Some Darjeelings seem to last for years, but others definitely don’t. This is what must have happened to this second flush from 2020. I steeped around 3 g of leaf in 355 ml of 195F water for 5, 7, and 9 minutes.
The dry aroma is of faint cocoa, muscatel, and grass. The first steep has notes of muscatel, cocoa, caramel, wood, honey, citrus, orange blossom, grass, and paper, along with some astringency. The flavours are a little muted, though still detectable. The next steep adds autumn leaves, bread, and malt. The final steep is bready and malty, with tannins, autumn leaves, and hints of muscatel.
This is a nice tea that has faded with the years. I’m not giving it a rating at this point. I also could have done shorter steeps to cut out some of the astringency.
Flavors: Astringent, Autumn Leaf Pile, Bread, Caramel, Citrus, Cocoa, Grass, Honey, Malt, Muscatel, Orange Blossom, Paper, Tannin, Wood
