Castleton Estate 1st Flush

A couple of weeks ago I had picked up two Darjeeling samplers – one labeled “1st Flush” and the other “1st Flush Castleton Estate”. Although I was pretty sure it was the Castleton Estate sample I had really enjoyed because of its depth of flavour and balance of fruit and floral flavours, by the time I went to pick up a 50gm bag I couldn’t remember which was the one I had really liked. In the end, I picked up the two samples again and on returning home realised that it was, in fact, the Castleton Estate tea that I had tried and enjoyed.

With lingering memories of an exquisite “Heavenly Earl Grey” sample that had been lurking in my cupboard for months, today had been somewhat disappointing tea-wise. Firstly, I had wanted to try “Quince Sencha” at the Tea Centre for several months and was looking forward to an intense bitter and sweet infusion, only to be left with a mild tea that left a literal bad taste in my mouth. One of the major department stores in Sydney has started stocking Kusmi teas, so today I bought my first tin – the others in my cupboard were the much smaller sample tins – which was a bergamot, lemon and lime blend called “Anastacia” which I wasn’t particularly impressed with either.

I was hoping the Castleton Estate Darjeeling would redeem today’s tea drinking but I’m just not really impressed with it this time round. I brewed it in exactly the same way – i.e. bring the water to the boil and leave to sit for five minutes like I do with green and white tea, but infuse like an Oolong or Black tea for about three or four minutes – but it is not really doing it for me. Sometimes, one particular cup of tea will seem to numb my enjoyment of tea for the remainder of the day and I think I’m having one of those days today.

I’ll purchase another sample and try again another time I think.