The dry leaves had the scent of minerals and cacao nibs.
Brewed, the liquor is a deep auburn color and it is sweet smelling like dark raw honey.
The flavor is smoky with a lemon after taste which I wasn’t expecting!! There is a bit of a good bitterness (not bad) and astringency.
This is the first true black tea that I’ve had since I was younger with Lipton or something like that. Plus, when I had a cup of hot black tea back then, I always added milk to it. I have been limiting myself to greens, oolongs, and whites because I didn’t want a lot of caffeine jolt but rather an even and small amount of caffeine. Well, I have been wrong about you black tea because this had no more caffeine jolt than the Da Hong Pao Oolongs that I have been drinking!! I drank the entire 12 ounces and my head feels nice and even and not with a caffeine high.
So I had fun coming over to the “dark side” lol.
I am loving the Steepster Select club because it is expanding my tea horizons and I enjoyed this tea a lot. :)
From the Steepster Select Box, February 2014
Second steeping:
OK no wonder I enjoy this black tea, I have been reading about Darjeeling and found that although Darjeeling teas are marketed commercially as “black teas”, almost all of them have incomplete oxidation, so they are technically more oolong than black. Darjeeling teas are classified as a type of black tea. Modern Darjeeling style employs a hard wither (35-40% remaining leaf weight after withering), which in turn causes an incomplete oxidation for many of the best teas of this designation, which technically makes them a form of oolong.
I also liked learning that Darjeeling tea cannot be grown or manufactured anywhere else in the world (similar to Champagne in that region of France) .
Really enjoying the second steeping with more sweetness of the muscatel notes coming through and the astringency has mellowed out to be subtle though I enjoyed that lemon zest aftertaste with the first steeping, it was like I had added lemon to the tea!! I still taste a subtle amount with this second steeping. Very good!
Flavors: Lemon Zest, Mineral
