Margaret's Hope First Flush Darjeeling

I bought a quarter of a pound of this in a sale back in February but hadn’t gotten around to drinking it – bad, I know! Anyway, I decided to cold-steep some of it. Darjeelings are some of my favorite teas to drink iced, but I’m pretty new to cold-steeping and hadn’t tried it with a Darjeeling before. I’d read some instructions, on the forums here I think, to let Darjeelings steep for four days, and I thought I’d try that method.

And I’m glad I did – this is fabulous! And so different from Darjeeling brewed the regular way. More delicate, and sweeter, and less astringent. It’s light and crisp, and very smooth. I’m getting strong bergamot notes – this could almost pass for a delicate Earl Grey, even! There’s also some honey. I usually dislike black teas that taste like honey, but here it’s so delicate and melds so well with the other flavors that I’m finding it very pleasant. The whole experience is, oddly enough, reminding me of Earl Grey ice cream – one of my favorite things in the world. I think this will be going on regular rotation for the rest of the summer.

Enjoying this one more than the last time. Steeped well at about 5 minutes. Water not as hot as it should be (yay for office tea), but some of the subtleties are coming out with the lower temp.