Well, this is an interesting topic.
My understanding of the Darjeeling mystery:
Darjeeling is traditionally a black tea. Due to this tradition it remains a black tea, but thanks to the trends that Scott mentioned up top towards a 'new darjeeling', a variety of teas made from the CS in that region, which are technically green or oolong, are uniformly called darjeeling. Thanks to this, depending on how focused your local tea seller is on breadth of darjeeling, we are blessed to be able to find a full spectrum of very green to black first flush teas. From the second flush on, the trend seems to be to follow with stronger oxidations. Many American sellers, depending on taste of course, tend to choose a greener first flush to show off the marked difference between it and the follow harvests. Of course their European (more UK than anywhere else) counterparts tend to prefer the darker, more wholesome first flush.
Shen's mention of an "insipid" quality after a few steeps could either be due to the infusing of the tea with boiling water, which is great if you have one of the more traditional black darjeelings, but can adversely affect the greener modern varieties, or of course it may just not be good tea? I would love to hear if you try out other temperatures Shen.
I have tried a few of the first flush darjeelings for the season, does anyone have any thoughts on those they have tried? I have enjoyed the lemon grass aromas and the sweet citrus mouth of the second and third infusions in the greener styles, any thoughts?
AMA