Second Flush Darjeeling
This tea has been retired/discontinued.
 |
|
Commercial Description
A sweet and earthy Darjeeling that's deliciously complex and astringent.
Ratings & Reviews
Page 1 of 1 page with 1 review
60 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 4/5AnMaikul (3 reviews) on Sep. 14th, 2014
I think this is an average to above-average, if a bit unmemorable, darjeeling.
Steeping the tea the traditional way using DAVIDsTEA's instructions gives a pretty bold mouthfeel. It is quite astringent, with good body, and little bitterness. The aroma is quite pleasant and very much like a darjeeling, earthy with sweet muscatel notes. However, I find it to be a bit weak and always wish it were more intense to match the body and astringency. Using more leaves or steeping longer would only result in a more astringent brew that I don't favor.
To experiment, I also tried brewing this the gongfu cha way, and steeped for around 15 sec. It's obviously not traditional, but I actually found it quite a bit more interesting. For the first 3-4 steeps, I thought the bright, floral, muscatel flavor was quite prominent, and not muddled as I find happens with the traditional steep. The body is much lighter this way, with no bitterness, but there is still quite the astringency, a tad more than what I'd prefer, but its what I expected for this kind of tea. The flavor carries over for more steepings (I did it for around 8 times), and later ones have less bright flavor, and more of a comforting earthy flavor thats more reminiscent of cheap darjeeling tea, without the bitterness.
I think the price is very reasonable for what you get. However, I can't see myself buying this often, especially if I were steeping the traditional way.
Page 1 of 1 page with 1 review
