An Approach to 2nd Flush 2008:

We have already entered the 4th week of May and we are looking forward to the world famous Muscatel teas made here in Darjeeling during this period of time, Its been raining since the 1st week of May and we were a bit worried as a good 2nd Flush tea needs dehydrated leafs for that typical muscatel flavor unlike the First Flush Harvest which needs only the fresh and young leafs and shoots for that refreshing flowery aroma, coming back to the 2nd Flush topic we are happy to say that the production level of the gardens are good and the pre-2nd Flush tea samples are clearly showing the upcoming brown/coppery character of the 2nd Flush .
Talking in general, in this particular harvest we need to have a heavier character i.e. a strong cup which also has to be round in taste that should not have any sharpness or bitterness, only this type of cup will give a pronounced honey like aroma from teas made from the clonal bushes and of coarse Muscatel notes from the chinery origin bushes and hence, this would be a perfect 2nd Flush character Darjeeling tea unlike the First Flush where we look for a lighter cup where the floral character gets pronounced and a little briskness that does the frame work as an aftertaste to define the First Flush character. In this period of time we look upon to gardens like Castleton, Margaret`s Hope, Rohini, Namring, Lingia, Chamong etc. meaning garden of medium altitude and not very high, as the medium altitude gardens in Darjeeling makes better Muscatel teas due to the atmospheric temperature and humidly in this period of time. We request our entire respected tea lover to wait patiently so that we can serve them the best teas as usual!

1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2008 – Overall Review

Well its been a very busy and tough 1st Flush crop this year, only after being in Darjeeling through out the year one can understand how tough it has been this year to procure the good teas. Actually in the early March the atmospheric temperatures were very low as a result of which the 1st Flush harvest started at least 9-14 days late, specially high elevation Gardens like Puttabong, Risheehat, Gopaldhara etc. suffered a lot. But again in terms of early production Gardens from Mirik Valley Like Thurbo, Phuguri etc did very well throughout. Specially seeing the Thurbo teas in general I personally think it is one of the best 1st Flush producer this year and on the other side famous gardens like Sungma and Singbulli tea estates which used to be our favorite did not do so well.I must also admit that I have seen some of the best clonals from gardens like Castleton and Thurbo this year, specially talking about the Castleton Moonlight this year it was awesome and all our mail clients were crazy for this tea and the full invoice tea was sold out within 3 weeks, that’s unimaginable for such an expensive tea but of coarse an excellent tea.
Not to forget the “Thurbo Oriental Delight White Tea” this was another surprise for us, within a span of 4-5 days this tea matured like anything and was wholeheartedly accepted by most of our elite customers, even some of the black tea lovers admired this tea, well at the end of the day I must also thank the Thurbo Garden factory assistant Manager Mr. Anil Gurung for this tea, as he did exactly what we wanted for this tea, well let that be our trade secret but I’m also happy that our customers are satisfied. Now we are looking for ward to the 2nd Flush 2008 teas, we hope we will be able to procure excellent teas again… at least we’ll do our very best...