First Flush Darjeeling Black Tea, Loose Leaf, 3.5 Ounce Tin

These photos of the dargeeling are after a 5 minute brew. The leaves are clearly green and the tea is a musty pale amber. It is slightly sweet and doesn't taste like a green tea. It tastes like a very light white tea. The aroma is enticing. Clean and welcoming. It is a lovely late afternoon tea when you want to brew a warm pot of something with not much caffeine. I consider this a dessert tea or evening tea. Not a morning tea. The quality and size of the leaves are exceptional and seeing them unfurled is a pleasant experience and why i use a glass tea pot and glass infuser. This is a great price for a USDA organic stamp tea. I enjoy the lightness and the packaging is enchanting.

I like good quality teas from Darjeeling. A few years ago Tao used to make "Darjeeling Muscatel" which was a blend of pretty good darjeelings with a pronounced muscatel taste with a little punch, and this is my favorite tea of recent years, but no longer avaialble. Nowadays, tea companies are putting every kind of flavor and blended crap imaginable in with really bad quality chinese teas, and selling it for the same prices they used to get for rare expensive Darjeeling. So, tea companies now rarely bother with Darjeeling, or they charge an arm and a leg, but most often, it's very poor quality (like ministry of tea, Tea Forte, etc.). What to do? Here you go, $11 today for 100g of high-quality darjeeling. Compare to $16 for 113 g of Darjeeling "Kalimpong" at Peet's. Oh, by the way: I have never liked first flushes, they have always been too subtle for me, little flavor. I really liked this, it has a hint of muscatel with pleasant "green" flavors, but still has full black tea taste. I make it stronger than usual, more like 1.5 tsp./mug than 1 tsp. Other than that provise, go for it, its the best out there, and tell the companies that push flavored crap on you that you will take your business elsewhere until this silly fad runs its course. (BTW I thought I had unusual tastes, but at a family gathering at a fancy tea service, everyone ordered a flavored tea except me, but when we cross-tasted everyone preferred the good 'ol Darjeeling I ordered. Hah!)

Tastes great and the double lid packaging is great for keeping the leaves safe. I also liked the fact that they put the brewing instructions on the tin. Many loose leaf teas I've bought don't do this and it's a nice touch helping to ensure a beautiful cup of tea.

Update on Aug. 11th my family went to JAPAN for home leave and they came back here recent. They brought 1 pack of Tao of Tea, First Flush to JAPAN with them and they took it to their friends, who know and have been purchasing First Flush from Lupicia, they commented as following, The taste is not so bad. The aroma may be less but still acceptable. As first Flush, it really depends on the weather Like Wine , so, it is hard to compare... And then they told the price in AMAZON, they say "extra credit" and in fact cheap to compare to Lupicia !!! The Less aroma some reviewers complains however we know it really depends on the tea (grade. farm, cost ) Not easy to compare ... as Subjective issue , I leave it for further reviews and hope you enjoy what we enjoy with Tao of Tea ... Next tea will come to us by end of Aug. looking forward to having them !! I give 4 stars at this time... >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Update on June 3rd, 2012, As subscriber of this tea, I received packs of the 2 ... I could see some changes from the can(tin), from Silver to Black.... it is nice looking and the both are the fine and the can has second lid ( sealing from the air ) as tea can, it is very nice feature... And I know the tea quality and tea leaf are fully depended on the year's weather, etc... Thus I can not do compare apple to apple comparison , however the this year's taste is completely changed... ( I could see the leaf also looks different ) With my preference, I like to have year of 2010 taste and aroma compare to 2012's ... I hope Tao of tea is looking for the best tea for us ... >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Update on Dec. 17, 2011 , I have been getting this tea since Early sept., already got 3 times received the tea packed of two. The taste seems changed from the earlier , the tea seems similar to the second flush ... Strong and Darker tea since Nov. shipment, I am wonder why and I and my wife have been verify the tea between Lupicia first flush and this tea in Dec. This month... Uhhhh... The taste of this tea likely second flush ... Any one who has been purchasing the tea , how do u think ? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>. Original review dated Oct. 25th 2011 >>>>>>>>>>>>>> We bought several first flush tea from Lupicia , however their tea came to USA are really limited and very expensive , at Amazon, I found a reasonable cost and taste good first flush tea. I recommend it everyone who likes to have first flush taste ... not strong at all, spring tea in mind ... Their service is very good , shipment and packing, all the good for us ... We are going to continue to buy the tea...

Love this tea! It is full-bodied, yet very smooth. Lovely color and fragrance.

First Flush is appreciated for its subtlety. It needs to be good quality and fresh. It consists of very volatile flavor compounds that you need to tune your senses to be able to detect. And even then, it might not be to your liking. It is NOT a black tea, even though it gets labeled as such. It's somewhere between green and oolong. You can tell that much by looking at it. I didn't know ANY of this before I purchased this tea. I just thought it wasn't good. Now that I am aware of the above, and that it is a very different animal from the summer variety, I am trying to appreciate it. Right now, to me, it just tastes like Darjeeling without much flavor. I will be experimenting with it to see if I can get the most out of it.

Very delicious Darjeeling at a lower price than most first flush teas. Gentle flavor, use a little more than regular black tea.

The tea leaves are a good quality and since you can use the leaves more than once it is a good value. I would recommend.