Darjeeling is from the Darjeeling district in West Bengal, India. This is a new Darjeeling from Teavana called Darjeeling de Triomphe. We brought 6 cups of water to boil in a pot, removed it from heat, added 28 grams of tea and steeped for 4 minutes covered, stirring midway through. We then added 1 1/4 cup of sugar (this is our first Darjeeling with extra sugar) to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, dissolving the sugar. We added 5 cups of water and let cool to room temperature. Next we added 1 1/2 cups of starter tea and transferred the SCOBY. We’ll let it ferment for seven days before bottling.

We harvested this on 10/15 and flavored it with 1/2 cup of pureed pineapple with spearmint. It tasted sweet as expected so we added no additional sugar. We’ll try it after 2 or 3 days.