Ooooh Darjeeling

Another neglected tea. I have a ton (~40 gr) of this left, and it’s taking up an entire canister. Anyway, first infusion, 3 minutes and 205 degree water. It smell immediately gives away it’s origin, no other tea region that I know of has the same smell. It’s kinda hard for me to describe, but I would hazard a guess that it’s like dates. The taste is very clear and fruity, and very pleasant for a warm evening like today. It’s also a welcome change from Japanese greens and Yunnan blacks that I’ve been drinking this week.

Unfortunately, I don;t have enough time for another cup, but this is a pretty good way to end the day. Since I don’t get to fully experience the tea, I won;t give a rating, but it tastes better than I remember. I’ll give it a more detailed review sometime in the near future.

This was so neat – not at all what I was expecting. I was actually expecting more oolong flavor and was shocked and yet pleasantly surprised when I got darjeeling flavor (yes, I was really distracted this morning).
It was raining here all day while my fiance, my sister and I tackled some freakishly intimidating camera equipment.
And you know what? We nailed it. Follow focus with all of its gears? Got it. Monitor with crazy focus and exposure assist settings? We so have this. Crazy sweet camera with all its features? Nailed it.
I feel so much better about Friday when we are actually shooting.
Back to the tea – it was nice to have something to calm my nerves. I did supplement my exhaustion with coffee, but I tried to tamp the jitters down.
This so matched the day – kind of smokey, kind of rainy (yes, the tea was kind of rainy), really nicely mellow and bracing in that almost black tea kind of way. I bet this would be fabulous with milk in the morning (I know, oolong and milk= sacrilege.)

Trying this one in the gaiwan, and the first few steeps seemed pretty light. I wonder whether it’s a property of Indian oolongs that they need longer steeps than Chinese ones?

The flavor started to get stronger at around the third steep, which was a minute. Longer steeps are better with this one. I got a nice stone fruit-grapey flavor without any sharp edges. It was as though the sharp Darjeeling-y smell of the aroma had had its edges filed off in the flavor. The leaves on this one looked a uniform milk-chocolaty brown after steeping, with some nicely formed whole leaves and a lot of broken ones. For some reason they made me think of autumn.

Everyone at my house is in the other room watching the Oscars. I have, as per the usual schedule, a writing assignment due (and as per usual these days, I haven’t done it yet). I am having such a love/hate relationship with writing these days. Sigh.

Surprised I haven’t reviewed this before, as it turns out I have one cup left from the sampler so luckily I have just enough to review with.

It looks to be of average quality but nothing beyond that. The leaves are for the most part broken down into smallish pieces. Most are dark brown in colour but there are a few silver tips. A quick sniff and I can note a delicately sweet, floral scent.

Flavour is dry but sweet with floral and nutty tones. It’s a little astringent but not too bad. I love Darjeeling but I tend to buy the more expensive Darjeelings, because of that this one is not standing up as well as it perhaps should. It’s an ok cup of tea that is at best average and at worst a dry and bitter black tea.

If you have yet to experience the wonders of Darjeeling then this may not be a bad place to start.

This tea is so interesting! It’s a darjeeling prepared in an oolong style. It mostly tastes like a darjeeling, but it has the light earthiness of a darker oolong. I don’t think I’d restock it because I’m not amazed by it, but I’m definitely enjoying working my way through the sample.

a dark oolong that is still so light? it’s so mellow. which is a nice way of saying it’s bland but in a good way :)
i wish i was feeling more talkative than that.
but until then… thank you for sharing this tea Shelley_Lorraine!

The leaves in this are so… airy. I never know how much I should be putting in the cup. Hmm. Still works out well, though.

Big, wiry leaves for this one, so I used 1 airy tsp for the 3.5oz pot; liqueur is a light amber color; smells a bit like Darjeeling, but softer and toastier, without the really sharp muscatel. First sip: much softer than anything I expected with the word “Darjeeling” in the name; also surprising hints of flowers. Nice, but a little weak – might not’ve used enough leaf. I’ll be glad when the tiny scale I ordered just for tea gets here!

No rating for now, I think I messed up on the times here. Brewed a gaiwan with boiling water, but kind of all over the place with times here. Will try again sometime and then rate. :)

Note for me: someone on teachat recommended: "Boiling or near-boiling water (I like to let it come to a boil and let it sit for 1-2 minutes), a heaping teaspoon of tea (which usually covers the bottom of the gaiwan just enough so I can’t see the bottom), and probably 2-3 mins on the infusion – partially just to let it cool down a bit. "

This is the second of the oolongs in my sampler from Adagio, and after my excellent experience with the Dancong Aria my hopes were pretty high. I did however neglect this tea a little—I was making parsley pesto and totally forgot about it, so it was a bit cool once I drank it. I like my teas a bit cooler anyway, so no harm done! I also steeped this at less than the recommended temperature, the leaves just look far too delicate for boiling. They’re so pretty though, reminded me of a bird nest when I opened the bag!

This tea is just… okay for me. I was expecting more based on reviews, and I kind of feel like I’m missing something. There’s a definite malty/woody flavor that I am liking as well as a faint hint of muscatel, but for the most part this isn’t really an impressive oolong. There are no real floral notes which I was looking for, but there is a pleasantly surprising buttery taste as it cools. But overall it lacks the punch of a black yet doesn’t have the depth and complexity I want from an oolong.