Second flush, and why Darjeeling tastes like grapes
Everybody who sells Darjeeling uses the word muscatel. Very few explain it, and a fair number appear to think it is just a nice word for expensive.
It is not. It is a specific note, it happens in a specific season, and the reason it happens is one of the odder facts in tea.
What flush means
A tea bush does not produce evenly through the year. It pushes out new growth in bursts, and each burst is a flush. In Darjeeling there are broadly three that matter.
First flush arrives in late February and March, after the bush has been dormant all winter. The leaf is pale green, the cup is light, and it tastes grassy and sharp and floral. It is the most fashionable Darjeeling and the most expensive per kilo.
Second flush comes in May and June, before the monsoon breaks. The leaf is darker, the cup is amber, and this is where muscatel lives.
Autumn flush arrives after the rains. It is rounder, softer and cheaper, and it is the most underrated tea in India.
The insect
Here is the part that surprises people. The muscatel note in second flush Darjeeling is caused by a bug.
A tiny green leafhopper, Jacobiasca formosana, arrives in the warm weeks before the monsoon and feeds on the young leaf. The bush responds to being nibbled by producing defensive compounds, including terpenes and a chemical called hotrienol. Those compounds are what give the finished tea its stone fruit and grape character.
So the flavour everybody pays for is a plant fighting off an insect. The same thing happens in Taiwan, where the resulting tea is called Oriental Beauty and the growers are equally delighted about it.
This also explains why heavily sprayed gardens produce flat second flush. Kill the leafhopper and you kill the muscatel with it.
What to do with this
When you buy Darjeeling, ask which flush. If the seller cannot tell you, they do not know their own stock.
If you want the grassy, bright, almost green cup, buy first flush and brew it cooler, around 80°C. If you want the grape and stone fruit note, buy second flush and brew it at 85°C for three minutes.
And in either case, do not add milk. There is no version of this story that ends well with milk in it.
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