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.

Puttabong Queen sftgfop-1 Dj-7 1st Flush 2009

Puttabong (Tukvar) sftgfop-1 DJ-7 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2009



I was a bit upset to see most of the early invoice 1st Flush tea samples to comprise mostly of dry and dehydrated leafs in the teas from various gardens in Darjeeling as there has been no rainfall since last October 2008, it looked hard to get a very good tea but it was not impossible to get one, so after judging the various factors of the situation I called up Mr. Somani (superintendent) of Puttabong Tea Estate as this is one of the highest tea plantation in Darjeeling and they make some great 1st Flush teas every year, I had a long discussion with him over the phone as I had received some tea samples from them which impressed me a lot, so I told him that the 1st tea of the season that I want to offer in my list should be the best among all as usual and after hours of discussion he suggested me that I should wait for a couple of days since the young clonal fields of the gardens were filled with fair amounts of tender young shoots and buds, so after two days he told me that he asked few of his expert tea pluckers of the garden to finely pluck the one leaf and a bud from the young bushes during early hours of the morning when dew drops are present on the leafs and buds so that the shoots remain even more tender which is good for the production.
I must say those couple of days was really worth for waiting as the made tea was one of the finest we might have ever offered, the made tea consists of extravagant number of silver tips and the leafs look extremely greenish, the cup gives out an excellent flowery and fruity aroma and some hints of young mangoes remains on the palate with some sweetness as an after taste. This is how the Puttabong sftgfop-1 Queen Dj-7 was made.
I also cannot stop writing about the fact that I’m lucky be a part of Tea Emporium, Darjeeling which has been in the trade for generations now, and the reputation which surely backed me up to get the best invoice of the season when there is a very large scarcity of good teas in the market, and I also feel sorry for the merchants that I know are just struggling to get anything in hand at the very moment, and even if it rains now there will be no magic as the soil is heated now and the rain will make more leafs grow but the quality factor will go down.
Similarly like the Puttabong Queen, we have more good teas to offer in the near future and we invite all tea lovers to join the tea party.

High Hopes for Darjeeling tea 1st Flush 2009

It has been an uncertain winter since December 2008, where one cannot say either Darjeeling has received enough cold or cloudy weather which is natural at this point of time but it has been rather sunny ,clear days and nights filled with bright stars in the sky and some full moon nights.Well taking about the situation of spring 2009 teas,I`ll say we have a great expectation as I passed through Kurseong ,through some great tea making gardens like Castleton and Margaret`s hope,I saw most of their clonal field were prunned and its a good sign as when the spring starts, we will get to see some great fresh and young teas,but its all dependant on the mercy of the nature as we need some serious winter rains right now but the question is when???? its been cloudy almost everyday from the last week in the end of February 2009 but due to extreme heavy winds the clouds are shattered and chased away and we are still hanging on for winter rains. We expect to have some great early teas from Namring and Thurbo as the weather conditions in these areas are still bit alright than the other gardens.
I cannot stop myself from writing about the winter crop, as I see some companies selling these teas as early 1st Flush starters,but its too funny as these types of teas belong to the dormant harvest period as the leafs in this time are extremely dehydrated ,so the appearance of the winter teas are rather dry and sometimes looks like a mixture of green and burnt leafs, the basic character is neither like the Autumn Flush and not even like 1st flush, but the truth is IT Sells! but one should not keep this type of tea for a long time in stock as this types of tea will lose its flavour each day and may be by a month a brew will only give away a cup of hot water and nothing else......
anyways we have been bombarded with e-mails each day for the new crop for 1st Flush 2009,all I want to say to all is that, Please have patience and we`ll offer you teas that have been value for your money for years!.....Cheers!

Autumn Flush Darjeeling tea 2008

Autumn Flush Darjeeling tea 2008


After a Long Monsoon season this year, at a certain period of time we thought if we will really get some good autumn teas this year or not? As it rained really hard up to October 2nd week, which is actually the beginning of the Autumn Harvest, one should also remember that autumn harvest is the shortest harvest period among all harvests done through the year and sometimes some gardens do not get the opportunity to even conceive any pure autumn teas as this is the harvest which stands between the Monsoon and the winters, so too much humidity after the monsoon is bad for this harvest and also cold atmospheric temperatures of the approaching winters stops the growth of new leafs and buds required for this harvest, so one can surely understand how much we are dependent on the nature’s mercy to have a good crop.
This harvest season we have tasted many good and bad teas, I would definitely not write the bad part but I’ll try to put up as much as possible. The well-defined Autumn Flush teas were first launched by the Mirik Valley Gardens like Thurbo, Okayti and Seeyok, as usual the character of these garden’s teas were mostly with good nose (flavor), good liquor but I was mostly impressed with the Thurbo Tea Estate’s teas, specially the young teas, I must say the tea makers at Thurbo Tea Estate have really made up to the mark in terms of making the high quality young clonal teas, I was really impressed to see their Thurbo Oriental Delight this season as of coarse one should not expect an excellent ornamental value of a tea and should rather concentrate on the cup and this tea was excellent but was exclusively available in a limited stock, of coarse custom made for us. The china special Ftgfop-1`s were also very good and must say these teas were also one of my personal favorite. Talking about the kurseong Valley gardens, well Castleton teas did not impress me too much, but I was keen to see their Clonal Moonlight but as I have mentioned earlier that its very hard to find young buds during this Harvest, so making this tea was impossible for this season so I had to back out from this garden, But Jungpana made some very good teas as this garden has some of the finest china origin bushes and is world renowned for its teas in all the 3 major Darjeeling tea harvests, specially talking about the DJ-213 ,I’d gone crazy to have this tea on my list, as after many years I have seen a very good Autumn tea like this ,the muscatel flavor ,backed up by pine like after taste ,makes one feel like being in heaven! I tried several Goomtee samples but had to keep these teas away from my list as these teas had a very hard liquor but may be later on I can get some good teas from this estate as even this garden makes some very good Autumn teas. I cannot afford to forget about the Tumsong and Lingia Organic teas and the Journey through these gardens, First of all I’m really thankful to Mrs. Suman Gurung, the head of the Tumsong Resorts to let me visit the garden with her, on the way to the garden I saw some amazing scenery which I had never seen in my life, these gardens have some of the finest and oldest tea bushes in Darjeeling, one must go to these estates and see the tea bushes on the dangerous slopes rising high above toward the blue autumnal sky and should meet the ever helpful and cheerful people of this area, I always wondered why almost all the teas of these tea estates tasted so good and found out the most important factor and that is, the tea bushes on the slopes are facing the Kunchanjunga Mountains, I really enjoyed to see the organic culture in these areas even the most common vegetable grown in this estate is grown organically, well I have a very good Tumsong Autumn tea offer on my website, I hope my most valuable tea lover customer will enjoy my blog and the teas as usual. Have a great tea time! …Cheers.

An Approach to Autumn Flush Darjeeling tea 2008

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!