Well its been a long time since I’ve been able to write anything about the status of Darjeeling teas as it was a merciless Monsoon this time and it really rained so hard that we could not see any unique teas this season, usually the stretch between the month of July to September is a bad time for high quality Darjeeling teas but at times we always use to expect some unique teas in this period of time.
Its already been 1st week of October but we can’t even see a sign of the much awaited Autumnal character, in this particular harvest we expect to see and taste some of the most round and smooth character teas as in this period of time the sun shine is much regular and from some of the rare de-hydrated leafs and shoots we get to see some exceptional teas. Well also to keep in mind one should not expect a “tippy” appearance in a tea in this season as this harvest contains much lesser tips in the teas due to several natural factors.
I think we will have a great autumn crop this year but on the other side we will have a crop scarcity, so I would like to warn all tea lovers to choose a proper vendor for their tea orders as some people will try to sell the Monsoon crop as Autumn harvest as usual! Well I would like to ask my most valuable customers to have patience and wait the Original Autumn Flush 2008!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Exclusive Darjeeling White tea 2008
This harvest season we have been able to procure some of the finest Darjeeling White teas and I must admit after a long time we have been able to procure what we actually wanted. A cup filled with the magic of freshness!
Okayti (Silver Tips) white tea: A rare and unique offering of the year, this tea is plucked from the youngest clonal bushes of this wonderful tea plantation of Darjeeling, all the process involved in manufacturing this tea is done manually, especially each silver tip is hand rolled very carefully by expert tea makers of the garden and its done in such a way that each tiny hair remains prominent on each silver tip which gives that extra ornamentation to the tea, this tea should be steeped for 6 minutes to get that extremely refreshing aroma and slight delicate taste of fresh pears and white grapes that ends with exceptionally mellow after taste, this rare white tea has all the health benefits of a very high quality Green tea and is one of the best of its kind in the world.
Champagne of teas among exceptional and rare Darjeeling teas!
Arya white pearl/organic: This is one of the rare premium organic tea made in Darjeeling by one of the famous plantation in Darjeeling, which is totally hand made and no machines are used at any stage of the production of this tea, each two leaf and a bud is plucked by the expert tea pluckers of this plantation at the early hours of the morning when there is sufficient dew on the leafs from young bushes that has natural floral character. The leafs are then spread very thinly in sunlight for about 4 hours to allow the moisture to be evaporated. About 8-12 leafs are rolled at a time in fine silk cloth for about 5-6 minutes to ensure a slight rupture of enzymes while retaining most of the “two leaf and a bud” shape of the leaf. This tea should be steeped for about 6 minutes to get that extremely floral and fruity aroma and as the leafs are unbroken, the tea immediately gives that smooth and sweet taste on the palate with each sip and the liquor of the tea is similar to the color of the white pearl.
A superb quality tea that’s hard to be imitated!
Okayti (Silver Tips) white tea: A rare and unique offering of the year, this tea is plucked from the youngest clonal bushes of this wonderful tea plantation of Darjeeling, all the process involved in manufacturing this tea is done manually, especially each silver tip is hand rolled very carefully by expert tea makers of the garden and its done in such a way that each tiny hair remains prominent on each silver tip which gives that extra ornamentation to the tea, this tea should be steeped for 6 minutes to get that extremely refreshing aroma and slight delicate taste of fresh pears and white grapes that ends with exceptionally mellow after taste, this rare white tea has all the health benefits of a very high quality Green tea and is one of the best of its kind in the world.
Champagne of teas among exceptional and rare Darjeeling teas!
Arya white pearl/organic: This is one of the rare premium organic tea made in Darjeeling by one of the famous plantation in Darjeeling, which is totally hand made and no machines are used at any stage of the production of this tea, each two leaf and a bud is plucked by the expert tea pluckers of this plantation at the early hours of the morning when there is sufficient dew on the leafs from young bushes that has natural floral character. The leafs are then spread very thinly in sunlight for about 4 hours to allow the moisture to be evaporated. About 8-12 leafs are rolled at a time in fine silk cloth for about 5-6 minutes to ensure a slight rupture of enzymes while retaining most of the “two leaf and a bud” shape of the leaf. This tea should be steeped for about 6 minutes to get that extremely floral and fruity aroma and as the leafs are unbroken, the tea immediately gives that smooth and sweet taste on the palate with each sip and the liquor of the tea is similar to the color of the white pearl.
A superb quality tea that’s hard to be imitated!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Darjeeling Tea: White tea 2008
Well, I really do not know how to start this blog, since I grew up in a tea trading family, and I always learned so much from my father about Darjeeling black teas as in his time Darjeeling was always famous for black teas only, the specialty section of Darjeeling Whites, Greens and Oolongs came into existence in terms of Market Demand only after the year 2002 when Tea Lovers all around the globe wanted something new from Darjeeling, so different great tea makers from various gardens in Darjeeling started making this specialty section which of coarse was not really very tongue friendly for a common tea drinker, as when initially people tried this teas they missed that typical Darjeeling character in the cup as everybody knew Darjeeling tea for its Muscatel flavor and round body character , but as time passed by, the tea makers started creating the floral character in the specialty tea which was accepted world wide by various tea lovers
, This was successful due to the young bushes better known as clonals, as clonals are more mellow and floral in character than the usual china and Assam hybrids. But making these teas got extremely difficult as only special experienced hands could be used to pluck the most tender shoots and buds, as these rare teas cannot be made with just any leaf from the garden but only from the special young bushes from the special section of the gardens, so this is the reason why specially Darjeeling Green and White teas are so Rare.
This season we got a big demand from all our regular customers for Darjeeling white teas, so keeping the demand in mind and maintaining the same reputation of excellent teas in the list, we are presenting the Okayti Silver tips White tea and the Arya Pearl Organic White tea, both are extremely rare white teas and both have their own unique characters, further details regarding these teas are given in our main site, so I hope as usual I’ll succeed in satisfying my most valuable customers.
, This was successful due to the young bushes better known as clonals, as clonals are more mellow and floral in character than the usual china and Assam hybrids. But making these teas got extremely difficult as only special experienced hands could be used to pluck the most tender shoots and buds, as these rare teas cannot be made with just any leaf from the garden but only from the special young bushes from the special section of the gardens, so this is the reason why specially Darjeeling Green and White teas are so Rare.
This season we got a big demand from all our regular customers for Darjeeling white teas, so keeping the demand in mind and maintaining the same reputation of excellent teas in the list, we are presenting the Okayti Silver tips White tea and the Arya Pearl Organic White tea, both are extremely rare white teas and both have their own unique characters, further details regarding these teas are given in our main site, so I hope as usual I’ll succeed in satisfying my most valuable customers.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Sungma clonal delight EX-11 2nd Flush Darjeeling tea 2008
This is the tea that we had procured at the end of our 2nd Flush 2008 purchase, after we had almost finished with our 2nd Flush 2008 list of teas, this particular tea’s sample happened to reach us through another Darjeeling tea buyer who just could not afford to have this tea due to some financial crisis, when I dropped the leafs on the white foil, I was impressed at first sight seeing its blossom which had an unique blend of red, brown and coppery shades on the leafs which is a sure good sign of a very rich 2nd Flush tea and the aroma that rolled out of the leafs was simply awesome with clear hints of ripe red grapes, when steeped for about 4-5mins the tea gave out an extravagant grape like aroma from the cup and as the tea cooled down, each sip defined a different tea drinking experience and above all the liquor of the tea is also not very dark and the after taste is also very smooth, to be very honest this is one of the crown of 2nd Flush 2008 teas!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Darjeeling tea 2nd Flush 2008: A different experience
Well as I’ve always mentioned in my earlier posts that this year due to the agitation in Darjeeling, it was really difficult to procure the good teas in Darjeeling, especially the early invoice teas, so on the 26th of June I had to leave for Kolkata as one of our very important buyer was supposed to come to India to buy the 2nd Flush teas and on the other side it was clever to go to Kolkata and get the teas direct from the garden’s head offices as during the mid of June Darjeeling town was closed due to the agitation and all the good invoice teas were sent forward to Kolkata for auction and private sales, I would definitely say that it was a “narrow escape” for us to go to Kolkata for the purchase of excellent 2nd Flush teas as there was hardly any choice in the gardens as all the teas were sent forward to Kolkata for sales and sadly many local vendors from Darjeeling had to buy whatever was available at the gardens,I`m not saying they are selling something bad but a tea lover will always find the difference. Anyways, soon our good friend and buyer arrived from Europe and we straightaway headed for the tea tasting sessions, we started with some fine Castleton ftgfop-1 samples which were really good and our friend brought a full line of it some 108kgs, the Puttabong lines were also interesting specially their KKRAMSK lines, we all looked at each other and smiled while tasting these lines as once the superintendent of the Sungma tea estate had claimed that only his garden makes this type of musk but now all Jayshree gardens are claiming the same, coming to Singbulli teas I must admit that the overall average of about 25 teas in the offering for the auctions were fairly good as the teas were much better than their 1st Flush harvest, also very interesting for me was while tasting some Singell tea samples, we always thought that this garden makes some classic Darjeeling teas as they never sold their teas through auctions and rather went for private sales but I was discouraged to see the way the teas were sorted and also the cup was not satisfying at all as the rolling was not properly done, not even in one sample we could find a clean tea so this was the reason I kept all my customers away from these teas. We were very happy to see the Sungma teas, especially the clonals, they were absolutely delicious and we have also brought one lot especially for our mail order clients, I`m sure they will enjoy the Sungma clonal tea very much. There were many other teas that we tasted that I cannot think of at the very moment but it was an overall exciting experience for all of us to attain the Darjeeling tea auction Sale No. 27/2008 and especially our buyer friend was very happy to see how many companies sit together and bid for the teas, in my opinion it is also a test for your tea tasting skills as you will know about your choice when others bid for it, meaning you’ll know exactly how many other seller were ready to buy the tea that you liked the most.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
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!
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.
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