Darjeeling The Autumnal

My 13th tea from The Book of Tea. An average Darjeeling, like one of those everyday teas in office pantry. Nothing worth mentioning as nothing stands out. It doesn’t taste bad but I am giving it a relatively low rating for being boring :P

A bog-standard Darjeeling blend. Perfectly pleasant, good quality leaves, but it’s…Darjeeling. Nothing awful or outstanding, it’s a solid middle of the road option. It did hold up nicely to two steepings. I don’t use milk or sweetener in my tea, but I suspect this would be a nice blank canvas for syrups or milks.

This is for the batch picked in Autumn of 2021. Let me preface this by saying that I’m not a big Darjeeling fan in general. Most of the time I find Darjeelings too bland for my taste. When I saw the description of this one, I thought I’d give it a shot. Smooth, full-bodied and sweet? Count me in!

As soon as I opened the package, I had my doubts. I didn’t care for the scent of the dried leaf. I wish I could come up with a good description. Roasty? Not really earthy, also not like a black tea to me. I’m failing to come up with an accurate description. Anyway, I didn’t care for the scent but was hoping it was one of those situations where it brews up quite differently into something I would like. Brewed according to Lupicia’s directions. Sadly, the brewed tea was true to the dry leaf scent. I mean, I can drink it, I’ll eventually get through it, but it won’t be one I would reach for normally. Smooth? Sure. Full-bodied? OK. Sweet? No way. No sweetness in this tea. No bitterness, but nothing I can detect that would fall into any category of sweetness. I will try it iced to see if that improves it. My initial take on Darjeelings stands. Meh.

Good tasting tea. It’s got a smooth, mellow taste. Nice but not something I’d remember as being particularly tasty or anything.