Oh, this couldn’t have been listed with any more auspicious timing – Christmas. The obviousness of the name is just a whiff away – Smell it and it’ll take you back to your childhood and pretty much leave you there. Walk into any Indian Confectionary, and you will know, unerringly, what the flavor is about. Warm, Sweet, Crispy, Thick…. Saffron…. Cardamom…. Floral…. turning Fruity and vice-versa. Think of Darjeeling as a confectionary with a perpetual Autumn season and this will be the Confection it yields.
It’s an unmistakable aroma, one as Indians, we are only too familiar with. At Weddings, Festivals, Celebrations –Of Cashews, Khoa (Condensed milk), Raisins, Pistacchios, Almonds, Saffron, Jaggery caramelizing in large smouldering couldrons. It’s recognizable everywhere; even at roadside vendors and shops – A whole assortment of the Indian Sweets ‘Mithai’. It is the kind of aroma you internalize, rather than wear the fragrance externally. Why would a tea smell and taste like an Indian Confection, is a question we’re in no rush to seek an answer to; we’d rather accept the aromatic invitation to celebrate and revel in plumes of flavors of this confection. Make no qualms about it, it will surpass all your expectations. It’s one, Lavish-Lavish Invitation.
The Confection has by far, the most aromatic leaves we’ve chanced upon and yet another one in the league as our Autumn teas, where the brewed tea has the exact same aroma as the dry leaves, only crispier. The ‘Mithai’ aroma is impeccably translated into flavor and is immediately recognizable. The taste is inherently sweet, but when we say sweet, we must also mention that the sweet note is also accompanied & interspersed with a certain Earthiness that is reflective of the Darjeeling Terroir. Like some Sweet, ripe fruit was stopped from drowning in its ethereal sweetness by its earthly binds at the right time.
Plucked from over a hundred-year-old Chinese Bushes, there’s no exaggerating how deeply imbibed into the Darjeeling terrain the roots that supplement these Autumn leaves are. The Darjeeling Autumn Season and its terrain are imprinted on this one.
The tea brews into a thick Reddish-orange nectar that delivers its Sweetness, fusing the Fruity and Floral recognitions as it cools down, ultimately finishing with honey-like familiarity. The dissection of notes brings no justice to this Autumn Confection- A visit to the Confectionary warrants more fairness.
You couldn’t go wrong with this, even if you tried- There are no bad or complicated choices at the Confectionary.
Brewing Instructions: 2.5 Gms with 180 ml water at 85 Degrees Celsius for 3:30- 4:00 mins.
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