Singbulli FGTFOP 1 Gold, Second Flush 2020

From Leafhopper, thank you :)

Dry leaf aroma has very faint notes of hay, orange blossom and myrrh. The aroma of the brewed tea is a mix or orange blossom-malt-chocolate-autumn leaf. The taste has a very floral tea rose lean upfront, followed by smooth autumn leaf-malt a very shy muscatel. Leaves a lasting, drying astringency and malty-orange blossom creaminess after the swallow.

As it is, good middle of the road tea. The flavors are pleasant but muffled. Need more leaf to find this tea’s sweet spot.

This tea is from my massive Darjeeling haul this summer. I don’t remember ever having a Singbulli second flush, as I think this estate is better known for its first flushes. I steeped around 4 g of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 195F for 5 and 8 minutes.

The dry aroma of these fluffy, generously gold-scattered leaves is of muscatel, autumn leaf pile, and hay. The first steep has notes of sticky muscatel, malt, orange, honey, flowers, autumn leaf pile, wood, hay, and tannins. It’s both gorgeously sweet and grounded by the astringency, which I think makes it a nice weekend morning tea. The second steep is lighter on the muscatel and heavier on the tannins, and adds notes of earth, grass, and minerals.

While this tea didn’t blow me away, it’s a nice second flush Darjeeling that had enough heft to wake me up. I might try steeping it a bit cooler to emphasize those muscatel and orange flavours.