Monday, May 25, 2009

Rohini Emerald Green tea 2nd Flush darjeeling tea 2009


Rohini Emerald Green Tea 2nd Flush Darjeeling tea 2009

This tea just took me by surprise when Rishi (Owner of the Gopaldhara and Rohini tea estate) informed me that they are planning to harvest some very special Darjeeling tea this 2nd Flush harvest and he told me that they were panning to make some high quality Green tea in their Rohini Plantation from the young Japanese clonal bushes that were once imported from Japan to make some great green teas in Darjeeling, but the project never succeeded as the former owner of the garden sold the garden to Rishi and his family, they say that teas from this small sector of young Japanese bushes makes some very good teas which are very sweet in taste, he informed me about this when the dormant period between 1st and 2nd Flush was going on, he made several teas for me all season long but I exactly knew what I wanted…..so finally during the end weeks of May when the 2nd Flush harvest in Darjeeling takes place I asked him to make this tea for me, to make this tea it takes a lot of labour and hard work, only one leaf and a bud is plucked from this special sector of the garden when the new shoots have just grown out and is further withered for about 48 hours and then gentle steamed and then fired at the end , the idea of making this tea is to keep it as unprocessed as possible but at the same time it should be a well made tea, this superb tea also has bold looks as the leafs are kept unbroken , the cup is also amazing as after steeping the tea for about 3 minutes ,the liquor of the tea turns green like the colour of the Emerald stone, each sip in the cup is extremely refreshing with a very sweet taste of young cucumbers and young bananas that remains on the palate as an after taste, this tea will surely impress the white tea lovers too as the standard of this green tea takes Darjeeling specialty tea making to another level of satisfaction.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

An Approach to 2nd Flush 2009 Darjeeling tea (s)

An Approach to 2nd Flush Darjeeling tea 2009

As days passed away from the early spring to the summer, the 2nd Flush harvest has already started knocking at our doors but this is an extremely sensitive harvest as the 2nd Flush character lasts on the tea bushes for a very short time, in this harvest pronounced effects can be seen more on china variety bushes where the floral character of 1st Flush converts to Muscatel character further making the liquor slightly heavy unlike the 1st Flush harvest, the clonal variety teas are also very round in cup and pronounced in taste in this harvest as the liquor gets slightly heavier making it more sweeter in taste, the best teas in this harvest are plucked from both china and clonal variety tea bushes but only the most dehydrated leafs and buds are selectively plucked to make the muscatel teas.
We have so far tasted many samples from Darjeeling Valley gardens like Puttabong, North Tukvar and Barnesbeg; the Puttabong tea samples were interesting as it showed some very good sign of pre- 2nd Flush Harvests, especially the Puttabong Muscatel samples showed some good character than the clonal varieties but I must say that excellent and pronounced 2nd Flush teas should start in from this valley from the 2nd week of June as most of the tea bushes are going through the dormant period in this valley, while coming to the Kurseong valley gardens like the Castleton, Margaret’s Hope, Makaibari, Rohini and Ambootia, I must say none of these gardens showed any 2nd Flush character, they are rather more on the dormant period but Kurseong Valley gardens are known for making best 2nd Flush teas in the district and since the rainfall was sufficient in the early month of May we have great expectations of Having excellent 2nd Flush teas from this valley.
So I request my entire beloved and most valuable tea lover customers to be patient and as usual we will cater with the best 2nd Flush 2009 teas as usual…. Cheers!