Sungma Supreme Muscatel DJ-163 and Turzum DJ-11 clonal wonder 2nd Flush Darjeeling tea 2009:

Sungma Supreme Muscatel DJ-163 and Turzum DJ-11 clonal wonder 2nd Flush Darjeeling tea 2009:


As days passed by towards the mid of June I was worried about the muscatel variety teas, as due to the uncertain heavy rainfall before the peak 2nd Flush harvest all the teas started having heavy liquor and lighter flavour, almost all good Muscatel tea makers in the district made good muscatel teas but not the best for me as for me when I offer a muscatel variety on my sales offer it should be up to the quality mark , I had great expectations for this variety of tea from gardens like Castleton and Margaret’s hope tea estates but none of them did any wonders for me so I finally called up Mr. Jha (Superintendent of Sungma Tea Estate) for his muscatel teas after the 15th of June`09, and he asked me to wait for 2-3 days as he said he was making some excellent invoices and the 1st samples of those premium teas would be sent to us , so I waited patiently for those 3 days, finally after 4 days the samples arrived and I was really very pleased to see all the teas, as all of them were very well made and were really value for money teas but I was attracted toward the Sungma Supreme Muscatel DJ-163 which was an invoice made from the pure “kakra” leafs, “kakra” in local language means dehydrated leafs, this dehydration of leafs and shoots takes place during this time in a small portion of land in the garden as the leafs and shoots are bitten by an insect called green fly, when these insects bite the leafs ,the leafs automatically starts oxidizing on the bushes itself as pores are formed on it and the tea maker has to wait for the perfect time to pluck these leafs when the temperature and soil conditions are perfect and when the tea is further processed, this muscatel beauty is born, I personally believe that a tea lover actually pays for the time and not the tea in Darjeeling tea industry as its the time that yields good tea and makes the same tea bush conceive different characters and varities of teas through out the year. Anyways talking about the Sungma Supreme Muscatel sftgfop-1/ DJ-163,I must say its only fine plucked from 100% pure china bushes as one can see the fine sorted leafs of the tea, this tea has a very fruity aroma in the dry leaf state, when steeped for about 5 minutes this tea leaves some very smooth muscatel aroma, I feel every sip of this tea is pure magic as every sip sings a different note of dry fruits with a hint of slight astringency that keeps the taste of young red grapes alive on the palate. A great Muscatel tea indeed!
I was also offered a clonal tea by Mr. Jha but I was not really interested in any more clonals as I had enough clonal teas in my list but somehow he convinced me to atleast try the sample of the clonal tea from the Turzum division of Sungma which has only B-157 clonal bushes, this type of clone is known for making some very matured flavored teas with a heavy liquor unlike the Darjeeling AV2 and P312 type clones which are used to make lighter and floral teas. So I finally tried the sample and I loved it at one go as honestly I had tasted a matured flavoury tea that had both rich aroma and strong color after many months of tea tasting, this excellent tea could not be missed by me as many overseas buyers were bidding for this tea, the general description of this tea would be like it has a very finely plucked bold leafs, silver and golden unbroken tips in it, when steeped for about 5 minutes this tea leaves some aggressive and rich fruity aroma with a hint of ripe oranges, each sip in the cup will surely please a tea lover as rich hints of apricots and other grapes can be felt, fine notes of muscatel that remains on the palate with extreme mellowness as an after taste…. I must say that Turzum /organic sftgfop-1 DJ-11 2nd Flush Darjeeling tea 2009 is a Majestic offering of the season!