It also means that I’m going to have to go dark on Steepster for a week or two because I need to throw myself into school right now. SO, I will see you guys on the other side of the semester. I fully look forward to my activity feed being so blown that there’s no way I’ll be able to catch up. ENJOY YOUR TEA!

This was the inaugural run of my new teapot today. It was wonderful! I think I am in love. And I’m already thinking that when I break this teapot, it’s not too expensive to just order another one. Though hopefully I will have a bit before that happens.

I rarely get to drink Darjeelings and Keemuns – they aren’t the best teas to take to work in my travel tumbler and the husband doesn’t like them as much so I rarely fix them on my stay-at-home days. But it’s been quite a while since I had this so I thought I’d bust it out. Hubby chose to partake so I made some for him, too.

It seems especially nutty as it cools with a tart sweetness like white grapes. The tail puts a bit of astringency at the back of my throat, almost like orange juice can. Brisk and fairly bright in taste, I enjoy it a bit more as it goes from hot to pretty warm.

Going to go make a second steep. In my new teapot! WOO!

ETA: The second steep is lovely. Much softer and sweeter than the original steep. Totally different in character. The majority of the aftertaste hits the middle of my tongue instead of the back of my throat like steep one. The nutty flavor is lighter and the tart sweet of grape has moved into something faintly more floral. No dryness or bitterness is evident and there is a mere hint of the previous tartness.

Auggy sent me this one, and I’m still on the fence about it.

This is the second Darjeeling I’ve ever tried (after Golden Moon’s Darjeeling), so I don’t have much to compare it to, but I do know it usually comes tagged with words like “muscatel” and “the champagne of teas.”

Anyway, this looks like a slightly higher-quality black, leaf-wise. Pretty and twisty, and dry it smells like grape juice! Okay, maybe not so potent in a Welsh’s way, but there’s similar smells going on. I steeped this one up, and from the wet leaves I could immediately smell an almost sour-wine smell. Very grape-like, mixed with bake-y undertones. I’m serious. And the infusion, surprisingly just had hints of nutty-cocoa-black smells. I could smell a little bit of sweetness coming off the vapors that would give me a nice facial if I just sat there and waited, but I’m eager to try it.

This is where things get confusing. At first, this tea tastes like sour, unripe grapes! Seriously. Like something bad happened at the vineyard and they gave me wine with grapes that just weren’t quite there yet. There are kind of wine-y, fruity notes, but they’re really getting drowned out by the sour grapes of WRATH.

But then something magical happens and it’s like someone dumped out my cup when I wasn’t looking and replaced it with a completely different tea. When the tea cooled to a proper level, it even smelled different. The typical black-tea-smell had given way to a grape-y fruitiness (I guess this is where I can use big words like muscatel), and there was a nice, sweet smell emanating from the cup.

And now the taste has radically changed as well, just from the cup cooling down! It’s not sour at all anymore, but rather, sweet. There’s just a hint of grape-sweetness, and the black flavors have become more balanced, so I’m getting some smokiness, nuttiness, and light cocoa tones. There’s still a slight touch of tartness at the end of each sip, but now it’s very pleasant. Even the astringency levels seem to have gone down.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! It’s like my star tea got swapped in for a much hotter, cuter stunt double that should really be in the limelight.

I’m going to do a second steep the next time I make this, because I already tossed the leaves, but it’s definitely worth waiting for this to cool down to drink it. Really bizarre.

This one is a bit dry, but very tasty in my opinion. You can taste the natural sweetness in the steam rising up from the cup. The color is deep golden…very pretty. It smells faintly of green tea but tastes nothing of it. I’m digging the slightly nutty flavor. I could drink this one all the time. I bet it would be tasty iced too. Yea Darjeeling!

I’m glad Auggy sent me a full sample tin!

I’ve been drinking this tea for a couple of weeks, and it hasn’t been doing much for me. It’s not as robust with the delicate muscatel notes of a 2nd flush, and not as subtle and gentle as a 1st flush. I guess it makes sense since it is an atumnal flush.

A cup of this to take away from the normally infallible Hopetoun Tea rooms in Melbourne. Unfortunately, a little under-strength. I didn’t mind the characteristics it had, but it didn’t have anything to back up the foretaste, no middle and certainly no aftertaste. Not much aroma either.
Will tray again today and see if it does better