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.