Time for another tea review! This Darjeeling tea was a sample that came with What Cha order, and I was so happy there was enough for two gongfu sessions! So we have one session at home and one session at the office, in between work.

First Impressions

The dry leaves are pretty small but pretty! The smell of the leaves remind me of the Ying Hong No.9 and I really like the look of the golden tips.

Tasting Notes

First steep: The first steep is very light and somewhat sweet. I’m also getting some malty notes, and woody notes. It reminds me of the Yinghong No. 9 (perhaps because of the impression from the dry leaves), but not as sweet.

Second steep: The tea liquor in the second steep was slightly darker. The flavours are stronger, especially the woody and malty notes, but interestingly, it’s not sweeter.

Third steep: This was the same colour as the second steep. By now, the sweetness has disappeared but the tea tastes similar to the first two steeps otherwise – malty and a little woody. I’m also getting this feeling of calm and the word “gentle” comes to mind.

Fourth steep: It’s mostly woody notes by this time. It’s still smooth and I’m not getting any astringency or bitterness, but it does feel like the tea is nearing the end of its course.

The spent leaves of the tea seem to be large pieces of tea leaves. I’m not sure if it’s because they were crushed in the packet (I mean, the teas came with me from Singapore through quarantine, after all) or if they were originally like that.

Conclusion

The last Darjeeling I had was the one from TWG (when I went to Skai for afternoon tea), and while I liked that, I liked this a lot more. That said, Darjeeling does seem to be like a slightly quieter version of the Yinghong No. 9, which is my basic go-to black tea that I drink every day. So while I’m not sure if I’d buy this again, I think I’d be interested in getting different types of tea from Darjeeling and learning more about this terroir.