I tried two steeps of each of four fully-withered second flush darjeelings.
None of these have the strong grassy odor that has become typical of modern
first flush darjeeling teas, they were all selected for being dark and mellow.

I took 30g of each with 250mL of boiling water, steeped for 2.5 minutes.
I then followed the same procedure again for a second steep. Almost
certainly the second steep should have been for at least a minute longer.
This was performed single-blind.


TEA ONE
-------
Namring Estate Darjeeling FTGFOP1 (ordered from Upton's, TD35)

The odor of the cup was flat and woody. The overall flavour was rounded,
malty, and a little tannic but without anything distinctive. The second
steep was even less distinguished.

TEA TWO
-------
Puttabong Estate Darjeeling SFTGFOP1 MUSC (ordered from Upton's, TD45)

The odor in the cup, rather than being fruity as you might expect from
something that says "muscatel" on the package, was very strong of bamboo.
It was as close to a grassy odor as any of these teas got. It was a
somewhat flat flavour, but much more rounded than the others. The second
steep retained that odor, but retained none of the flavour of the first
steep. This tea was distinctly different than any of the others.

TEA THREE
---------
Margaret's Hope Muscatel (from Harrod's, item 955639)

The odor was slightly fruity, holding up the muscatel banner properly,
although that fruitiness was not retained in the cup. Very clean and deep.

TEA FOUR
--------
Chamong Tea Estate Darjeeling (Fabindia Organics)

The odor was flat but slightly strawlike. The second steep kept the odor
and flavour well, definitely holding up better on a second steep than any
of the others. Malty, less tannic than the others but not so fruity.

Interestingly enough this was my everyday tea for quite a while and I was
unable to identify it in the blind comparison


CONCLUSION
----------

I would drink any of these teas at any time and they are all of the same
basic style. However, the Puttabong definitely stood out as being different
in basic flavour profile, and the Chamong stood up better in the second
steep.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."