It absolutely does not feel like Tuesday, though to be honest if asked what day it does feel like, I would probably just slur a bunch of syllables together and end it in day. I always find it strange when the perception of time gets messed up and it does not feel like the time or day it is supposed to, I wonder what causes that? I am going to blame my sleep being weird and not having my normal computer access, it has messed up my very distinct schedule. By very distinct I mean I sit in front of my computer, drink tea, and write most the day, it is only distinct because I wear a top hat and monocle at times.
Silliness aside, it is time for another Darjeeling! From Golden Tips Tea, today we are having a little looksie at Thurbo Moonlight Darjeeling Black Tea Second Flush, a FTGFOP1 Moonlight grade black tea picked the 11th of June, 2014. Now I am going to be honest, I have no idea what makes a tea Moonlight grade, doing a quick bit of research did not reveal any tasty nuggets of information, so clearly more in-depth searching must be done! I could find information of Thurbo Estate of course, located in the Mirik Valley and first planted in 1872, the name Thurbo might be a reference to the British setting up camp in the garden while they were invading Nepal, they used tents called by the locals as Tombu, which could have been mistranslated to Thurbo. A fun little bit of history before sipping, something that I always enjoy. So, the aroma of the leaves is as expected, sweet and loamy, the familiar aroma of a second flush that I have grown to love. It has notes of raisins (in comparison to first flush’s fresh scuppernong aroma that I run into) dried berries, honey, leaf loam (oddly I should specify dry rather than wet loam) a touch of malt, and at the finish a distinct note of corn silk. Darjeelings, no matter what flush they are, smell like summer to me, some of them early summer and some late, this is a tea that seems to soak up the essence of the season they were plucked.
The now steeped and soggy leaves have taken on a hint of spice in their aroma! Along with the aroma of loam (ok, now it is wet loam) and raisins, there is now spicebush flowers giving their delightful blend of floral and spice. There is also a bit of pepper and honey, with a slight hint of dark rum at the finish. The amber colored liquid is a blend of malty and fruity, with notes of well obviously malt, along with dried cherries, raisins, a hint of rum, and amusingly enough at the finish there is a creamy sweet note of custard.
The taste is rich! I had a mouth explosion of raisins, it is just like I took a handful of sultanas and regular old brown raisins and munched on them, except much juicier. It mixes honey sweetness and a touch of floral at the midtaste, with just a hint of loam and spice. Around the midtaste the juiciness turns to briskness and leaves a slight dryness to the mouth, it gives a bit of a waking up feeling after the slightly heady effect of honey and raisins. The finish is sweet, though not much else, there is just a lingering sweetness and briskness, I found this a little odd after such a distinct start that it just kinda disappears at the end, but, at least the finish has a lingering sweetness!
For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/01/golden-tips-tea-thurbo-moonlight.html
