Teabox – Goomtee Special Summer Chinary Black
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This Darjeeling from The Goomtee Tea Estate in Kurseong is described on the packet as having a plum, grapefruit and apricot aroma with a medium-based fruity, woody palate.
And, yup, I reckon that’s all fair, but I’m not sure it goes far enough in describing the deliciously complex tastes in this brew.
A word which crops up a lot in other people’s descriptions of this tea is ‘muscatel’. And muscatel tea, when you look into it, is quite a hard thing to define. The origin of the term comes from muscatel wine, which is made from muscat grapes and it’s used to describe certain (usually second flush) Darjeeling teas.
Everybody seems to agree that it’s a good thing, but nobody can put their finger on exactly what the taste is. TeaEpicure.com collated a whole bunch of muscatel descriptions which include “hint of plum pulp and tobacco”, “dried raisins with a hay like finish” and “wine, wet fallen leaves & the smell of cedar bark”.
So, in that spirit, I am going to do my level best to describe Goomtee Special Summer Chinary Black. There are definitely fruity flavours in here, a sort of plummy, grapey taste that is slightly reminiscent of a fortified wine. Or possibly prune juice. There is also a woody vibe going on here. It smells a bit like damp paper but, you know, in a good way.
Inevitably, what it tastes of most is a flavoursome black tea. Tea that has been grown and processed with care and skill and which showcases the rich, complicated flavours that can be found in a damn fine cup of tea. And, maybe “a tea that tastes like a really good tea” is enough to say on the matter.
Today’s featured book is Flush by Virginia Woolf.
