Dooteriah DJ-11 and Kalej Valley DJ-5 / 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2011

Dooteriah Dj-11 and Kalej Valley Dj-5/ 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2011:

The Dooteriah and Kalej Valley tea gardens in Darjeeling belongs to the Alchemist group of India, these gardens have old traditional china bushes over 120 years old in age. This year I planned to change my selections in the china (traditional variety) category as the rising demand in premium teas are mostly inclined to the clonal teas(young teas),I have done a thorough research and found out that mostly people are moving out from the china varietal because china variety teas are mostly astringent and sometimes bitter because tea planters in Darjeeling follow the traditional way to manufacture these teas, mainly when these teas are put in the roller and if the leaves are pressed hard then the teas turn slightly bitter as they mature after the manufacture, so I discussed these important points with different managers of several tea gardens and choose these 2 unique tea gardens in Darjeeling since the General Manager of these plantation (Mr.Y.S.Gurung) is very close to our family and he has also helped me a lot with the tea lessons in the past.
The manufactured teas from both the plantations turned out to be perfect as we had expected, fruity, light and mellow and I’m sure every tea lover will enjoy these teas and above all I personally think these 2 teas are true value for money.

Dooteriah Dj-11 and Kalej Valley Dj-5/ 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2011:

The Dooteriah and Kalej Valley tea gardens in Darjeeling belongs to the Alchemist group of India, these gardens have old traditional china bushes over 120 years old in age. This year I planned to change my selections in the china (traditional variety) category as the rising demand in premium teas are mostly inclined to the clonal teas(young teas),I have done a thorough research and found out that mostly people are moving out from the china varietal because china variety teas are mostly astringent and sometimes bitter because tea planters in Darjeeling follow the traditional way to manufacture these teas, mainly when these teas are put in the roller and if the leaves are pressed hard then the teas turn slightly bitter as they mature after the manufacture, so I discussed these important points with different managers of several tea gardens and choose these 2 unique tea gardens in Darjeeling since the General Manager of these plantation (Mr.Y.S.Gurung) is very close to our family and he has also helped me a lot with the tea lessons in the past.
The manufactured teas from both the plantations turned out to be perfect as we had expected, fruity, light and mellow and I’m sure every tea lover will enjoy these teas and above all I personally think these 2 teas are true value for money.

1st Flush 2011 Darjeeling tea -Barnesbeg Clonal Tips EX-1

1st Flush 2011 Darjeeling tea -Barnesbeg Clonal Tips EX-1 :

This exceptional clonal young tea caught my eyes when Mr.M.Pradhan (Manager) of Barnesbeg Tea Estate in Darjeeling offered me a sample of the 1st ever manufactured tea of their 100% young and pure AV2 clonal bushes which was planted 5 years ago in an area which has an altitude of 2500 feet from the sea level, the made tea is extremely tender and young and consists of full size silver tips, due to the tenderness of the raw leaves the manufactured tea is well rolled and sorted, this tea can be multiple steeped for at least 3 -4 times and each time the tea shows a different character in the cup, extremely fruity cup that finishes with a slight nutty and rosy after taste, This extremely limited quantity tea can also be enjoyed by white tea lovers.

Arrival of 1st Flush 2011

Arrival of 1st flush 2011 Darjeeling tea:

The 1st Flush harvest of 2011 looked very positive from the month of January` 2011, at the end of January we witnessed a very beautiful snowfall in Darjeeling and it rained at regular intervals throughout the month of February which was surely a great sign for a very good harvest, we also saw some gardens doing experiments with the leafs that they received in the winter months and making some white and oolong teas with it. The most interesting part of the starting of 1st flush was the end of February when the difference between the day and night temperature was about 8-10 degrees Celsius which was simply perfect for the harvest. We were just gearing up for the next big crop season when the unpredicted situation just happened, an “Embargo “was slapped on the 1st flush crop from the 3rd of March 2011 and the dispatch of the manufactured teas were stopped being dispatched from the gardens, this happened as the trade unions demanded a major hike in the wages of the working labours.In this period of time we received a lot of samples from the gardens and did a lot of tea tastings but I had to change my whole style of tea buying as it was pretty risky to buy a tea from a certain garden and wait for a month for its dispatch , as the gardens of Darjeeling are full of moisture and it was very hard to predict what will happen to the teas in its warehouses, so I decided to buy the teas produced after the Embargo was lifted ,so my first offer is Thurbo (spring delight) Ex-1,I hope as usual everyone will like this tea, we will have more exclusive teas to offer in coming weeks, so keep visiting and enjoy good tea!