Best of 2nd Flush 2008 Darjeeling teas: Risheehat and Castleton 2nd Flush 2008

Castleton (Muscatel/ftgfop-1/Exclusive) DJ-139: during the period of 2nd Flush this premium plantation of Darjeeling makes some of the finest muscatel teas that most of the tea connoisseurs look upon to, this particular batch rolled out of the garden during the peak harvest season so its termed as “ Exclusive” meaning the best of all the batches of Muscatels made during this harvest period, the dry leafs are small and almost similar in size and are sorted in a very clean manner and that extra shine on the leafs gives that majestic look to the tea, when steeped for around 5 minutes in the hot water, the aroma purely boasts of that extravagant muscatel flavor that rises high above the cup, giving that pleasant, pronounced and matured hints of dry fruits which further ends with a rich flavory after taste.

Risheehat classic musk (sftgfop-1/oolong type) DJ-130: A top of the line pure 2nd Flush oolong style Darjeeling tea having extra-bold unbroken leafs and buds plucked from the highest elevation slopes of the garden, when steeped the cup boasts of that aggressive musk flavor with an extremely sweet after taste that ends with each sip.
A true tea connoisseur’s delight and the tea grower’s pride!

Risheehat (flowery/sftgfop-1clonal) DJ-145: this is a very special and small batch of excellent tea made for us from the youngest bushes of this wonderful plantation of Darjeeling, the dry leafs are totally unbroken and comprises of long unbroken young shoots and buds, when steeped the high floral refreshing aroma rules the cup that ends with a very pronounced fruity after taste that dominates the palate for a long time.

Castleton (Moonlight) DJ-140: this is one of the most popular tea that we had to order due to the high demand from our customers, this tea is plucked from the pure AV-2 type clonal bushes from the highest elevation clonal section of the plantation named “allay”. The tea comprises of atleast 60-70% golden unbroken tips, which is purely hand rolled by expert tea makers of the plantation. The cup is extremely refreshing with pronounce notes of ripe grapes and the after taste that clearly reminds of high quality Darjeeling tea craftsmanship.
A top of the line as usual!

2nd Flush 2008: Present Scenario

It has been really unfortunate for us this 2nd flush season as firstly the monsoon arrived little early this time so it was a bit difficult for us to find the pure and finest 2nd flush teas made from the actual dehydrated leafs, I would request all our customers to keep patience as we actually have procured some of the best 2nd Flush peak season teas but this time the higher grade teas are available in a very limited quantity due to the situation and of coarse the 2nd major reason is that Darjeeling hills have gone for indefinite strikes since 9th of June for the demand of “Gorkhaland”, separate state from West Bengal. Experts say the export markets are suffering a loss of around 45000 US dollars everyday. We are praying and looking forward to the day when this problems ends and things get normal again.

An Approach to 2nd Flush 2008:

We have already entered the 4th week of May and we are looking forward to the world famous Muscatel teas made here in Darjeeling during this period of time, Its been raining since the 1st week of May and we were a bit worried as a good 2nd Flush tea needs dehydrated leafs for that typical muscatel flavor unlike the First Flush Harvest which needs only the fresh and young leafs and shoots for that refreshing flowery aroma, coming back to the 2nd Flush topic we are happy to say that the production level of the gardens are good and the pre-2nd Flush tea samples are clearly showing the upcoming brown/coppery character of the 2nd Flush .
Talking in general, in this particular harvest we need to have a heavier character i.e. a strong cup which also has to be round in taste that should not have any sharpness or bitterness, only this type of cup will give a pronounced honey like aroma from teas made from the clonal bushes and of coarse Muscatel notes from the chinery origin bushes and hence, this would be a perfect 2nd Flush character Darjeeling tea unlike the First Flush where we look for a lighter cup where the floral character gets pronounced and a little briskness that does the frame work as an aftertaste to define the First Flush character. In this period of time we look upon to gardens like Castleton, Margaret`s Hope, Rohini, Namring, Lingia, Chamong etc. meaning garden of medium altitude and not very high, as the medium altitude gardens in Darjeeling makes better Muscatel teas due to the atmospheric temperature and humidly in this period of time. We request our entire respected tea lover to wait patiently so that we can serve them the best teas as usual!

1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2008 – Overall Review

Well its been a very busy and tough 1st Flush crop this year, only after being in Darjeeling through out the year one can understand how tough it has been this year to procure the good teas. Actually in the early March the atmospheric temperatures were very low as a result of which the 1st Flush harvest started at least 9-14 days late, specially high elevation Gardens like Puttabong, Risheehat, Gopaldhara etc. suffered a lot. But again in terms of early production Gardens from Mirik Valley Like Thurbo, Phuguri etc did very well throughout. Specially seeing the Thurbo teas in general I personally think it is one of the best 1st Flush producer this year and on the other side famous gardens like Sungma and Singbulli tea estates which used to be our favorite did not do so well.I must also admit that I have seen some of the best clonals from gardens like Castleton and Thurbo this year, specially talking about the Castleton Moonlight this year it was awesome and all our mail clients were crazy for this tea and the full invoice tea was sold out within 3 weeks, that’s unimaginable for such an expensive tea but of coarse an excellent tea.
Not to forget the “Thurbo Oriental Delight White Tea” this was another surprise for us, within a span of 4-5 days this tea matured like anything and was wholeheartedly accepted by most of our elite customers, even some of the black tea lovers admired this tea, well at the end of the day I must also thank the Thurbo Garden factory assistant Manager Mr. Anil Gurung for this tea, as he did exactly what we wanted for this tea, well let that be our trade secret but I’m also happy that our customers are satisfied. Now we are looking for ward to the 2nd Flush 2008 teas, we hope we will be able to procure excellent teas again… at least we’ll do our very best...

PUSSIMBING Tea Estate 1st Flush 2008 Darjeeling tea / FTGFOP-1 /Organic DJ-1

For last 2 years we had been trying get teas from this wonderful garden of Darjeeling but we were some how not successful enough to get what exactly we wanted from this estate as this is a small garden that produce great Darjeeling black teas and only serve their teas to Premium tea sellers all around the globe and above all this is a Certified Bio-Organic Plantation and has 100% china bushes.
To describe the tea all I can write is that this is simply the best among the finest traditional 1st Flush teas that Darjeeling could conceive this year, this tea is plucked from the pure china origin young bushes and has been sorted very well as a result of which almost all the leafs are of similar size in the tea, the blossom of the tea is very greenish and bright mainly due to the high altitude growth and early harvest factors, when infused the cup gives an extravagant high fruity aroma and an aftertaste that reminds of caramellic,honey and lemony like taste and we are honestly proud to have the 1st invoice of this great plantation. A majestic 1st flush tea for the tea connoisseur

Goomtee,Balasun,Jungpana 1st Flush teas 2008

As I have mentioned earlier that this year, the early harvest was very slow and since we exclusively deal with the early season exclusive teas, we had a tough time procuring the best teas from various different plantations of Darjeeling but now I’m also very happy to launch some of the premium black teas of the season that has been added to our list of 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2008: Please note that this year we have some of the1st invoice teas from few gardens, mostly first invoices teas are the cream of the best teas produced by various plantations these are marked as DJ-1,DJ-2,DJ-4 etc so these numbers indicates the actual production period of the teas and also not to forget specially the DJ-1s are not given to any buyers but to only those who has a reputation of dealing with only the high end teas.




1. Goomtee (ftgfop-1) DJ-1 `08: A top of the line super quality tea from one of the most prestigious plantation of Darjeeling. Being the 1st invoice of the garden, the leafs are well withered as a result of which the tea is extremely greenish in dry leaf state and in the cup, the tea has a very intense fruity and nutty flavor which ends with a very balanced briskness, A super refreshing tea of the season.

2. Jungpana (upper/ftgfop-1) DJ-4 `08: A finely plucked tea from some of the youngest china origin bushes of this prestigious plantation of Darjeeling, the leafs are well sorted as a result of which the dry leafs forms a very good brick on each other, this tea is extremely floral in the cup and creates that typical buttery and muscatel layer on the palate followed up by a mellow after taste. A true symbol of an exotic Darjeeling tea.

3. Balasun (classic/sftgfop-1)DJ-4 `08: A nicely sorted and well fired tea which has a very fruity cup that reminds of young fruits and flowers and an after taste that lingers on the palate for a long time without any bitterness. A perfect spring tea for the afternoon.

Castleton Moonlight (ftgfop-1) 2008 First Flush

This year, the month of March i.e. the beginning of First Flush 2008 has been a nightmare for all tea growers in Darjeeling due to shortage of enough leafs for the manufacture, specially we were scared as we had a huge order from some of the Merchants from the west and also some individual tea lovers, this year we are at least 1 week late to procure this wonderful young tea, I was in touch with Mr.. Mukhia (Manager Castleton T.E.) from the last weeks of February for this tea, actually this tea is produced in a very limited quantity by this plantation, this tea is grown exclusively at the “allay” section of the plantation at a height over 5500feet,so the growth of the leafs in this section is very slow due to the extreme cold atmospheric temperature, the leafs are plucked when they are very young just before the sunrise by expert tea pluckers of the plantation, the tea is then withered for over 28-30 hours to have the even freshness in all the leafs, then its only fermented for over 20-25 minutes for that slight touch of flavour and fired for the perfect crisp, as a result of which the tea is extremely rich in anti-oxidants. The real tea maker behind this early spring exotica is Mr. Gurung (factory assistant) who is also one of the most renowned tea makers in Darjeeling District.