Daily Darjeeling Second Flush Black Tea

Sample from Variatea..this one was the winner for me..if by winner you mean least offensive tea :) Always appreciate the share and happy to have a little time to get through a few of the samples you’ve given me!

D is for…Daily Darjeeling Summer Black Tea and a small Darjeeling battle with another Vahdam Darjeeling. Check out the note for that tea here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/420683

This steeped up darker than the other Darjeeling. It’s brisk and dry without being astringent. It has what I would call a classic Darjeeling profile, being muscatel and floral, and that’s not a profile I vibe with often. That means I don’t really care much for this one.

Adventaggedon Day 17 – Tea 4/6

Oh, sweet respite from turmeric and masala! I was chuffed seeing this one today!

I’m so straight tea starved in between advents that my initial thought with this was “Oh, I should brew it Gongfu” but I didn’t have time to do that today. Honestly, that might be a good thing, because I think Gongfu brewed Darjeeling would have been a little weird even for me.

This was pretty nice, but there was a Darjeeling earlier in the advent (first flush, I think) and I thought that one was much nicer. This was very gently astringent and a little muscatel, but mostly pretty flat and thin for a Darjeeling. Very easy to sip on, and didn’t give my sensitive stomach today an issues – was a nice midafternoon cuppa.

The “Daily Darjeeling” name seems fitting though – would be a really easy tea to make a pot or mug of to drink over the course of an afternoon. Nothing unpleasant, but nothing that commands your attention. Perfect type of tea for that daily drinker moniker.

Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CI6lipOAskU/

Vahdam Advent Calendar – Day 17

Another straight tea, and a pleasant respite from Turmeric Land (™). I will say I hope there are more Assam teas to come, as I tend to enjoy them more than the Darjeelings. This is a second flush, so I knocked the steeping temp up just a little bit, still trying to be conservative as I have little experience with this type of tea.

I do like this one. It has a smooth and somewhat thick bready flavor, reminding me of a Chinese black tea. There’s a bit of that caraway sort of vibe that I find in Fujian varieties specifically, along with a touch of hay and chewy raw grains. Otherwise some malt and autumn leaf, and that’s about it. I’m not really getting much in the fruity department, which surprises me for a Darjeeling tea. It’s very smooth, with zero bitterness or astringency.

There is a little hint of menthol-esque herbal note at the end of the sip that makes me think this has also been slightly contaminated from being near so many heavily spiced teas. It’s not unpleasant or anything, it just feels as if it doesn’t belong.

(today’s advent teas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CI56irkAw4b/)

I loved almost all Darjeelings from Vadham, but this one doesn’t cut it for me. No matter the amount of leaves I put in my cup, it always ends up tasting weak. I tried two different batches of this tea, and both performed poorly. It’s not undrinkable by all means, just unexciting.

I bought some loose leaf tea samples from Vahdam via Amazon, and most of the ones I have left are pure black teas like this one.

It has a bitter flavour to it but not overly bitter. Overall, I quite enjoyed it.

This tea is still not good. I’ve learned to appreciate it more as an iced tea, but that is the only way I’ll finish it off. Hard pass on this one.

I’m going through a lot of orthodox black teas to find my perfect black tea or black blend.
This tea retails for $8.00 per 100g. Or $0.08 per gram. An affordable tea.

04/03/2018 1430: First tasting done with 3 g tea in 300 ml of water at 211 degrees steeped for four minutes. No milk. There was a nice grapey aroma to the freshly brewed leaf. Less astringent to the Vadham Daily Assam that I tasted just before this one. Less astringent, but more brightness. Tasting notes of plum and muscatel. Some gaining astringency closer to the bottom of the cup.

As I said before, i’m not the biggest of fans of Darjeeling teas. This one is a nice and delicate black tea with hints of grapes and muscatel flavour. Ideal for people who like a smooth cup of black darjeeling. It has a nice faint hint of bitterness to acompany the smoothness. Good Darjeeling for daily drinking.

Tonight we have up 2016 daily Darjeeling , I added in the year, because for darjeelings this seems to make a big difference because of the weather. In a blend like this its probably slightly less important, but still might make a difference when the 2017’s come out.

I brewed 2.5 grams in 160 ml water, in a glass pot. I used 205 water as I find a slightly less than boiling works well on Darjeeling tea. I got a plum and muscatel aroma, a slight sweetness and a hint of apricots. There is a few other aroma’s that I cant quite identify.

Tasting it , I get more sweetness as well as a tiny hint of astringency right on the end of it. This is a really easy drinking tea for breakfast or later afternoon. It’s about medium on the caffeine scale , so it good for most times. Im drinking this to relax and wind down at the end of the day, and its very smooth..

Highly recommended.