An Approach to 1st flush 2012 darjeeling tea

An approach to 1st flush 2012 Darjeeling tea:

The winters have finally passed away in Darjeeling and we had a very cold winter season here. It also rained at certain intervals here during the winters so we are expecting a much better 1st Flush 2012 darjeeling tea harvest this year than the previous last 3 years.
I had recently taken a drive downhill towards the Mirik Valley in Darjeeling where world famous tea gardens like Thurbo,Phuguri and Singbulli tea estates are located and saw a lot of newly grown baby shoots and buds on the tea bushes in the tea fields. This period of time is better known as the pre-1st Flush period. During this period of time the flushing of new shoots and buds are very minimum, so most of the invoices are often mixed up with the old leafs as a result of which the shelve life of a tea produced during this period of time is very less and a tea produced during this period often loses its flavor within 2-3 months from its manufacture. It really takes years of observation and knowledge to understand the real and pure 1st Flush tea. We have already been flooded with samples from various different gardens in Darjeeling but we are still waiting for few invoices to roll out of the gardens so that the yellow or the old leafs are fully cleared out from the tea bushes and then we shall start choosing the best invoices of Darjeeling teas as usual for our clients worldwide.
The manufacture of 1st flush teas have already started in lower elevations gardens in kurseong valley like Rohini,Tindharia,jogmaya and Jungpana tea estates but as I have mentioned above that the pure 1st flush will only start after 2-4 invoices roll out of these individual gardens and for that of course you will have to depend on your tea supplier.
The right temperature difference between day and night should be about 8 degrees Celsius for a perfect 1st flush harvest. Most of the finest teas are made from the clonal/young bushes during this period of time,as a perfect cup of 1st flush Darjeeling tea should be light/bright in color ,fruity and flowery in flavor and it should leave a slight astringency on the tea lover`s palate as an after taste. If all these factors are present in a 1st Flush tea then I would call it a well made tea.
I request all tea lover`s to have patience and keep visiting us on facebook (www.facebook.com/teaemporium) and our blog for latest updates!

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!

Darjeeling Tea: Autumn flush 2010

Darjeeling Tea: Autumn flush 2010

The autumn flush Darjeeling tea harvest started a bit late this year , we had predicted that this year the harvest will start earlier than the past few year`s harvest since the atmospheric temperatures were dropping down every day by 1-2 degrees Celsius but during the last weeks of October it rained very hard in Darjeeling as a result of which a lot of crop was damaged as during the rains the finish product (made tea) has a darker color and a less flavor and a proper autumn flush tea should have a high flavor and a bright liquor. So we had to do a very careful selection this time since we have already catered teas like Turzum clonal flowery, Puttabong Queen and Singbulli in the 1st Flush harvest and excellent teas like the Turzum clonal delight, Gopaldhara wonder tea and Sungma organic musk in the 2nd flush.These teas have already made a reputation of its own in the hearts of the tea lovers, so keeping this in mind I decided to go for a short list of teas which would be simple and value for money for our most valuable customers since we already have great teas in our list from 1st and 2nd flush so I took a firm decision to keep a simple list of good teas in my list during this Autumn flush 2010 harvest. So I started with the Balasun sftgfop-1 classic Dj311 which is a very nice tea plucked from pure china bushes, this tea has a very rich flavor in the dry leaf state and has a fairly strong cup which fits a good cup of breakfast tea and can also be enjoyed with a splash of milk and sugar. The next tea that I was looking for had to be a tea with a light liquor and a fruity flavor as I have always tried to keep all the teas in my list to be completely different from each other, so I chose the Risheehat classic Autumn sftgfop-1/Organic Dj493, this tea has a very bright liquor with a very flowery and fruity flavor and has an overall smooth character in the cup. After these two great teas I had to look for something special which would be a great treat for a tea lover so here comes a very special tea from one of my favorite plantation in Darjeeling, it’s the Sungma Organic Autumn musk sftgfop-1 DJ276, its a classic muscatel tea plucked from pure china bushes which are upto 125 years old in age, the cup gives a very unique fruity and herb like flavor and ends with a nice muscatel taste on the palate, I recommend this tea as a perfect afternoon tea and I`m sure it will be highly praised by the tea lovers. The last tea in my list is something very unusual; it’s a Darjeeling green tea which has been well made by the tea makers of the plantation, it had already made a reputation of its own in our list of teas offered last year, it’s the Rohini Emerald (Green Tea) PP-18, this tea is plucked from very young P312 clonal bushes of the plantation, the liquor of the tea turns green in the cup so its named Emerald, this excellent green tea gives out a rich fruity and flowery flavor from the cup and ends with an unique sweetness,i`m very happy to have this fine tea in the list.
I invite all Darjeeling tea lovers to join our autumn flush 2010 tea party and I hope as usual I`ll be able to satisfy all palates.

An approach to autumn flush 2010

An approach to Autumn Flush 2010:

The Monsoon has finally ended in Darjeeling and we are enjoying some fine sunshine here and its getting cold each day. It is also a sign of relief for the Darjeeling Tea industry as during the monsoon season better known as the “Rains” the growth of the leafs are not under control so the quality of the teas are comparatively poor as a result of which the gardens fetch a very low price for their produce compared the 1st, 2nd and autumn flush. There are several factors which are involved to produce very good autumn teas, actually the autumn harvest is a character which passes over after the long monsoon flush and ends at the end of November and is actually not an individual harvest like the 1st and the 2nd flush. The teas produced in this harvest can be equally good as the 1st and the 2nd Flush, the right atmospheric temperature for this harvest should have a minimum difference of 7-9 degrees Celsius between day and night, the content of tips or Buds are less in this harvest and most of the good teas in this harvest do not have an attractive ornamental value and mostly look dehydrated.
Well these are few important factors required for making good autumn flush Darjeeling teas, there has been a shortage of at least 10-15% of the total annual production of Darjeeling teas this year due to several natural problems like uncertain rains, draught etc.so there is a serious shortage of good Darjeeling teas in the world market. We have already started tasting samples from various plantation in Darjeeling and as usual we will soon come up with the large list of exotic autumn Flush 2010 teas.So keep visiting 

Dooteriah white delight Dj50 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2010

Dooteriah white delight Dj50 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2010



This premium Darjeeling White tea is simply the best white tea made in this harvest, this tea is plucked from pure AV2 and T78 young clonal bushes of the garden at the early hours of the morning when the dew drops are still present on the 2 leaf and a bud to maintain the tenderness of the leaf quality, then the raw leaves are treated with cold air on the withering bed for 48 hours which gives the tea an extra bright greenish look and then the tea is hand rolled in silk cloth to keep the 2 leaf and a bud look intact and the tea is further sent for the firing process, this tea is further sorted by 8-12 women sorters very carefully to remove any unwanted particles from this made tea as a result of which this tea is extremely clean without any dust particles or any type of stalks, when this tea is steeped for about 4 minutes the cup gives out a very bright greenish liquor which is a very good sign of a true white tea, the aroma of the tea is well defined and is rather traditional as raw hints of flowers like Rhododendrons and Marigold can be clearly felt over the cup, each sip in the cup is simply awesome as the cup is extremely mellow, the floral characters just moves around the palate leaving some vegetal notes as an after taste.
The Best Darjeeling White tea ever made which can definitely beat any Darjeeling white teas like the Arya Pearl, Okayti silver tips or the Phoobshering White tea and can give a stiff competition to any high quality Chinese white and green teas.

Turzum DJ-1 sftgfop-1 clonal flowery 1st Flush 2010 Darjeeling tea

Turzum (Sungma) sftgfop-1 clonal flowery /Organic Darjeeling tea 2010:


This 1st Flush 2010 Darjeeling tea harvest has been a hard one, where all other merchants and exporters of Darjeeling teas are literally crying for high quality teas as there is a serious crunch for good quality teas, I’ve been lucky enough as my hard work has been paying off smoothly, I had booked an invoice of Turzum some 20 days back hoping that we will be able to get the same quality label tea as last year ,(Turzum is a organic division of the Sungma plantation in Darjeeling which mainly consists of BB157 clonal bushes and Camellia Assamica bushes) , But seeing the harvest conditions this year I was not sure if we will get anything serious from this garden on time as Sungma and Turzum is a late starter in1st Flush harvest, so on the 3rd of April Mr. Jha (Superintendent of Sungma,Risheehat and Balasun Tea Estates) gave me a call that the 1st invoice of Turzum was ready and a sample was sent to me, Mr. Jha is also a very popular figure in the Darjeeling tea industry for his excellent tea making art and I was sure that ,to get his 1st invoice that’s DJ-1 will not be easy as at least top 50 buyers from all around the world will bid for this tea….. Sungma tea estate is located in Pokriabong valley of Darjeeling district and is just one and a half hour drive from our retail outlet, so finally the sample arrived and yes the tea is extremely good ,very well twisted and lots of silver tips in it, so we immediately steeped the tea and the cup also gave a very good result, really very fruity tea without any bitterness,so after few hours of intense bidding we finally got the tea and I`m really proud of 2 things and that is DJ-1 its an honour and secondly the sample of the tea was catered to selected premium buyers only,and we were among the few of their premium buyers who were catered with this premium tea sample,all I can say about this tea is that this tea is a true nectar of the nature and cannot be further replicated this 1st Flush 2010 harvest.

Great New 1st Flush darjeeling teas 2010

Great New 1st Flush Darjeeling teas 2010:

As I’ve posted on my last blog that the 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2010 harvest started a bit slow this year due to low temperatures and less rainfall, its been really difficult to choose the right teas as I simply cannot have any normal quality teas on my tea list but have a huge responsibility on my shoulders to choose the right and excellent teas to sustain our presence in the world of Exclusive Darjeeling teas, I have been tasting a lot of new teas from various plantation of Darjeeling and till the 18th of March I’ve rejected at least 25 teas from various plantation, On the other side I also have in mind that if the last few days of the month of March goes away then we will lose the fine and tenderness of early season teas so I have been constantly in touch with the finest tea makers in Darjeeling, on the evening of 18th March I got a call from Mr. Somani (the superintendent of Puttabong Plantation) saying that his 1st batch of Clonal Queen is ready and a sample has been sent to us but I have to answer back by half an hour if I want the tea as many overseas buyers were waiting for this first lot ,some had already reached their head office in Kolkata , India all the way from Europe and Japan. Well the sample simply reached me by 20 minutes after his call as Puttabong plantation is just 5 kilometers away from our establishment in Darjeeling, as soon as I opened the sample packet I almost fell down! As this was exactly what I was looking for… may be better than my expectations, Mr. Somani has done a magic to this particular lot and I must say he knows his job very well, even in this scarce weather conditions he has made a tea which is very well sorted and has a very wiry look, the leafs are well withered too which makes the tea look and smell very tender, as a result of which the cup is also very bright and each sip in the cup leaves a very fruity taste on the palate which further ends with a very sweet and creamy finish.
Well all I can say about this tea is that this is Puttabong sftgfop-1 clonal Queen Dj-5 and if you have not tasted this tea then you have tasted nothing better than this in the harvest of 1st Flush 2010 and I`m very proud that I have somehow been able to procure this tea and make it available for extreme Darjeeling tea lovers.
Just after procuring the Puttabong tea I got a call from Mr. Mukhia (Manager of Castleton Tea Garden) that the 1st lot of the famous Castleton Moonlight was ready and a sample was sent to us, I was literally dying to taste it as after procuring the Puttabong Dj-5 Queen my excitement was over my head and the expectations were also very high so finally the very next day we received the sample and WOW! This was another beauty we received after long days of hunt for good teas and I wish I could pour my frustrations on someone prior from receiving these tea samples, as I have never struggled earlier like this year in my tea career for good teas, the dry leaf appearance of this tea is very tippy and greenish as this tea is plucked from 100% AV2 young clonal bushes of this excellent tea garden, this tea is actually plucked from the “Allay” section of the garden from tea bushes which are below the age of 6 years so the tenderness of the tea is even more prominent ,the cup is slightly golden in liquor and has a very unique fruity and flowery aroma, each sip in the cup reminds of fresh tender fruits and leaves a slight muscatel hint on the palate as an after taste, a great tea indeed and this tea is Castleton Moonlight Ex-1 Darjeeling tea 2010.
I must say I’ve been very lucky this year to get the finest early season 1st Flush 2010 Darjeeling teas which are true value for money, We invite all tea lovers and join our tea party this 1st Flush 2010 Darjeeling tea harvest.

An Approach to 2nd Flush 2009 Darjeeling tea (s)

An Approach to 2nd Flush Darjeeling tea 2009

As days passed away from the early spring to the summer, the 2nd Flush harvest has already started knocking at our doors but this is an extremely sensitive harvest as the 2nd Flush character lasts on the tea bushes for a very short time, in this harvest pronounced effects can be seen more on china variety bushes where the floral character of 1st Flush converts to Muscatel character further making the liquor slightly heavy unlike the 1st Flush harvest, the clonal variety teas are also very round in cup and pronounced in taste in this harvest as the liquor gets slightly heavier making it more sweeter in taste, the best teas in this harvest are plucked from both china and clonal variety tea bushes but only the most dehydrated leafs and buds are selectively plucked to make the muscatel teas.
We have so far tasted many samples from Darjeeling Valley gardens like Puttabong, North Tukvar and Barnesbeg; the Puttabong tea samples were interesting as it showed some very good sign of pre- 2nd Flush Harvests, especially the Puttabong Muscatel samples showed some good character than the clonal varieties but I must say that excellent and pronounced 2nd Flush teas should start in from this valley from the 2nd week of June as most of the tea bushes are going through the dormant period in this valley, while coming to the Kurseong valley gardens like the Castleton, Margaret’s Hope, Makaibari, Rohini and Ambootia, I must say none of these gardens showed any 2nd Flush character, they are rather more on the dormant period but Kurseong Valley gardens are known for making best 2nd Flush teas in the district and since the rainfall was sufficient in the early month of May we have great expectations of Having excellent 2nd Flush teas from this valley.
So I request my entire beloved and most valuable tea lover customers to be patient and as usual we will cater with the best 2nd Flush 2009 teas as usual…. Cheers!

Balasun and Sungma 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2009
Its been a real adventure this 1st Flush choosing the right teas, now I would say it was easy to choose the high quality and expensive teas but getting some lower priced teas was a real challenge, and some average priced teas are also required to complete the list of teas this season, so we ordered samples from various plantation, like Thurbo, Goomtee, Arya and Singbulli, but all the teas from the month of April showed very dark appearances, I would rather call it a burnt and dehydrated character, I specially had great expectations from the Singbulli plantation but all the 6 or 7 samples did not do any wonders for me, so I finally called up Mr. A.K. Jha ( Superintendent) of Sungma and Balasun Tea Estates, he had send us many samples, some were teas from pure china bushes and some were assamese hybrid bushes but more or less the teas were not up to the mark but I could finally choose 2 teas from Balasun and Sungma and would say it was a complete luck for me to get these teas, as these 2 teas were exceptionally excellent during this period of time, the 1st one is Sungma sftgfop-1 china classic Dj-16, an excellent offering having slightly darker leafs and has a well twisted leafs and full sized buds, the cup is pungent and smooth with hints of young pears without any bitterness, the other one is my personal favourite,the Balasun sftgfop-1 china classic Dj-16,it’s a really excellent tea having very bright leafs and small sized shiny sliver tips, the cup is extravagantly fruity and the after taste is extremely mellow, so I must say that even in low price I could offer 2 great teas in this hard harvest season

Darjeeling tea 2009: 1st Flush selections get even better

Darjeeling tea 2009: 1st Flush selections get even better


I think this year we have tasted more than 60 samples to get some 5-7 teas in our list of 1st Flush 2009 teas. Well talking about that I cannot stop myself from writing about our Gopaldhara clonal classic ftgfop-1 DJ-3 tea, actually we have been tasting tea samples from Gopaldhara tea estate since last Second Flush 2008 but I was not excited with any of their teas so one fine day Rishi (the owner of Gopaldhara) called me up asking why I was not ordering any teas from them and I told him the reasons that was stopping me from promoting any of their teas, so he promised me that he would send some good Gopaldhara tea samples that could fit in my list of fine Darjeeling teas, so during the 3rd week of March as usual I received a large sample packet of Gopaldhara tea samples and as usual I thought it would contain teas that would not fit my taste buds, but my father asked me to open the tea sample packet and we went through at least 6-7 Gopaldhara and Rohini tea sample but none of the teas were appealing, at the corner of the sample packet there was this Gopaldhara ftgfop-1 clonal classic DJ-3 tea sample pouch, so to give it a try I opened the sample pounch and WOW!…..I was excited to see this tea, this was exactly what we were looking forward to, in this hard season ,it was hard withered to keep that greenish and tender look on the tea and one should also consider the hard withered teas in this season as it’s a sacrifice of quantity when the tea is hard withered meaning the quantity of tea leaves goes down. The dry leafs were amazing and with a slight blow of warm air from the mouth on the leafs gave out a very fruity aroma and when the tea is further brewed for about 4-5 minutes, the cup immediately give out some refreshing fruity flavor with slight hints of young green bananas and white grapes, must say ….an absolute beautiful tea of the season!
Also on the other side I agree that good teas are available in a very limited quantity this 1st Flush season but one cannot say they are not available at all, I was very sad to see blogs written by so called tea wise people that the 1st Flush 2009 Darjeeling teas are not very good, well I don’t mind consumers writing about it as they get this news through some news website or magazine etc. who keep their homework incomplete, but even tea merchants write this type of blogs which even they know that is not fully true and by writing this they get an advantage of getting rid of their old teas in the same high price and may be they do not want to spend their money on good teas as good teas costs good price…..anyways I`m proud to write that I’ve been able to cater good teas this season too as its been over 1 month that I been tasting various samples and choosing the right teas and also I’ve been able to prove the point wrong that 1st Flush 2009 Darjeeling teas are not up to the quality level due to drought, I would request all tea lovers to follow their own mind and choose teas from us instead of following blogs of people who have no idea about what they are blogging about…or may be merchants who are blogging to escape the heat of investment for good teas this season!

Margaret`s Hope 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2009

Margaret’s Hope 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2009

As days past away hunting for good teas in various gardens in Darjeeling, I got a call from Mr. Anil Gurung (factory assistant) Margaret’s Hope Tea Estate that a couple of excellent batches of tea have just been made and I should be there by the early morning on the 21st of March 2009 as another big buyer from Japan was coming for the same tea, so I quickly took my camera and started my journey from Darjeeling to Margaret’s Hope, we were passing through some very steep road and beautiful scenery could be seen from the car’s window but I was actually getting impatient, finally I happened to reach the garden and I saw Mr. Anil Gurung and Mr. Pande (Manager of the garden) waiting for me, I immediately got down from the car and we all headed for the tea tasting room of the garden, after I reached there I came to know that the big Japanese buyer had given her bid for the teas and wanted the teas at any cost, so I was a bit nervous while we did the tea tasting but I must say both the teas were simply excellent, the first one that I was offered was the Margaret’s hope ftgfop-1 china spl.DJ-4 which was made from pure china origin (bushes grown from the seeds)leafs and shoots, had a very bright leaf appearance and the cup showed some very interesting fruity character and the most important factor regarding this tea was that it had an after taste of young fruits and flowers that remained on the palate for a long time so there was no turning back ,so we had a stiff bidding completion with the other Japanese buyer and luckily we got the tea, Infact I was very happy that I got a very nice tea in the time when there was very less amount of good teas in Darjeeling, the next tea was this tea called Margaret’s hope (Wonder) White tea, this tea is made exclusively made for us from young clonal bushes like AV2 and P312 by Mr. Gurung (factory assistant ,Margaret’s hope),with full unsorted long leafs and full sized buds, I must say it’s a master craftsmanship right from the tea plucker who carefully plucked the tender shoots and buds to the factory assistant who made the tea, its simply a beauty from dry leaf to the cup, a true champagne of the 1st Flush Darjeeling.