What does "muscatel" taste like?

[beanbag]

This is in regards to Darjeeling tea.

[Evan Draper]

Go to the liquor store and find out.

[Alucard]

This is in regards to Darjeeling tea.

grape or raisin like

[shah82]

muscat, concord, muscadine grapes.

Beyond grape taste, it's a kind of animal pungent note at the bottom. A sort of ur grape note without which the fruity just isn't grapey.

[bob]

I don't know how to describe the muscatel taste, but I love it. My advice would be to try two teas, one muscatel and one not, and try to detect this specific taste. You could compare first and second flush Darjeelings, and maybe second flush Darjeeling with second flush Ceylon or something like that.

I recently tried "Presidents tea" Darjeeling from http://www.aapkipasandtea.com/ , and it has the strongest muscatel taste that I tried in a few years...

[beanbag]

I've had muscat grapes and wine before, but not in a long time. So far, I've gone thru about a dozen teas in my sampler set, and I've associated the "muscatel" taste to some kind of common taste I notice between all the second and autumn flush teas. I still can't describe it in terms of any foods I have eaten, though.

Unfortunately, I am starting to get annoyed of it. You know how if you go to a bakery or restaurant a lot, and after a while, you notice, "hey, they are using the same dough on all these pastries" or "oh, it's that sauce again"? Anyway, that is a real turn-off for me. Some of the teas seem to have mainly that "muscatel" taste, with a bit of "sharpness" or whatever to it, and I don't really notice any other flavors. I don't like those. Some other teas have it, in a lighter or "softer" form, yet have more "body" or "mouth-feel" (or whatever) and also has other tastes I can sort of pick out, like fruits, carmelized or roasted stuff, etc. I like those better.

[Teaism]

Tasting in tea could consist of 2 parts i.e. the tangibles and the intangibles. For muscatel, the tangible description could be full bodied, smooth, ethereal fruity and flower profile with nice finish. Creamy and buttery palate with lingering sweetness. The intangibles are perhaps alluring, comforting and enticing.

Both descriptions don’t make any sense until we experience it.

Perhaps it is a taste for us to experience and not for us to describe.

Cheers!

[ethan]

Teaism, Muscatel taste has proven to be close to addictive to me which
I guess could be "alluring" as you wrote. The HOR black tea from Nepal which I often mention has a lot of lingering mouthfeel & flavors; and, these compete in their character. E.g., creamy & buttery as you wrote is countered by astringency. Your post resonates wisely w/ me, but I add that one must taste muscatel at least a few times. I say this because it took several times for me to find a tea w/ it, that was for me, & even that tea was not as appreciated at first as much as it is now.

[AFOL]

To me, muscatel tastes like the skin of grapes--but not the whole grape. I know it specifically refers to a particular kind of grape, but the flavor I've gotten in the best Darjeelings that I've had tends to resemble grape skins (at least to me). If you've ever peeled a grape and eaten both parts separately, you'll know the taste.