This ‘whole leaf’ tea isn’t very whole – the leaves look pretty torn up. The flavour is…interesting. Light for a black tea but the muscatel flavour may be a bit too much to take without milk and it makes the tea quite….sharp (for lack of a better word).
All in all I’m pretty ambivalent towards this tea, I’ll have to try it with milk and see if that improves things.
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That sharpness you talk about is often referred to as “bright” when describing Darjeelings. Margaret’s Hope is a renowned tea estate, but I’m not sure they’re having a particularly good crop this year. Their teas last year were phenomenal, but I had a first-flush FTGFOP earlier this year (still have some left actually) that was just O.K. Try a short steep if yours is a first-flush tea, three minutes or slightly less.
Margaret’s Hope, unlike the other Darjeeling growers, has a high proportion of Assamica tea varietals in their tea (as opposed to the Chinese varietals used by the other Darjeeling estates). A had a second-flush Darjeeling from Makaibari, and it was much better. But that sort of thing can very greatly from year to year with single-estate teas.
I think this is a 2nd flush tea (though I’m not terribly familiar with darjeelings). I did try it with less time today, and my comments are on that entry.
That sharpness you talk about is often referred to as “bright” when describing Darjeelings. Margaret’s Hope is a renowned tea estate, but I’m not sure they’re having a particularly good crop this year. Their teas last year were phenomenal, but I had a first-flush FTGFOP earlier this year (still have some left actually) that was just O.K. Try a short steep if yours is a first-flush tea, three minutes or slightly less.
Margaret’s Hope, unlike the other Darjeeling growers, has a high proportion of Assamica tea varietals in their tea (as opposed to the Chinese varietals used by the other Darjeeling estates). A had a second-flush Darjeeling from Makaibari, and it was much better. But that sort of thing can very greatly from year to year with single-estate teas.
I think this is a 2nd flush tea (though I’m not terribly familiar with darjeelings). I did try it with less time today, and my comments are on that entry.