Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black (Darjeeling)
Where to Buy: Happy Earth Tea
Tea Description:
A delicate floral first flush with layers of complex and exquisite notes. This tea proclaims the arrival of spring!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The more I think about it, the more I’m loving spring! My favorite season of the year is autumn, but, I’m adoring all these amazing first flush teas that I’ve had the opportunity to try this spring! And this Organic Puttabong Darjeeling First Flush from Happy Earth Tea is absolutely dee-lightful!
The dry leaf aroma is earthy with notes of flower and hints of fruit-like sweetness. The brewed tea has a delicate fragrance: very light floral and fruit notes. The earthiness is also subdued once the leaves are brewed.
The flavor is sweet and tastes much the way the scent suggests. Hints of earthy tones with a warm, woodsy note. Sweet, crisp floral notes. And just beneath the earthy/woodsy notes, I start to pick up on the fruit-like flavors. There are grape-y notes that are especially noticeable at the finish and in the aftertaste. I can feel that “tingly” sensation on the tongue from the grape notes.
This has some dry, tangy astringency develops slightly as I continue to sip. My first few sips I didn’t notice much astringency at all, and now that I’m halfway through the cup, the astringency is more obvious. The astringency and the grape-like notes give this a delicate wine-like finish.
As the tea cools, I pick up on more of those lovely grape-like notes. I find that the earth notes seem to soften, and the fruit and flower intermingle, offering a sweet, stunning flavor. I think my favorite temperature to drink this is after it’s cooled about ten minutes – it’s still on the warmer side, but not hot. Not cold. The astringency is softer at this point, and I’m enjoying a really beautiful tea with intriguing fruit notes and delicate whispers of flower that dance on the palate.
Another lovely tea from Happy Earth Tea! Really, you can’t go wrong with their selection of first flush teas – no matter which one you choose. I’d have a difficult time trying to choose a favorite!
Organic Puttabong STGFOP1 First Flush Darjeeling from Happy Earth Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black (Darjeeling)
Where to Buy: Happy Earth Tea
Tea Description:
Light golden and bright liquor with a floral and malty flavor. It has a mellow taste with subtle citrus hints and a sweet lingering finish. Deeply satisfying.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf of this Organic Puttabong STGFOP1 First Flush Darjeeling from Happy Earth Tea has a pleasant earthy scent. Once brewed, the aroma becomes more woodsy and floral, but I can still detect some of the earthy tones I noticed in the dry leaf.
The flavor is mild and possesses light fruit notes. There is also notes of flower and wood, but I’m not tasting so much of the earthy notes found in the fragrance.
I like the how the floral notes build. They start off really subtle, and then toward mid-cup, they become much more pronounced. It’s a sweet, exotic sort of flowery taste, orchid perhaps? The woodsy notes are much more subdued here, and they seem to be there to offer a more grounded contrast in flavor to the floral tones.
The fruit notes start off rather obscure … I can taste a ‘fruit-like’ note but, it isn’t really distinct or well-defined. After I’ve consumed about a quarter of the cup, though, I start to notice bright citrus-y notes.
There isn’t a lot of “muscatel” taste to this Darjeeling, then again, I didn’t really expect there to be, because this is a first flush tea, and typically first flush Darjeeling teas do not possess much of a strong muscatel flavor. But, that’s OK … I enjoy this tea for what it is! It is a crisp tea with a refreshing taste that seems to sparkle on the palate as I sip it. Very nice!