It has been a long time since I have been able to bring up a write-up on my blog-page as we had a very busy 2nd flush this year, specially the bulk sales or wholesales have been very good for us this year as we are the only certified Exporters from Darjeeling who can export bulk teas legally for the overseas re-sellers as we are certified by the export wing of the Tea Board, India, also for the interest of the re-sellers, one should also note that many merchants from India without any sort of proper legal licenses take orders from the other end and send it as “tea samples” to save taxes but when the good reaches the other end for re-sales, it might get seized by the customs and also might get destroyed as this has already happened with my friend who suddenly turned as a tea trader with no tea idea at all here in India, but the reason I wanted to convey this point is that the person who ordered the teas on the other end was the only loser at the end of the day as his teas got seized and destroyed and I can understand how he must be feeling about it and whenever someone known to him wants to order teas from India, what would his reactions and suggestions be? It’s simple, anyone can guess…. And also people like us suffer at the end of the day, and regarding that tea-friend???? People like him will always find another job….
Anyways that was a great relief for me as I could convey the message to people who are concerned with the trade and I think now they know what to ask their suppliers when they order teas for re-sales…..anyways since the 2nd Flush 2009 is over and we are at the mid – period of the monsoons, I have been going around in the tea gardens looking for something new and I’m delighted to see the standard of the monsoon flush going up each year, actually during this period of time due to the heavy rainfall the growth of the tea leafs are very rapid and also due to the lack of sunshine the effect directly falls on the made-tea as the tea looks and tastes dull, this also used to happen earlier as the pluckers used to pluck the tea leafs in a rough manner unlike the fine plucking of the 1st or the 2nd Flush harvest period, also due to these combinations of manmade and natural factors the average pricing of the teas goes down in a dramatic way. So keeping all these factors in mind some of the tea gardens in Darjeeling took initiatives of trying to make some very good teas that would fetch a good price for them in this period of time to let the show keep going! Specially gardens like Rohini and Gopaldhara designed some great teas this monsoon, like the “Gold Thunder” and the “Silver Thunder”, these are both semi-fermented teas or one may call these Darjeeling oolongs, the samples I tasted had a very nice liquor and a very matured aroma….yeah one can say this is a perfect tea that reflects a of touch of the past 2nd Flush for its sweetness and a touch of coming autumn for its maturity, when I learned about the manufacturing details of this types of teas I came to know that the most important part was the fine-plucking done to make these teas ,similarly most premium gardens in Darjeeling are making Green teas and White teas and believe me some make exceptional quality teas now in this harvest like 1st or 2nd Flush and if an individual really wants a very high quality tea in this period of time then it is infact absolutely possible to find one though “its one among tens” but its not impossible, so now if someone says you that its not the time to have good teas now then please ask him/her to get updated as the Darjeeling tea picture has changed, well we are tasting a lot of greens and white teas from various Darjeeling tea estates, and as soon as we find some thing great , it will be updated on our site…..so keep visiting us and have great tea time!
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