Darjeeling Okayti Splendour First Flush

Lewis & Clark #4

Soft nose. Bold flavor. Classic first flush flavor with hints of stone fruit. Becomes slightly bitter at the finish, but not enough to spoil the taste. The finish is very long, adding depth to the following sip.

There was a discussion topic about Darjeeling a few weeks ago, and this tea sums up my feeling in the discussion. There are hundreds of good, solid Darjeelings out there; each one a pleasure to drink, but few can distinguish themselves enough to rise to the top of the ratings.

Lewis & Clarke TTB

Trying another Darjeeling to compare! :D I think Cheri added this one to the box, since I know she has the Golden Tips subscription. Thanks, Cheri! The leaves of this tea look very different from the Giddapahar that I just tried – they look very much like green tea, especially after they’ve steeped and expanded. The dry scent is similar, though – musty sweet hay and grain, similar to a white tea. I used the shorter end of the steeping time range provided, mostly because I was afraid of bitterness.

Brewed, this tea smells pretty floral, but it also has creamy hay and grain notes. I also get a little bit of fruitiness, but it’s similar to fresh grapes instead of dried fruit. Wow, this tastes very similar to a white tea! It’s very creamy and smooth with sweet hay and pastry notes. At the beginning of the sip, I do get an interesting floral flavor that seems to disappear near the middle. It then reappears in the aftertaste and lingers on the tongue long after you’ve finished drinking. Luckily for me, it’s not a super strong or heady floral, so it’s pretty inoffensive. I’m surprised to not find any of the fruit notes that were in the last Darjeeling I tried. I’ve really enjoyed both of them, though! :)

This is just ok. I was expecting it to taste more like the second flush teas. It was a bit light and bitter for me.

I had to dig around to find this one, because Nothing is quite listed as I would expect it to be for Golden Tips Teas. That said, I found it. Yay me!

I really liked this one as it cooled. But even hot, it was quite nice. Surprisingly, not quite as nice as the second flush goomtee that I had before it. I will enjoy the rest of this tea that I have.

Before I review this tea, permit me a caveat to everybody on the Golden Tips subscription plan (which I love, so that’s not the warning!): Golden Tips has something like five different company profiles at Steepster. I was unable to locate this tea until I did a Google search, which brought up this page. I was doing a Google search because I was unable to locate the page using the search function at Steepster (and I tried several different terms…), so I was preparing to download a photo and tea info, etc. This must be how so many duplicate pages for teas came to be at Steepster.

Now for my first Golden Tips tea experience: Darjeeling Okayti Splendour First Flush, this one picked on March 28, 2014, and identified as Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe 1 Splendour. But is it a black tea? That is the question before us.

To be honest, this has got to be the greenest darjeeling I’ve ever seen. Granted, most of the darjeeling which I’ve imbibed has been from blends, so not first flush, and not single estate. The dried tea in this first flush, single estate darjeeling from Okayti contains mainly green leaves. I am not imagining this: most of the leaves are various shades of green. There are also some silver tips and a few black leaves scattered about, but judging from appearance alone, I would call this a green, not a black tea—and that’s coming from someone who has consumed large volumes of both.

The liquor brews up greenish gold and becomes more gold and less green after a couple of minutes, but the flavor is very light and—here’s another surprise—it reminds me somewhat of green oolong!

I’m not really sure what to make of all this. The cup was quite tasty, but barely intersected with my concept of darjeeling—almost like a second cousin! Now I am all the more excited to sip my way through my first subscription plan box, hopefully before the next one arrives—which is right around the corner, since this one shipped on July 4th, and today is already the 22nd!

Since my generous sample packet still contains another 7 grams, I’ll withhold attaching a number to this tea until I’ve tried a few more of these darjeelings to give me some perspective on this unique experience.