Castleton Exotic Summer Muscatel Black Tea (2017)

You know you have a lot of work to do when you look into your tea notebook and realize that you have 20+ unposted reviews. I do not recall drinking that much tea recently, but I was mowing down sample pouches at a ridiculous rate there for a while. For the most part, I found the samples I received from Teabox to be very hit or miss overall, though I must concede that I had more hits than misses. This was one of the teas I tried that I adored.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped about 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

The dry leaf material emitted herbal, fruity aromas. After infusion, I detected aromas of peach, malt, toast, wood, and of course, the trademark Castleton Muscatel. On the palate, I noted robust, expressive flavors of Muscatel, raisin, herbs, peach, toast, plum, pear, malt, wood, straw, and flowers (dandelion, marigold, viola). I also noted traces of roasted nuts (almond and walnut) and orange zest lurking in the background. The finish was somewhat astringent, offering lingering touches of Muscatel, straw, malt, herbs, wood, flowers, and roasted nuts.

Compared to the two other Teabox second flush Darjeelings I recently reviewed, this was more what I think of when I think of this type of tea. It should come as no surprise that I enjoyed it more than the other two and found it more memorable overall (I should also note that I am a huge fan of the teas produced by the Castleton Estate). If you like second flush Darjeelings with a very clearly defined Muscatel character, then this would likely be a tea for you.