Monday, May 25, 2015

An approach to 2nd flush 2015 darjeeling teas



An approach to 2nd flush 2015 Darjeeling teas.

    

The spring harvest or the 1st flush 2015 Darjeeling tea harvest has just ended in all the gardens of Darjeeling. After almost 4 years we had a very good spring harvest this year as all the gardens of Darjeeling received a very good amount of rainfall this year. All the gardens of Darjeeling are going through the “banjee”period or the dormant period at this point of time and we are all looking forward to the 2nd flush 2015 Darjeeling tea harvest.

     The 2nd flush harvest is one of the most important harvest period for all the gardens in Darjeeling as this premium harvest lasts for only 12-15 days and it is very important for the tea makers to choose the right tea leaves during the right time during this harvest as the most important factors for perfect 2nd flush Darjeeling teas are soil and climatic conditions.

    Darjeeling tea is particularly known for its unique muscatel character and this character is pronounced in almost all the Darjeeling teas during this harvest. The “Muscatel” is a character which is often compared with the Muscat wine or Muscat grapes and tea experts around the world claim that this character is found in Darjeeling teas during the 2nd flush harvest. The best Muscatel Darjeeling teas are made from pure “china” bushes and the shoots and leaves during this harvest should be in an extremely dry/ dehydrated condition.

    A perfect 2nd flush tea should be brown/ coppery in appearance filled with golden shoots or buds, the liquor should be golden orange in appearance, the aroma should have hints of chocolates, slightly spicy and each sip should be rich in taste with sweetness and no astringency at all.

    We have already started tasting the samples from various plantations of Darjeeling and we think it is still very early for the perfect 2nd flush 2015 teas to arrive. We predict extremely good 2nd flush teas will start coming in from 15th of June 2015 onwards and anything before that will be a pre- 2nd flush tea.

     As usual we will do our best to procure the finest teas and will inform all our tea lover friends around the world once we complete our list of 2nd flush 2015 Darjeeling teas.