Thursday, June 19, 2008

Best of 2nd Flush 2008 Darjeeling teas: Risheehat and Castleton 2nd Flush 2008

Castleton (Muscatel/ftgfop-1/Exclusive) DJ-139: during the period of 2nd Flush this premium plantation of Darjeeling makes some of the finest muscatel teas that most of the tea connoisseurs look upon to, this particular batch rolled out of the garden during the peak harvest season so its termed as “ Exclusive” meaning the best of all the batches of Muscatels made during this harvest period, the dry leafs are small and almost similar in size and are sorted in a very clean manner and that extra shine on the leafs gives that majestic look to the tea, when steeped for around 5 minutes in the hot water, the aroma purely boasts of that extravagant muscatel flavor that rises high above the cup, giving that pleasant, pronounced and matured hints of dry fruits which further ends with a rich flavory after taste.

Risheehat classic musk (sftgfop-1/oolong type) DJ-130: A top of the line pure 2nd Flush oolong style Darjeeling tea having extra-bold unbroken leafs and buds plucked from the highest elevation slopes of the garden, when steeped the cup boasts of that aggressive musk flavor with an extremely sweet after taste that ends with each sip.
A true tea connoisseur’s delight and the tea grower’s pride!

Risheehat (flowery/sftgfop-1clonal) DJ-145: this is a very special and small batch of excellent tea made for us from the youngest bushes of this wonderful plantation of Darjeeling, the dry leafs are totally unbroken and comprises of long unbroken young shoots and buds, when steeped the high floral refreshing aroma rules the cup that ends with a very pronounced fruity after taste that dominates the palate for a long time.

Castleton (Moonlight) DJ-140: this is one of the most popular tea that we had to order due to the high demand from our customers, this tea is plucked from the pure AV-2 type clonal bushes from the highest elevation clonal section of the plantation named “allay”. The tea comprises of atleast 60-70% golden unbroken tips, which is purely hand rolled by expert tea makers of the plantation. The cup is extremely refreshing with pronounce notes of ripe grapes and the after taste that clearly reminds of high quality Darjeeling tea craftsmanship.
A top of the line as usual!

2nd Flush 2008: Present Scenario

It has been really unfortunate for us this 2nd flush season as firstly the monsoon arrived little early this time so it was a bit difficult for us to find the pure and finest 2nd flush teas made from the actual dehydrated leafs, I would request all our customers to keep patience as we actually have procured some of the best 2nd Flush peak season teas but this time the higher grade teas are available in a very limited quantity due to the situation and of coarse the 2nd major reason is that Darjeeling hills have gone for indefinite strikes since 9th of June for the demand of “Gorkhaland”, separate state from West Bengal. Experts say the export markets are suffering a loss of around 45000 US dollars everyday. We are praying and looking forward to the day when this problems ends and things get normal again.