Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black, Darjeeling
Where to Buy: Darjeeling Tea Lovers
Tea Description:
Margarets Hope Muscatel comes from one of the best known gardens Margarets Hope Tea Garden. The dry leaves are black and dark chocolate in colour with fresh floral notes to the nose.
When steeped for 3 mins, it gives a brilliant deep golden liquor. It has a full bodied muscatel flavour with a distinct mint ‘twang’ in the nose. A perfect cup to make your evenings delightful.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
2012 Margarets Hope Muscatel (2nd Flush) from Darjeeling Tea Lovers is such an easy tea to drink. It’s light but full bodied, has that wonderful muscatel wine like flavor of fermented grapes, but is accompanied by an almost bubbly mouthfeel.
The tea is also complimented by spiced earth notes and woodsy flavors.
My sample is going on at least 5 to 6 months in age but its flavor is wonderful. I wish I had tried it when it first came out and truly hope I get to experience the 2013 leaf while it is still fresh and full of flavor.
I do love a good darjeeling and this one is slightly different from others I have enjoyed. This has a far more earthy and musk like note to it, which I love, yet a really good balance with its lighter fruity, berry, and red currant notes.
The more the tea cools the more rich and full it becomes. I find it reminding me almost of a pu-erh with notes ranging from peat, oaky, and other aged woods. While the cup begins rather light by the end of the more cooled cup it thickens up and becomes far heavier in the sip.
What an interesting tea! One everyone should try in order to understand a truly wonderful Darjeeling!
Oriental Beauty (Dong Fang Mei Ren) from Driftwood Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Driftwood Teas
Tea Description:
Oriental Beauty is also know by several other names including: Dong Fang Mei Ren; White Tip Oolong; and Champagne Oolong. Whatever name it goes by this is perhaps Taiwan’s most special tea and cited by many connoisseur as one of the world’s finest.
Key Flavours: Ripe fruits, honey and sweet muscatel notes combine with hints of warming spices and exotic woods.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oriental Beauty (Dong Fang Mei Ren) from Driftwood teas does what Oriental Beauty always does for me, surprises me. I am always taken aback by this tea because I adore oolong, but this is never what I expect an oolong to be! This tea is light, sweet, and fruity, with notes that lean toward muscatel, and juicy peach.
Then we have the woody and spicy notes that come forward but very subtle on the spice more strong on the woodsy notes. I do love the wood notes in this tea, it feels so natural and wonderful and makes me long to go hiking!
One thing that is a bit different from this Oriental Beauty is that the honey notes are really thick, as in lay in the back of your throat thick, and so wonderfully sweet. Also unlike some Oriental Beauty this tea does not have that drying sensation in the back of the throat. The tea coats the throat and lingers lightly with honey kissed floral notes.
I can’t mention enough how lovely these wood notes are and with the honey sweetness, and that light touch of floral and spice. This may be one of my favorite Oriental Beauty oolongs, yet I find myself saying that in almost every review I do of Oriental Beauty. Yet then I say that I normally do not gravitate toward lighter oolong. Maybe I am changing in that aspect.
Driftwood Tea certainly does bring us a wonderful example of a high quality Dong Fang Mei Ren with a light smooth taste and mouthfeel. Light, yet so very flavorful! You won’t be wishing for more flavor because this tea has it all from woodsy, sweet, fruity, spiced, and, muscatel, almost in a Darjeeling way, to apricot and floral notes.
This is truly a tea to savor through multiple steeps Gong Fu style!
Muscat Oolong from Lupicia
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Lupicia
Tea Description:
Full-flavored tea is exquisitely accented with a sweet muscat grapes.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Today is my daughter’s 18th Birthday and in celebration of her special day I wanted to do a review on her favorite tea. There are only a handful of teas my daughter really loves, not being much of a tea drinker, however this one is the one tea she absolutely adores. She will smell Muscat Oolong steeping even if she is in the other room. She always comes out sniffing the air saying in a sweet voice, “Muscat?” She always has the same look on her face too, that look that says “You know I will be taking that cup now right mom?”. So instead of having her take my cup I have learned to always prepare one for her when I make my own, which of course I don’t mind! Any tea lover wants others to share the joy with them, especially if it is their dear child.
This tea is much like my darling daughter, delicate, refined, well mannered, unpretentious, and sweet.
The tea base is a lovely dark roasted oolong with character and depth that allows the Muscat to play off its power which I feel enhances the sweetness nicely. While the Muscat is sweet it is absolutely the sweetness of fresh Muscat and not that of some artificial flavor additive. The cup is juicy and very natural tasting.
As I said before, my daughter can sniff this tea out from the other room, but it may be that just about anyone could as the aroma is amazing, intoxicating really.
The tea is so good unadulterated yet with a little rock sugar the sweetness of the grape really shines. I by no means feel you need to add the sugar though. My daughter prefers hers with no additives. You really can’t go wrong either way. Straight it is refreshing and pure juicy goodness, with sugar it is sweeter and the sugar brings out a wine like flavor. Perhaps that is why I prefer it with sugar, as I used to really love a quality wine.
The experience of drinking this tea makes you feel as if you have just walked through a beautiful vineyard and are now sampling some of the grapes and wine that were birthed there.
Of course it is no surprise to me that my daughter would choose her favorite tea to be one of such beauty and perfection – as it is just a mirror of herself.
Happy birthday to my Emma.
Darjeeling Mim from Pekko Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black (Darjeeling)
Where to Buy: Pekko Teas
Tea Description:
Country of Origin: India
Region: Darjeeling
Shipping Port: Calcutta
Grade: TGFOP1 (Tippy Golden Flavoury Orange Pekoe 1)
Altitude: 6800 feet above sea level
Manufacture Type: Orthodox
Cup Characteristics: Good body with a classic muscatel character. This quality is only available during June when the 2nd flush growing season is at its peak.
Infusion: Bright tending light
Ingredients: Luxury black tea.Mim is in the Darjeeling area of Northern India. From the town center on a clear day the peak of Mount Everest can be seen. The genus of the Darjeeling tea bush is the Chinese Jat, which gives it the distinctive muscatel character. Because the tea is grown at such high altitudes and in relatively cool weather the bushes do not grow quickly, and as such the production is limited. The best time of the year for quality is during ‘second-flush’ (end May – end June). During this time Darjeelings are incomparable to any other tea in the world. The fragrance and taste is a complex bouquet that reaches right out of the cup. Some would describe the taste as nutty; others find it reminds them of black currants, but most often it is described as similar to the taste and fragrance of muscat grapes.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Now I am not as knowledgable on Darjeeling as my SororiTea Sister Anne, so I can’t pretend to know just how good this stacks against others of its caliber, however I am throughly enjoying this tea!
I can taste the muscatel in this tea, the base is great, and the mouthfeel is rich, almost creamy.
Its not AS robust as some black teas but yet it has its own nice level of somewhat roast-y flavor.
As Anne stated in her review, there is a slight bit of astringency not to be confused with bitterness – its like it is meant to be there – almost a little tart, like a fresh grape.
I have enjoyed this tea many times now, but one thing that I find with this particular Darjeeling, that I have not found in others, is a sweetness, not just from the muscatel, but rather a maple syrup flavor that is quite amazing!
It is almost a dreamy sort of tea, one that takes me away from the chaos of the world and eases me into a very relaxed, yet rejuvenated state of mind.
This is truly a stash must have. I find myself reaching for it regularly. Its not just a dependable tea but an impressive tea as well. One to enjoy while reading, with breakfast, enjoying the outdoors, excellent cold brewed, and by all means, serve this to your tea friends, as they are sure to be impressed by its quality. I know that I am impressed by it every time I steep it.
Zhen Qu from Butiki Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Butiki Teas
Tea Description:
Our Zhen Qu originates from Yunnan, China and has downy black and gold curly leaves. This lightly malty tea has wonderful honey notes that linger and mingle with floral, chocolate, and pecan notes. Our recommended steep time produces a well-balanced tea and is less dry but we also recommend trying this tea at longer steep times for a more intense flavor.
Ingredients: Chinese Black Tea
Recommended Brew Time: 3 minutes
Recommended Amount: 1 level teaspoon of tea for 8oz of water
Recommended Temperature: 212 F (boiling)
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
As soon as I added water to my cup I could smell sweet honey notes and a malty, almost smoky aroma. I knew this was going to be an amazing cup! The water had not even settled into the cup yet and these aromas were so instantly present.
Once steeped I got a better whiff of something I had thought I noticed when I first poured the water onto the dry leaf. It was in there with that initial aroma I already described but I had held back on stating it as I thought maybe my mind was playing games with me. Hey that happens a lot! It is this wonderful wine like aroma! Yes like a delicious merlot! The flavor does not disappoint! While I do not get a wine like flavor – no alcohol flavor – there are some elements in this tea that have wine like notes. Sweet, and yet somehow savory, just lightly smoky but not like a lapsang souchong smoke at all, nutty, and a light grape note. This is not an ordinary tea!
While I do taste the chocolate note within this tea which is so nicely balanced by the floral note what stands out more to me personally is how this tea is like a very fine wine with deeply earthy notes. Not earthy like a pu-erh however, but earthy as in the way the tea plays with the nuisances of the soil it was grown in, again, like a very fine wine.
As the tea cools some the floral note becomes more pronounced but it is so delicate to begin with that it is nice when it peeks out more.
This is truly one of those teas I could have many times before I discover all it has to offer! I am so thankful that I have got to sample this tea and it will go directly onto my shopping list!