Dooteriah DJ-11 and Kalej Valley DJ-5 / 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2011

Dooteriah Dj-11 and Kalej Valley Dj-5/ 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2011:

The Dooteriah and Kalej Valley tea gardens in Darjeeling belongs to the Alchemist group of India, these gardens have old traditional china bushes over 120 years old in age. This year I planned to change my selections in the china (traditional variety) category as the rising demand in premium teas are mostly inclined to the clonal teas(young teas),I have done a thorough research and found out that mostly people are moving out from the china varietal because china variety teas are mostly astringent and sometimes bitter because tea planters in Darjeeling follow the traditional way to manufacture these teas, mainly when these teas are put in the roller and if the leaves are pressed hard then the teas turn slightly bitter as they mature after the manufacture, so I discussed these important points with different managers of several tea gardens and choose these 2 unique tea gardens in Darjeeling since the General Manager of these plantation (Mr.Y.S.Gurung) is very close to our family and he has also helped me a lot with the tea lessons in the past.
The manufactured teas from both the plantations turned out to be perfect as we had expected, fruity, light and mellow and I’m sure every tea lover will enjoy these teas and above all I personally think these 2 teas are true value for money.

Dooteriah Dj-11 and Kalej Valley Dj-5/ 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2011:

The Dooteriah and Kalej Valley tea gardens in Darjeeling belongs to the Alchemist group of India, these gardens have old traditional china bushes over 120 years old in age. This year I planned to change my selections in the china (traditional variety) category as the rising demand in premium teas are mostly inclined to the clonal teas(young teas),I have done a thorough research and found out that mostly people are moving out from the china varietal because china variety teas are mostly astringent and sometimes bitter because tea planters in Darjeeling follow the traditional way to manufacture these teas, mainly when these teas are put in the roller and if the leaves are pressed hard then the teas turn slightly bitter as they mature after the manufacture, so I discussed these important points with different managers of several tea gardens and choose these 2 unique tea gardens in Darjeeling since the General Manager of these plantation (Mr.Y.S.Gurung) is very close to our family and he has also helped me a lot with the tea lessons in the past.
The manufactured teas from both the plantations turned out to be perfect as we had expected, fruity, light and mellow and I’m sure every tea lover will enjoy these teas and above all I personally think these 2 teas are true value for money.

1st Flush 2011 Darjeeling tea -Barnesbeg Clonal Tips EX-1

1st Flush 2011 Darjeeling tea -Barnesbeg Clonal Tips EX-1 :

This exceptional clonal young tea caught my eyes when Mr.M.Pradhan (Manager) of Barnesbeg Tea Estate in Darjeeling offered me a sample of the 1st ever manufactured tea of their 100% young and pure AV2 clonal bushes which was planted 5 years ago in an area which has an altitude of 2500 feet from the sea level, the made tea is extremely tender and young and consists of full size silver tips, due to the tenderness of the raw leaves the manufactured tea is well rolled and sorted, this tea can be multiple steeped for at least 3 -4 times and each time the tea shows a different character in the cup, extremely fruity cup that finishes with a slight nutty and rosy after taste, This extremely limited quantity tea can also be enjoyed by white tea lovers.

Arrival of 1st Flush 2011

Arrival of 1st flush 2011 Darjeeling tea:

The 1st Flush harvest of 2011 looked very positive from the month of January` 2011, at the end of January we witnessed a very beautiful snowfall in Darjeeling and it rained at regular intervals throughout the month of February which was surely a great sign for a very good harvest, we also saw some gardens doing experiments with the leafs that they received in the winter months and making some white and oolong teas with it. The most interesting part of the starting of 1st flush was the end of February when the difference between the day and night temperature was about 8-10 degrees Celsius which was simply perfect for the harvest. We were just gearing up for the next big crop season when the unpredicted situation just happened, an “Embargo “was slapped on the 1st flush crop from the 3rd of March 2011 and the dispatch of the manufactured teas were stopped being dispatched from the gardens, this happened as the trade unions demanded a major hike in the wages of the working labours.In this period of time we received a lot of samples from the gardens and did a lot of tea tastings but I had to change my whole style of tea buying as it was pretty risky to buy a tea from a certain garden and wait for a month for its dispatch , as the gardens of Darjeeling are full of moisture and it was very hard to predict what will happen to the teas in its warehouses, so I decided to buy the teas produced after the Embargo was lifted ,so my first offer is Thurbo (spring delight) Ex-1,I hope as usual everyone will like this tea, we will have more exclusive teas to offer in coming weeks, so keep visiting and enjoy good tea!

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Darjeeling Tea: Autumn flush 2010

Darjeeling Tea: Autumn flush 2010

The autumn flush Darjeeling tea harvest started a bit late this year , we had predicted that this year the harvest will start earlier than the past few year`s harvest since the atmospheric temperatures were dropping down every day by 1-2 degrees Celsius but during the last weeks of October it rained very hard in Darjeeling as a result of which a lot of crop was damaged as during the rains the finish product (made tea) has a darker color and a less flavor and a proper autumn flush tea should have a high flavor and a bright liquor. So we had to do a very careful selection this time since we have already catered teas like Turzum clonal flowery, Puttabong Queen and Singbulli in the 1st Flush harvest and excellent teas like the Turzum clonal delight, Gopaldhara wonder tea and Sungma organic musk in the 2nd flush.These teas have already made a reputation of its own in the hearts of the tea lovers, so keeping this in mind I decided to go for a short list of teas which would be simple and value for money for our most valuable customers since we already have great teas in our list from 1st and 2nd flush so I took a firm decision to keep a simple list of good teas in my list during this Autumn flush 2010 harvest. So I started with the Balasun sftgfop-1 classic Dj311 which is a very nice tea plucked from pure china bushes, this tea has a very rich flavor in the dry leaf state and has a fairly strong cup which fits a good cup of breakfast tea and can also be enjoyed with a splash of milk and sugar. The next tea that I was looking for had to be a tea with a light liquor and a fruity flavor as I have always tried to keep all the teas in my list to be completely different from each other, so I chose the Risheehat classic Autumn sftgfop-1/Organic Dj493, this tea has a very bright liquor with a very flowery and fruity flavor and has an overall smooth character in the cup. After these two great teas I had to look for something special which would be a great treat for a tea lover so here comes a very special tea from one of my favorite plantation in Darjeeling, it’s the Sungma Organic Autumn musk sftgfop-1 DJ276, its a classic muscatel tea plucked from pure china bushes which are upto 125 years old in age, the cup gives a very unique fruity and herb like flavor and ends with a nice muscatel taste on the palate, I recommend this tea as a perfect afternoon tea and I`m sure it will be highly praised by the tea lovers. The last tea in my list is something very unusual; it’s a Darjeeling green tea which has been well made by the tea makers of the plantation, it had already made a reputation of its own in our list of teas offered last year, it’s the Rohini Emerald (Green Tea) PP-18, this tea is plucked from very young P312 clonal bushes of the plantation, the liquor of the tea turns green in the cup so its named Emerald, this excellent green tea gives out a rich fruity and flowery flavor from the cup and ends with an unique sweetness,i`m very happy to have this fine tea in the list.
I invite all Darjeeling tea lovers to join our autumn flush 2010 tea party and I hope as usual I`ll be able to satisfy all palates.

An approach to autumn flush 2010

An approach to Autumn Flush 2010:

The Monsoon has finally ended in Darjeeling and we are enjoying some fine sunshine here and its getting cold each day. It is also a sign of relief for the Darjeeling Tea industry as during the monsoon season better known as the “Rains” the growth of the leafs are not under control so the quality of the teas are comparatively poor as a result of which the gardens fetch a very low price for their produce compared the 1st, 2nd and autumn flush. There are several factors which are involved to produce very good autumn teas, actually the autumn harvest is a character which passes over after the long monsoon flush and ends at the end of November and is actually not an individual harvest like the 1st and the 2nd flush. The teas produced in this harvest can be equally good as the 1st and the 2nd Flush, the right atmospheric temperature for this harvest should have a minimum difference of 7-9 degrees Celsius between day and night, the content of tips or Buds are less in this harvest and most of the good teas in this harvest do not have an attractive ornamental value and mostly look dehydrated.
Well these are few important factors required for making good autumn flush Darjeeling teas, there has been a shortage of at least 10-15% of the total annual production of Darjeeling teas this year due to several natural problems like uncertain rains, draught etc.so there is a serious shortage of good Darjeeling teas in the world market. We have already started tasting samples from various plantation in Darjeeling and as usual we will soon come up with the large list of exotic autumn Flush 2010 teas.So keep visiting 