Sungma clonal delight EX-11 2nd Flush Darjeeling tea 2008

This is the tea that we had procured at the end of our 2nd Flush 2008 purchase, after we had almost finished with our 2nd Flush 2008 list of teas, this particular tea’s sample happened to reach us through another Darjeeling tea buyer who just could not afford to have this tea due to some financial crisis, when I dropped the leafs on the white foil, I was impressed at first sight seeing its blossom which had an unique blend of red, brown and coppery shades on the leafs which is a sure good sign of a very rich 2nd Flush tea and the aroma that rolled out of the leafs was simply awesome with clear hints of ripe red grapes, when steeped for about 4-5mins the tea gave out an extravagant grape like aroma from the cup and as the tea cooled down, each sip defined a different tea drinking experience and above all the liquor of the tea is also not very dark and the after taste is also very smooth, to be very honest this is one of the crown of 2nd Flush 2008 teas!

Darjeeling tea 2nd Flush 2008: A different experience

Well as I’ve always mentioned in my earlier posts that this year due to the agitation in Darjeeling, it was really difficult to procure the good teas in Darjeeling, especially the early invoice teas, so on the 26th of June I had to leave for Kolkata as one of our very important buyer was supposed to come to India to buy the 2nd Flush teas and on the other side it was clever to go to Kolkata and get the teas direct from the garden’s head offices as during the mid of June Darjeeling town was closed due to the agitation and all the good invoice teas were sent forward to Kolkata for auction and private sales, I would definitely say that it was a “narrow escape” for us to go to Kolkata for the purchase of excellent 2nd Flush teas as there was hardly any choice in the gardens as all the teas were sent forward to Kolkata for sales and sadly many local vendors from Darjeeling had to buy whatever was available at the gardens,I`m not saying they are selling something bad but a tea lover will always find the difference. Anyways, soon our good friend and buyer arrived from Europe and we straightaway headed for the tea tasting sessions, we started with some fine Castleton ftgfop-1 samples which were really good and our friend brought a full line of it some 108kgs, the Puttabong lines were also interesting specially their KKRAMSK lines, we all looked at each other and smiled while tasting these lines as once the superintendent of the Sungma tea estate had claimed that only his garden makes this type of musk but now all Jayshree gardens are claiming the same, coming to Singbulli teas I must admit that the overall average of about 25 teas in the offering for the auctions were fairly good as the teas were much better than their 1st Flush harvest, also very interesting for me was while tasting some Singell tea samples, we always thought that this garden makes some classic Darjeeling teas as they never sold their teas through auctions and rather went for private sales but I was discouraged to see the way the teas were sorted and also the cup was not satisfying at all as the rolling was not properly done, not even in one sample we could find a clean tea so this was the reason I kept all my customers away from these teas. We were very happy to see the Sungma teas, especially the clonals, they were absolutely delicious and we have also brought one lot especially for our mail order clients, I`m sure they will enjoy the Sungma clonal tea very much. There were many other teas that we tasted that I cannot think of at the very moment but it was an overall exciting experience for all of us to attain the Darjeeling tea auction Sale No. 27/2008 and especially our buyer friend was very happy to see how many companies sit together and bid for the teas, in my opinion it is also a test for your tea tasting skills as you will know about your choice when others bid for it, meaning you’ll know exactly how many other seller were ready to buy the tea that you liked the most.