Autumn flush Darjeeling tea (s) 2009: a note of satisfaction

Autumn flush Darjeeling tea (s) 2009: a note of satisfaction


Finally I have been able to complete the list of Autumn flush 2009 Darjeeling teas on my website, though as usual it was difficult for me to sustain a great list of teas this season as we are the biggest bulk / commercial tea exporters from Darjeeling and whatever tea we select is often chosen by our Merchant clients and at the end of the day the good teas are almost over, so side by side we also make careful choices to stock excellent teas for our website clients too, so talking about this year`s tea list on our website I’m really satisfied as I could do a very careful and unique list of teas as each tea listed on the autumn Flush 2009 list of teas are totally different from each other, like for instance I started the list with the Thurbo clonal tips ftgfop-1 Ex-20 which is fruity tea with a lot of sweetness in cup, then keeping the health concerned tea lovers in mind we brought in the Sungma sftgfop-1 Green tea DJ-340 which is a delicious and mellow tea, then we moved on to Castleton when the Manager finally invited us for his muscatel beauty… A great tea is what I can say! Well talking about this tea I must again say that I’m proud to be a part of the Tea Emporium team as the Castleton only offered their teas to us this season and no other companies were even sent samples in Darjeeling as they were in a forward contract for their muscatel teas round the year, well I can imagine small companies like…… must be crying for Castleton teas even though they made various efforts to get a chest(20 kgs) of Castleton tea and claim to have brought an invoice as usual…..then again we moved on to the Thurbo plantation for their china origin teas which makes a heavy cup and specially we brought in the Thurbo ftgfop-1 china Ex-24 for people who enjoy their tea with a splash of milk, Namring ftgfop-1 clonal Ex-541 was the next tea that came into our list due to its extreme floral and light cup ,this one was for people who still enjoy their good cup of tea without sugar/milk, here came this another clonal tea from Turzum (Turzum clonal delight sftgfop-1 DJ-24) which was comparatively stronger than the Namring clonal tea and had an extremely nutty like taste and also had a smooth cup, the last and the final tea that arrived on our list was the Jungpana ftgfop-1 DJ-175 a great muscatel tea with a floral finish , we bet this tea will beat any top of the line Autumn teas in the market……..and above all a list at the most affordable rates and of excellent quality, so if you are still buying old teas at discounted rates when fresh teas are here at excellent prices then its up to you, but for those who enjoy high quality fresh teas each season…….all are welcome to join our autumn flush 2009 tea party!

Jungpana ftgfop-1 Dj-175 Autumn flush 2009:

Jungpana ftgfop-1 Dj-175 Autumn Flush 2009:


This is a great muscatel tea of the season which will also give a stiff competition to any top 2nd Flush muscatel tea in the market, this particular tea came to our notice when a big bunch of samples were sent to us by a big tea brokerage company in Darjeeling, most of the teas from the Jungpana Tea Estate is good this autumn but this particular invoice DJ-175 of Jungpana wins the race by miles ahead as the dry leafs are well twisted and sorted, the tea is kept a bit high fired for that high flavoury nose, the tea has a very high muscatel and roasted nuts like aroma in this state, the cup is also very expressive with raw hints of grapy and muscatel notes and has a very smooth flowery after taste….All one can say is this is simply the best classic muscatel tea of the season.

Namring ftgfop-1 clonal Ex-541 Autumn Flush 2009:

Namring ftgfop-1 clonal Ex-541 Autumn Flush 2009:


This super exclusive tea came to the limelight while we were checking various tea samples while we were doing the tea tastings for this Autumn flush 2009 list of teas, Actually this tea sample was sent to us by one of my very close friend who is also a tea exporter, he had sent me various tea samples from different Darjeeling tea estates but most of them were not standing high upon my expectations so out of the last 10 samples he had send us we had chosen 2 teas namely the Arya Ruby and this Namring clonal tea, the Arya teas are good but their teas are always dependant on the high fire meaning a roasted taste is always lying at the end of each sip which enhances the flavor but I was looking for a tea which would have a natural flavor, so I headed for the Namring ftgfop-1 clonal Ex-541 Darjeeling tea, this tea is simply amazing as it’s a very tippy type of tea which is really hard to find in this harvest , it has tips even more than any other season Arya Ruby teas, the cup is extremely floral and fruity, one can simply feel the touch of ripe mangoes on the palate with every sip and above all this tea is a true value for money tea of the season as if this type of tea is made in 1st or 2nd Flush one might have to pay atleast double the price against our offer this Autumn season.
This gem of a flavory tea should not be missed!

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!

Thurbo Clonal Tips ftgfop-1 Ex-20 Autumn Flush Darjeeling tea 2009

Thurbo clonal tips (ftgfop-1) EX-20 Autumn Flush Darjeeling Tea 2009:


As days passed on from 23rd October towards the 1st week of November the temperature in Darjeeling fell amazingly towards low and this was a right time for a Autumn Flush magic to happen in some of the estates in Darjeeling, so I had been flooded with samples from the Goodricke group in Darjeeling which owns gardens like Thurbo, Castleton, Margaret’s Hope, Barnesbeg and Badamtam , for the rest of the gardens I feel it will still take some time for a rich Autumn character but each time we received samples from Thurbo from the 2nd week of October we felt something is coming up meaning a character was getting pronounced each day we tried different samples from them, so right after the Diwali festival ( the festival of lights) I was called to the garden by Mr. J.D. Rai ( senior quality controller and Manager of the garden) as he claimed that something amazing had happened in his garden and guess what? Its the 1st batch of Autumn Flush 2009 that was rolling out from his garden, I simply could not resist the call and the very next morning I ran towards Thurbo tea garden through the beautiful valleys of Okayti and Gopaldhara tea estates, on my arrival I met another big Japanese tea wholesaler tasting some newly made Thurbo oolongs but I had no interest in fancy teas , I was just there in a desperate hunt for a classic Darjeeling tea and I feel I really got what I expected when the tea sample of Thurbo clonal tips ftgfop-1 Ex-20 was shown to me as I know my teas well and I saw all the characters in this tea that fits a perfect autumnal character, the tea looked totally dehydrated and dry which is the 1st impression of a good autumn tea, when sniffed on the dry leafs it gave out some rosy aroma and the cup was amazing as it had real pronounced hints of fresh orange peels and a very caramellic flavour was lying around it and above all the tea is simply mellow and there is no bitterness at all……I feel we had a very good start this Autumn!

An Approach to Autumn Flush Darjeeling tea 2009

Autumn Flush Darjeeling tea 2009:

I’m very glad that the autumn harvest has finally arrived and we are getting very busy again, I`ll definitely not say it’s a painful time that we are tasting about 30-40 samples every day and choosing 1-2 teas from various plantations, I would rather call this a full time adventure as autumn is a character and not a flush/harvest (though we call it a harvest) that lies between the monsoon harvest and the winter, actually after the 2nd Flush when the monsoons starts there is hardly any sunshine so the overall quality of the teas is dull (except some specialty teas), but after prolonged 3 months of rains when the rains stops the autumn season generally starts but not on teas, the autumn season for teas start only when the winter starts kicking in with a day and night temperature difference of 10-12 degree Celsius ,generally the leaf appearance of a pure autumn should be slightly purple and the basic taste should have a slight piney character on all china variety teas (well clonals may vary),as usual we have tried our best to bring you the best value for money teas, well being a professional exporter in bulk and consumer exports I’ll not ask you to search for a better collection of teas with others and let us know as it’s not your work to do so and I believe it’s my duty to sustain the quality and keep you happy as usual  and of coarse I`ll definitely not comment on any one else’s tea as every garden has it’s own charm of distinctive flavor, and ultimately the consumer is the best judge as if a tea is not good it’s the mistake of the merchant and not the garden ( well that’s what I learned from my guru during my tea tasting days in kolkata,India), so I believe by saying a particular tea garden’s tea is good than the other garden’s tea is not being a “tea guru” but is extreme stupidity, well also one more thing I wanted to convey to all is that please look for the invoice nos.(DJ/LC/Ex) when you buy even 500g of a particular tea, as it’s your right to ask for it as the story of Invoice nos. goes like this; 1 full invoice mean a minimum of 100-105 kgs of single grade tea and this type of teas are marked in “DJ” and the numerical is added after these alphabets like DJ1,DJ2…. And so on with the next count of different batches, the LC/Ex is mostly given to the batches below the 100kg mark and the most important thing is that some teas are just remainings/left overs of different batches that may be lying at the corner of the tea garden factory, this type of teas fits no invoices so the garden often sell off these teas to merchants in cheaper prices and this never happens in early season harvest but mainly during mid season harvest and this type of teas often loose flavor with 20-25 days from the day you have purchased it, actually its loosing flavor every day, so being the top exporter merchants from Darjeeling (in quantity and quality) we believe that all our most valuable customers should know their tea’s invoice nos. (Let it be our big time bulk importers or consumers), all are valuable customers for us and I`ll never blog back by saying “we cannot give the invoice nos. as our wholesale customers complain about it”…. Well I guess this note has added a bit of spice to our autumnal selections, Have a great tea time!.........and yes, the minimum quantity to be ordered is still 49$ but we offer you a free shipping by FedEx (5 days delivery) to the following countries like: Egypt,Phillipines,Singapore,Thailand,China,Hongkong,Brunei,Cambodia,,Indonesia,,Malayasia,South Korea,Taiwan,Vietnam,Belgium,Denmark,France,Germany,Greenland,Italy,Netherland,Switzerland,
UK,,Canada,Mexico,USA and Japan…….Now who can offer a free shipping for 49$ including teas and a fast 5 days delivery by FedEx,I think if you look around then other companies are offering this Fedex Delivery offer for orders over 100$ and even more,so what are you waiting for? Come and Join our Autumn Darjeeling Tea 2009 tea Party!

Monsoon Darjeeling tea scenario for sure!

It has been a long time since I have been able to bring up a write-up on my blog-page as we had a very busy 2nd flush this year, specially the bulk sales or wholesales have been very good for us this year as we are the only certified Exporters from Darjeeling who can export bulk teas legally for the overseas re-sellers as we are certified by the export wing of the Tea Board, India, also for the interest of the re-sellers, one should also note that many merchants from India without any sort of proper legal licenses take orders from the other end and send it as “tea samples” to save taxes but when the good reaches the other end for re-sales, it might get seized by the customs and also might get destroyed as this has already happened with my friend who suddenly turned as a tea trader with no tea idea at all here in India, but the reason I wanted to convey this point is that the person who ordered the teas on the other end was the only loser at the end of the day as his teas got seized and destroyed and I can understand how he must be feeling about it and whenever someone known to him wants to order teas from India, what would his reactions and suggestions be? It’s simple, anyone can guess…. And also people like us suffer at the end of the day, and regarding that tea-friend???? People like him will always find another job….
Anyways that was a great relief for me as I could convey the message to people who are concerned with the trade and I think now they know what to ask their suppliers when they order teas for re-sales…..anyways since the 2nd Flush 2009 is over and we are at the mid – period of the monsoons, I have been going around in the tea gardens looking for something new and I’m delighted to see the standard of the monsoon flush going up each year, actually during this period of time due to the heavy rainfall the growth of the tea leafs are very rapid and also due to the lack of sunshine the effect directly falls on the made-tea as the tea looks and tastes dull, this also used to happen earlier as the pluckers used to pluck the tea leafs in a rough manner unlike the fine plucking of the 1st or the 2nd Flush harvest period, also due to these combinations of manmade and natural factors the average pricing of the teas goes down in a dramatic way. So keeping all these factors in mind some of the tea gardens in Darjeeling took initiatives of trying to make some very good teas that would fetch a good price for them in this period of time to let the show keep going! Specially gardens like Rohini and Gopaldhara designed some great teas this monsoon, like the “Gold Thunder” and the “Silver Thunder”, these are both semi-fermented teas or one may call these Darjeeling oolongs, the samples I tasted had a very nice liquor and a very matured aroma….yeah one can say this is a perfect tea that reflects a of touch of the past 2nd Flush for its sweetness and a touch of coming autumn for its maturity, when I learned about the manufacturing details of this types of teas I came to know that the most important part was the fine-plucking done to make these teas ,similarly most premium gardens in Darjeeling are making Green teas and White teas and believe me some make exceptional quality teas now in this harvest like 1st or 2nd Flush and if an individual really wants a very high quality tea in this period of time then it is infact absolutely possible to find one though “its one among tens” but its not impossible, so now if someone says you that its not the time to have good teas now then please ask him/her to get updated as the Darjeeling tea picture has changed, well we are tasting a lot of greens and white teas from various Darjeeling tea estates, and as soon as we find some thing great , it will be updated on our site…..so keep visiting us and have great tea time!