My grandfather's hometown in Switzerland.

We had the most amazing rainstorm this morning - it rained one way, then the other , then both at once, then straight down. Everything on the porch is soaked and it is about 20 degrees cooler than it was at the start of the day. A good day for tea. And I just happen to have some to try.

Silver Leaf Tea, www.silverleaftea.com had a nice special on, so I bought some. Today's is Castlton Estate First Flush Darjeeling. The dry leaves are an attractive mix of brown, tan, black and green and smell like drying hay with a hint of wine in the background.

I brewed it with almost boiling water for 2 minutes and it smelled very light, very fresh, almost an Oolong scent. The liquor was a pretty pale orange. I think I must have underbrewed it because it seems to have little taste. I had a cracker to see if perhaps I had some leftover taste from lunch that was interfering, but that didn't help. As it cooled, it got fairly tannic, but still with no real discernible taste.

This will just be a partial review since it seems I goofed on the brewing - I will do it again tomorrow for 3 minutes at a lower temp and see if that helps - often Darjeeling first flushes have to be treated like green tea and that may be the case here - I'll let you know.