Summer Vacation! I had a pretty bad experience with darjeeling yesterday, but one cuppa isn’t enough to turn me away from a tea! So tonight I grabbed the other two darjeelings (the only other two in my collection, I believe) to sample to try to get a better general idea of the taste, because I’m hoping I can get these to brew up less bitter. Both of these teas were graciously made available to me from the Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox, so thanks so much to tea-sipper for organizing and all those that contributed teas to the box! Otherwise I wouldn’t even have the opportunity to get to try some more darjeeling teas, so I really appreciate it!
Both of these teas are from the Arya Estate, and one is a first flush and one is a second flush (and me knowing nothing about these kind of teas, I honestly don’t even know much about the difference, so it’ll be interesting to sample both). Since I mistakening grabbed the second flush, first, first up is the second flush Arya darjeeling. The dry leaf has a maltier black tea scent to me than the darjeeling I drank from T2 last night, and also smells just a little peppery.
I had a single serving sample, and this time I weighed the leaf to ratio out the water accordingly (I still don’t know why I blindly trusted T2s directions on the outside of their sampler packet instead of doing that last night, honestly). The brewed cup has a lovely honeyed-orange color, and the aroma is a very malty aroma with a honeyed sweetness to it. The first sip and I’m already so pleased to not taste any bitterness; it’s very smooth! The first flavor note that really strikes me is a very pleasant orange rind/marmalade flavor, with some additional notes of malt, honey, and some subtle autumn leaf vegetal notes near the finish.
This is a very different experience from the cup I had yesterday. Very pleasant, with lots of fruity and sweet notes, and lacking the harshness and astringency. I really enjoy this!
Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Honey, Malt, Orange, Smooth, Sweet, Vegetal
