Darjeeling Sungma Summer

This is my second acquaintance with this tea, and I’m beginning to rather like it. I bought this as a sample with my last Adagio order, having only previously tried Mighty Leaf’s Organic Darjeeling Estate.

I find this a pleasant, light, refreshing tea. It doesn’t have as strong a muscatel flavour as I’d like, so my search needs to continue in that regard, but I am enjoying it. My steep time so far has been about three minutes, which I think I might extend a little next time. I’m interested to see what that does for the flavour.

In the cup, this tea has an earthy, nutty, slightly metallic aroma. This translates a little into the flavour of the tea, which tastes slightly musty and mossy. It reminds me a lot of a forest after a rain shower! The dry leaves smell slightly bitter, but, thankfully, this does not translate to the tea. In colour, they’re a mixture of green and brown-black, so I can see where some of the flavours in this tea that I associate more with green tea come from. My overall impression is of a smooth, delicate tea — perfect for a summer evening!

I’m a beginner to fine loose-leaf teas. This tea was gifted me in March with a variety of teas in an attempt to seduce me into loving tea—and it succeeded. At this point I’ve tried 22 different varieties of such teas—and this is topped only by another Darjeeling sold by TeaSource (Selim Hill.) So no, I’m by no means a connoisseur, but this is one tea that sold me on making tea a habit. Has a brisk sweet muscatel flavor. Good hot or iced, alone or with milk. I’m only leaving room at the end of this rating because who knows what teas I’ll try I’ll love more? But for now, very much a favorite.

Somewhat above avg black tea. Some oat and toasted grain, earth, a hint of kombu, some umami saltiness.

Tangy and not overly delicate. Pleasant, but not among the best Darjeeling-grown teas I’ve had.

Overcoming fear is essential. I was crippled by anxiety, afraid to take a risk: a risk that I would experience disappointment, even bitterness. I kept steeping this Darjeeling for 3 minutes and kept getting mediocre results. Then I decided to swing for the fences and steep for 5 minutes. The tea seems so much more alive, and so am I.

Sweetness makes the tea go down very smoothly, I am not sure I detect much of the various components though. Very smooth, easy drinking darjeeling tea.

Nice summer darjeeling. Very refreshing and satisfying. Certainly not as good to me as the darjeelings that I have enjoyed from Castleton Estates but a solid darjeeling none the less.

This is the other Darjeeling I have been drinking recently. Even though I have been familiar with Adagio’s products for a long time, I have to admit that until I cracked this one open, this tea was new to me. At first, I did not like it at all, but now that I have tried it multiple times, it has grown on me quite a bit.

I prepared this tea using my familiar one step Western infusion. I experimented with steep times quite a bit. It took awhile, but I think I have finally found what works best for me with this tea. According to Adagio, one should steep 1 heaping teaspoon of this tea in 8 ounces of 212 F water for anywhere from 3-5 minutes. I found that a 3 minute steep using the amount described oddly lacked character, so I adjusted the amount used and the steep time. I actually used slightly less leaf and found the result to be a more balanced, nuanced brew. I still used slightly more than a traditional teaspoon of loose tea leaves, but not quite as much as what many may consider to be a heaped teaspoon if that makes sense. I also found that a steep time ranging from 4-5 minutes using the amount of tea I settled on produced a nice cuppa. For the purposes of this review, I will be specifically referencing the 5 minute infusion.

Prior to infusion, a glance at the dry leaves revealed that this is a higher quality tea compared to the Summer Puttabong offered by Adagio. I did not notice nearly as many fannings, primarily spotting larger broken leaves and some smaller full leaves. To be clear, I still highly doubt that this would qualify as a truly high end Darjeeling, but relative to the other summer Darjeeling offered by this vendor, this one at least appears to be a little nicer. After infusion, the liquor shows a dark golden amber in the glass. On the nose, I found that mellow aromas of honey, Muscat grape, toast, almonds, cream, and malt were easily detectable. In the mouth, I picked up on mellow notes of clover honey, cream, toast, malt, almonds, herbs, straw, nutmeg, and Muscat grape. The finish was longer and mellower than the Puttabong offering, with delicate notes of Muscat grape, almond, toast, cream, nutmeg, and honey lingering.

This does not come across as the most refined Darjeeling in the world, but I found that I really enjoyed the honey, nut, and spice notes offered by this tea. The Muscat grape presence is nice and pronounced too. Compared to Adagio’s other summer Darjeeling, I definitely prefer this one. I could see this being a consistent, solid introduction to the summer flushes.

A lovely treat for the price! Rich amber, almost leaning towards light maple in the cup. Classic aromas of muscatel and dry wood come off of the steeped leaves, while the liquor carries a sweetness along with it. Wonderful sweet musk and wood flavors command the overall flavor profile, followed with hints of coco powder, black strap molasses and roasted acorn squash. Finishes with a lingering astringency which allows the coco, molasses and squash notes linger long after swallowing. Recommended infusion time from Adagio is right on at 2:00-2:30, allow the liquor to cool a bit before tasting to open up more flavors. If there is such a thing as an every-day single estate Darjeeling 2nd flush this may be it as the price is VERY reasonable and 2-3 steeps are possible.

There’s a nice juicy onset of grape on the tongue at first taste, which is underscored by a peppery quality and faint notes of cardamom. There are even some slight notes of melon. The finish is lightly astringent but wet feeling, not dry, which is pleasant.

There’s not a lot I can say about this except that it was a pleasantly surprising Darjeeling. I don’t profess to really be a huge seeker of black teas, so I usually go in thinking “I need warmth and caffeine.” When the flavor accompanying the brew is more complex than I expect, I’m charmed. This is nice. Not my cup of tea, but nice.