1st Flush 2008 - THURBO TIPPY CLONAL

Thurbo Tippy clonal (ftgfop-1) 1st Flush 2008

I am very happy to introduce the 1st tea of this year to all tea lovers, this year has not been very easy to procure the best teas as the crop growth is extremely slow, after waiting for weeks Mr. A. Gurung of the Thurbo Estate finally gave me a call regarding the 1st invoice of the Thurbo Tippy clonal 1st Flush 2008 which is simply awesome this year, I reached the estate at around 9 a.m. and I`m also proud say that I made my own tea, meaning I personally planned the style of my tea where I tried my best to sort out the floater leafs and keep the long well twisted young tea leafs as a result of which the tea is extremely floral and ends with an unique fruity after taste ,the dry leafs contains over 40% unbroken silver tips which gives the extra glow to the tea.

We are proud to mark this tea as one of our signature teas!

1st Flush Darjeeling Tea 2008 - Delay

I’ve been in a regular contact with the managers of various plantations in Darjeeling and all the gardens will come up with a slow start this year due to the uneven balance of temperature this year which makes the growth of new leafs and buds very slow, talking about the Darjeeling Valley Gardens like Puttabong, North Tukvar, Barnesbeg etc. which use to start with their 1st invoices of First Flush by probably the end of 1st week of March will get their first couple of invoices only by the 10th of March or may be a couple of Days later.

The Kurseong Valley gardens like Castleton, Goomtee, Jungpana, and Makaibari etc. will start after the 15th of March but the Mirik valley gardens which are usually late starters like Thurbo, Gopaldhara etc might be early starter this year as unusually the area is much more humid this year so leaf growth is expected to be rapid in these gardens and we can expect early invoices from these gardens.

1st Flush 2008 - Darjeeling Tea

1st Flush 2008 - Darjeeling Tea

It has been a long time since I’ve been able to place any information regarding the 1st flush 2008 teas, well to be very honest on one side we expect a very good crop as we had a couple of full fledged winter rains in mid February and a mild snowfall too, which shows a clear sign of a very healthy crop, specially the clonals would do wonders for the tea planters but seeing the current political scenario in Darjeeling where most of the tea garden labours are involved in the agitation, some of the very renowned tea gardens will suffer here as due to this involvement as these particular gardens missed the important curing required before this golden harvest but I don’t want to mention the names of these gardens as in the mid-spring they can still give a good harvest but the early spring crop will not be very good for them.

Well talking about our selections I will not try to be very experimental this year as I had succeeded last year with my selection of teas and at least 90% of my customers had appreciated my teas, specially I can’t stop myself from writing about the Singbulli clonal delight and the Thurbo Tippy clonal ftgfop-1 1st Flush teas as these teas were highly appreciated by many tea lovers and also not to forget I also achieved many new customers due to these teas but again the early invoice teas are our business secret and after determining all the current status we have already selected our invoice of 1st flush teas from different sub divisions of different tea estates.

So, we once again invite all tea lovers to join our 1st flush 2008 tea party from the 2nd week of March.

A visit to Thurbo Tea Estate for autumn tea

Thurbo Tea Estate

On the 1st of November`07 I was invited at the Thurbo Tea Garden, one of my favorite tea estate, though this garden is famous for its exclusive young teas better known as the Tippy clonals, But please note this is the autumn harvest and the main point to be noted is that autumn is not a flush it’s a character that’s formed just before the cold winters and also due to the plucking done through out the year the buds or tips are almost impossible to find in most teas of this season, so in this season we mostly look for a better cup than appearance.

As any other garden visit, I was offered with a pile of samples by Mr. A. Gurung (factory assistant manager) and as usual we sorted out some of the most exotic china type teas from the pile and started tasting, we tasted some clonals too but I was not convinced as I needed some heavier cup teas from this estate, I was offered some nice looking oolongs and whites but the only thing I needed was that typical high fired pungent Darjeeling black teas so we soon came across the Dj – 638 Ftgfop-1 invoice and there was no looking back any more, honestly I did not want to taste any more teas because I got exactly what I wanted , a good bodied , full flavored tea , an absolute good tea for a layman. I was also surprised to know that the Manager was fermenting the teas over 3-4 hours , where normally black teas are fermented for maximum 2 hours in autumn harvest, so one can imagine, Darjeeling is getting Cold!

Mr. A. Gurung (Asst. Manager) - Thurbo Tea Estate

Autumn visit to Margaret’s hope Tea Estate

Margaret's Hope Tea Garden Factory

On the 30th of October I went to one of my favorite tea estate Margaret’s hope Tea Garden located just below the Sonada station in Darjeeling.

Climbing down the steep hills towards the factory make the hair stand on the skin but this road is absolutely great fun for people of our age who definitely needs that buzz after a busy schedule…. anyways I was delighted to watch the scenery go pass by, specially the clean air I was breathing after months of working in the busy Darjeeling town, soon we reached the factory there was Mr. Rawat (factory assistant Manager) waiting for me as usual with his thick beard, we did a lot of tea tasting but I was not convinced with any of the teas, I was specially there for their china special variety but not even one tea was convincing for me, all the tea had that touch and grow condition meaning pre-autumn character.

(Rajiv Mitra - Testing Margaret's Hope Autumnal Flush 2007)

I met the Senior Manager Mr. J.D. Rai and he told us that there was atleast a temperature difference of 10 degrees Celsius between day and night and any difference above 5 degrees Celsius means less crop or pre-seasonal crop, they offered me many Oolongs and White teas but I was there to buy the real face of Darjeeling tea that is a very high quality black tea ,so I had to come back empty handed, they promised me that they would send us their best teas as soon as its available so let see, we have some 2 weeks in hand now. But can surely say that the Autumn 2007 will not be a successful one.

Singbulli Autumn Flush 2007

Finally on the evening of 27th October 2007 I was called up by the Manager of the Singbulli Tea Estate, I was excited as usual, so on the next morning I headed for the Estate, as usual I loved to drive down the road to Mirik towards Soureni bazar.

I reached the garden after a couple of hours drive from the Darjeeling town, I was getting nervous and exited as usual as I walked toward the gardens factory, soon Mr. Mantri (Manager, Singbulli tea estate Darjeeling) came out from his office to receive me and we soon marched towards the tea tasting room of the garden , I sorted out some 15 tea samples from around 25 tea samples that he offered me , soon after the water came to the boiling point we started with the china type teas ,well Singbulli being a low elevation garden has a lot of china bushes but for European market this type of tea would not work as the teas had a very strong body and somehow none of the teas we tasted had that sharp taste that I wanted , But the Singbulli Garden is famous for its AV-2 clone teas made specially at the Tingling Division of the garden ,this is the same sector from where the most famous Singbulli Clonal delight was made in the first flush, of coarse exclusively for us. Well soon after that we came to the point of tasting the clonal teas, we started with the “Marma” divison clones but those were too harsh for my tongue so at last we came to the Tingling division teas we tasted a couple of samples, soon I was attracted by one of the teas which was absolutely like what I wanted, actually as I have mentioned earlier that this garden is situated at a low altitude place so the teas produced here after summer is a bit stronger than usual Darjeelings but if one can increase the withering time then the liquor would be more bright and the taste would be sharper and the dry leafs would also be greener and the silver tips would look prominent, in short a completely new and acceptable character could be created, this is what I had requested the Manger to do and what a joy my prediction worked , my recipe made the best tea of the lot, so without any more further doubt I confirmed the last tea that I tasted from Tingling Division.

I specially brought this tea for my beloved customers who appreciated the first flush Singbulli Clonal delight silver tips. This new autumn tea is Know as the Singbulli SFTGFOP-1 Tippy.

Sign of Autumn Flush!

As usual we have been flooded with tea samples from various gardens but it seems Autumnal character is visible more in clonals than the china type variety, actually china origin plants takes a longer period to grow and in its peak time it gives some exceptionally matured teas so the resistance power in this type of plant is more so it really take much more time than any clonal plant to get a perfect character for example even in 1st and 2nd Flush the china variety arrives late.

Well taking about china type variety we recently tasted a couple of Chamong Ftgfop-1 samples; of coarse the character of the teas were that of the monsoon variety but it was still interesting as the taste was still matured and the cup still had that usual brightness, I somehow really like the teas of all the four gardens of the same group that is Chamong, Lingia, Tumsong and Pussimbing.

I’m still waiting for a word from the Singbulli Garden Manager, I’m specially looking forward to their Tingling Valley clonals as all our customers know about this tea as the 1st Flush 2007 Singbulli Clonal delight has been the best rated tea so far this year. Unlike the First Flush this time I’m looking for a much heavier cup both in aroma and Liquor, so I think the Manager is working really hard for it, but again it depends on the mercy of the nature.