2nd Flush Darjeeling - Organic
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Commercial Description
World famous as "Champagne of tea", light, amber liquor and unique muscatel aroma
Ratings & Reviews
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77 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 3/5Alex Zorach (1448 reviews) on Nov. 22nd, 2013
A classic and high-quality example of second flush. This was my first introduction to Waterfall teas, and it makes me eager to try more of this company's teas and see where they go!
This is the first pyramid sachet that I thought surpassed Two Leaves and a Bud's Darjeeling in quality. It is a notch more expensive (even factoring in that there are more tea bags per box) but only by a bit.
I sampled this tea first at the Philadelphia Coffee and Tea Festival, but had the opportunity to take a few samples and brew them myself. I'm glad I did, because I enjoyed this tea more when I controlled the brewing.
The dry leaf is strongly aromatic, even in the pyramid sachet. It has a rich brown color and a strong fruity aroma.
Brews up an intensely fruity cup with a relatively clear brown liquor--I wouldn't say light amber, this is pretty dark in color.
Initially sipping the tea, it seemed a bit syrupy to me (not enough astringency) but I found that the astringency had sunk to the bottom of the cup. Stirring it a bit (I did not add anything) led to a more balanced cup.
Very pleasant, with a typical second flush character: fruity, mostly muscatel grape but with other fruity qualities as well, like raisins or stone fruit. There is also a strong caramel aroma, slightly like muffins or biscuits. There's also a faint hint of wintergreen in the aroma, especially in the finish.
Very pleasant bitter aftertaste...I like it. This tea starts out sweet but then leaves a bitterness on the tip of the tongue...but the type of bitterness is one I find I like very much.
I find that letting the cup cool really brings out the wintergreen tones, which is a quality I like...so I thought this tea actually tasted better cold than hot, although it was quite good hot.
I was able to brew a second cup, and it was very flavorful and pleasant, but it completely lacked the fruity tones of the first cup. Instead, it was herbaceous and vegetal, still with wintergreen tones. It still had the bitter aftertaste, but in the absence of the fruitiness I didn't enjoy it as much. It's good that this tea sachet can brew two cups, but I thought the second was nowhere near as amazing as the first, it was only decent.
Perhaps this tea would work better brewing the first cup for a briefer period of time--I did 3 minutes and perhaps 2 would leave more flavor for the second cup. Either way I thought this tea was very good and I am eager to try more from this new company.
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