Organic Darjeeling

I’ve been kind of ho-hum about this tea, but I have to say that today’s cup was really nice. There were the floral notes with the muscatel flavor following at the end of the sip which had been my normal experience with this tea. Today, however, there was also a silkiness to the tea that made it so delightful.

I think the reason for the change is that my water was cooler than usual when I poured it onto the leaves. I’d turned my kettle off and then was distracted for five or so minutes before I poured the water and began brewing the tea. A very serendipitous turn of events that had me practically swooning over my cup.

I may tape a note to my tea tin reminding me to always let the water cool for a few minutes for this particular tea. Come to think of it, I may need to go brew myself another cup right now just to make sure… you know… for science. ;-)

Another sipdown. Sad, but necessary—cupboard real estate is at a premium around here. Did a nice long-ish steep on this sample from the wonderful Jude. It might be mislabeled, as there was no Organic Darjeeling from Wegmans in the database, but I’ll assume it’s the right thing unless I discover otherwise.

Dark amber in color, roasty chocolate aroma with caramelized squash notes and a hint of florals. Has an almost silky mouthfeel, which I didn’t expect from a Darjeeling but is really nice. I’d definitely drink this again. Too bad it doesn’t exist! ;)

So it turns out the the instructions on the label were wrong. Apparently you’re not supposed to boil darjeeling. Oops. I steeped it at 185 instead, and the result was vastly improved!