Rohini First Flush Darjeeling (2012)

Thank you Roughage for this Sample Tea!

I keep apologizing for my lack of knowledge about darjeelings. Like the clumsy schoolgirl I was at my first 6th grade dance, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. At age 11 and 5’9" there’s no way I was letting a short stubby boy even think of SLOW dancing with me (which they all wanted to do with their evil grins)!

Darjeelings grin their evil grins at me too. They all look the same to me. I don’t know why. I’M NOT A DARGEELING BIGOT!

Roughage was so kind to send me this tea. I need to buck up and slow dance with it. Sigh….

So…I smoothed out my dress, looked at my dance card and there were no instructions on brewing this tea. Oh great! What was I to do? No chit chat on the dance floor to get me going.
I had to duck in a corner to look up the instructions under another First Flush Darjeeling and just wing it.
(My cheeks were turning pink)
Ok, deep breath…I took the recommended steps to brew the tea and waited.
Everything stopped for 4 minutes. So long a wait.

The liquor was floral and golden amber. This was expected. I had seen this before.
What would make this different or special?

I went to a corner chair and sat down, putting my hands in my lap and looked down at my knees. “I must be stupid!”, I said…“I never can understand this type of tea.” And I sighed again. Then I just sat.

After a time, I walked back to my cup of tea and looked into it. I took a big sip and thought how it tasted a little like grape skins and peaches. It smelled like warm flowers but not orchids. I was about to say PASTRY but out of fear of being mocked…changed my mind (pastry ha ha ha)! There was a short biting bit of astringency that I didn’t mind. Instead of being too brisk there was balanced smoothness. Good flavor!

It appears that I had slow danced after all!
I’m sure I stepped on toes.

Either I’ll grow to be more elegant and refined a dancer or you’ll grow taller and able to match with me and be my teacher. I need all the help I can get.

(Hope none of you Darjeeling lovers mind my liberties…I mean no disrespect to the tea…I mean it when I say I am a Darjeeling idiot!)

Three new Darjeelings turned up on my doorstep today. It’s almost as if I ordered them!

Anyway, ordered on Tuesday, arrived on Thursday. Thank you, Wan Ling, for getting them to me so quickly. I was torn about which to try first so I put all three boxes in front of me, closed my eyes and picked one at random. After managing to select my desk lamp, a pen and a book, I eventually managed to put my hands on this one.

The dry leaves vary from a light olive colour through to a brownish green. They are whole and curly with a thick floral aroma. When steeped they unfurl to reveal quite a lot of whole leaves. The aroma is still floral, that thick heady scent of a flower meadow, I think. Tasting the tea seems to get every part of my tongue going. It is light, refreshing, floral. There is a hint of something darker lurking in there, a slight astringency maybe, that lends itself well to extending the aftertaste so that I enjoy the tea for a fair while after I have swallowed it. I breathe in and out so that the air across my tongue and the aroma on my breath enhances that aftertaste. This tea makes me feel good and also demonstrates beautifully why Darjeeling is the Champagne of teas. It has that same light, bubbly feelgood factor. I hope the other two are as good or better. I’m positively giddy about trying them!