Tea: Darjeeling Black Tea
A Darjeeling Black Tea from Rituals
Brand: | Rituals |
Style: | Darjeeling Black Tea |
Region: | Darjeeling, India |
Caffeine: | Caffeinated |
Loose? | Teabag |
# Ratings: | 1 View All |
Reviewer: Tchuggin' Okie
![Reviewer Image](/images/account/2282.jpg)
✓ 390 teas reviewed
✓ 4 of Darjeeling Black Tea
✓ 72 of Black Tea
✓ 6 of Rituals
✓ 6 from Darjeeling, India
✓ 20 from India
Review of Darjeeling Black Tea
June 23rd, 2024
Aroma | Flavor | Value | Total |
6 of 10 | 5 of 5 | 4 of 5 | 79 of 100 |
Good | Excellent | Good Value |
Here's another new Rituals tea for me (and this website), also first sampled at the Days Inn in Hays, KS. As usual, and even though Hays water isn't bad, I also hauled a bag home to try on my well water for fair comparison with other ratings.
Upon ripping open the foil-lined package, the smell that greeted my nostrils was...weak, but rather nice, and certainly consistent with the stated origin. The in-cup aroma came in a little better defined, but still nowhere nearly as sharp as the taste. Its flavor was unusually strong for a food-service black tea of any sort, somewhat surprisingly bitter without crossing the line, a little astringent, mostly dry, characteristically musky, and even a bit malty at times, but without a spicy element. Based on what I've read about Darjeelings as a non-expert, and how this one tastes, it's either from the second (pre-monsoon) flush or the 4th (fall) flush, both of which are supposed to contain the musky flavor element. The aftertaste gets a bit tangy or even fruity, which carries over into early the next sip.
This was a strangely complex tea for a bagged food-service product. Could it succeed on its own as a direct retail offering? You bet, as long as the supplier doesn't change the source and production methods. As with the Rituals jasmine green that I recently reviewed, folks in the hospitality, transportation and convention-serving industries absolutely could do worse than order some of this to put in the tea rack for their clientele.