Castleton Muscatel Exclusive DJ 97 ftgfop-1 / 2nd flush 2014 Darjeeling.

 Castleton Muscatel Exclusive DJ 97 ftgfop-1 / 2^nd flush 2014 Darjeeling.

     

     We are once again very proud and excited to offer this fantastic batch of tea from the world famous Castleton Tea Estate of Darjeeling.

     Castleton tea estate has mainly “china” origin bushes and is worldwide famous for its classic Darjeeling teas, their signature teas specially gets produced during the 2^nd flush harvest which are known to tea lovers worldwide as the Muscatel variety. Tea Lovers around the world compare this muscatel character of Castleton Darjeeling tea with Muscat wine or ripe Muscat grapes.

   

      We are again very lucky this year to get this peak time 2^nd flush muscatel variety from this estate. We were eagerly waiting for a batch of tea like this one and I would also like to mention that the tea maker of this batch of tea has done a spectacular job. After tasting and comparing several samples we can proudly say that this is the finest lot of Muscatel variety that rolled out of this garden this year.

       We are sure every tea lover who will try out this batch will simply fall in love with this batch of tea!

Castleton Muscatel Exclusive ftgfop-1 DJ 93/ 2nd flush 2013 Darjeeling tea

Castleton Muscatel Exclusive ftgfop-1 DJ 93/ 2^nd flush 2013 Darjeeling tea

     I am really happy and excited to have and offer this lot of exclusive 2^nd flush 2013 Muscatel Darjeeling tea in my list of teas. The Castleton Tea estate is situated in the Kurseong valley of Darjeeling district at an altitude of 4000 feet. This area of Darjeeling district is famous mainly for its 2^nd flush harvest. Tea Lovers around the world claim that gardens in the Kurseong Valley of Darjeeling makes the best Muscatel variety teas.

        Last year all our tea lover friends had really liked the Castleton Muscatel 2^nd flush lot that we had offered. So this year the expectations were really high and I wanted to have a really peak time Muscatel lot from this garden but unfortunately from the end of May 2013 it started raining continuously for over 10 days and every sample we tasted were either a pre- 2^nd flush tea or a tea from the dormant period. Finally when we started having hot and sunny days from the 2^nd week of June 2013 we tasted almost every muscatel lot samples from Castleton. When finally on the last week of June we chose the Castleton Muscatel Exclusive ftgfop-1 DJ 93/ 2^nd flush 2013 Darjeeling tea lot.

      This is simply the best lot that rolled out of the garden, we guarantee that out of 22 Castleton Muscatel samples we tasted this really stands out to be the “Exclusive “lot.

     This premium lot of tea is plucked from the 100% pure china origin bushes of the “Gauri Shankar”division of this plantation. The dry leafs are extremely well sorted twisted and is wiry in appearance. The dry leafs has a rich aroma of chocolates and dates. When steeped for complete 4 minutes the cup releases rich golden liquor and rich flavour of ripe grapes raises high above the cup. Each sip is super smooth which reminds of chocolates, ripe grapes, mangoes and cherries which further leaves classic and sweet muscatel taste which stays on the palate for long time.

    A true classic Muscatel variety 2^nd flush 2013 Darjeeling tea which cannot be further replicated!

    

    

Castleton ftgfop-1 (spl.ch.) autumn Dj442/Autumn flush 2011

We are really proud to have this tea in our list of autumn flush 2011 teas .We had cupped about 23 invoice samples from this plantation of Darjeeling and have selected this excellent batch. This tea was manufactured on the 14th of November which was actually the second last invoice that rolled out of the garden before it closed for the winters and I was really sad before I came across this batch as most of the samples that we had cupped earlier was either a bit flat in the cup or some had less aroma.
Actually this tea was made perfectly as it stopped raining in Darjeeling after the 10th of November and the leafs had enough time on the bush to dehydrate as a result of which this excellent batch of autumn tea is well withered, rolled and fired. The dry leafs are bright coppery in appearance which is truly a good sign of a perfect autumn tea. The cup has bright liquor which further releases exotic aroma of ripe fruits. Each sip is extremely smooth and finishes with a mellow after taste.
A classic offering of the season!

Castleton (ftgfop-1) Autumn china spl. DJ -357 Autumn Flush 2009

Castleton (ftgfop-1) Autumn china spl. DJ -357 Autumn Flush 2009


We all know that the Castleton Tea Estate in Darjeeling is best known for its china type muscatel teas which are made in 2nd Flush and some in Autumn Flush. The garden could not provide us with any of its Muscatel teas in the 2nd Flush as they were under forward contract meaning some one had booked all their muscatel teas in 2nd Flush, I constantly kept in touch with the management during the 2nd Flush but failed to get any of it and when I was offered the muscatel teas after the contract was over the monsoons had kicked in and we had to reject the teas then but I regularly kept in touch with the Manager as the muscatel character could again happen in Autumn and Castleton makes some 3000kgs of pure autumn teas and the rest are sold as pre-autumn teas, the identity of a good autumn tea from this garden is that the cup has to be golden orange in liquor and the nose has to possess a mixture of pine and muscatel flavor.
I was called to the garden by Mr. Mukhia (Manager, Castleton Tea Garden) on the 31st of October `09, Mr. Mukhia is also a family friend of us so he arranged to keep samples of 5 different china type muscatel samples and a clonal tea sample for me, they arranged a tea tasting as soon as I reached the garden, he tried his best to sell me the clonal tea which was also good too but I am honestly sick and tired of clonal teas from Castleton this year as for wholesale purpose we have brought at least 800kgs of the clonals from them, as one can guess I was there for a good muscatel tea and not the “lights and florals” anymore. After tasting the 5 muscatel tea samples I selected the invoice DJ-357 tea which was a well sorted tea, had a great Muscat grape and piney nose, the liquor was very attractive and the cup is really full flavored muscatel type but sadly this invoice consists of very limited quantity of tea, since it contains only some 90kgs in the lot, so a tea lover has to rush for this tea before this gem of a tea gets out of stock!