Balasun china classic sftgfop-1 /DJ 289 autumn flush 2011

Since the autumn flush 2011 started a bit late this year due to prolonged monsoons in Darjeeling we had a difficult time procuring the perfect Autumnal teas. As I have written in my previous posts that a perfect autumn tea harvest needs dry atmospheric conditions but right through the beginning of the month of November we had frequent rainfall in almost each alternative day, so one had to be very careful while procuring the right teas.
I came across this particular invoice from the Balasun tea estate while I tasted a lot of tea samples from Risheehat, Sungma, Puttabong and Balasun tea estates. The dry leafs are well sorted in this invoice of tea and the leafs are kept slightly large and bold and when this tea is brought near the nose it releases a unique aroma of dry fruits like dates and nuts. The cup is slightly dark and strong than the usual autumn tea and thus makes a perfect breakfast tea. This tea can also be enjoyed with a splash of milk and sugar. I have included this tea in my list as many tea lover friends of ours had suggested us to procure a tea that will suit as a perfect breakfast tea and we assure that everyone will admire this tea.
A perfect tea to start your day at a reasonable price!

Autumn flush Darjeeling tea harvest 2011:

Autumn flush Darjeeling tea harvest 2011:
The Autumn Flush harvest is one of the most important harvest for the tea plantations in Darjeeling which is actually the 4th harvest of the year and not the 3rd harvest mistaken by many. Actually the 3rd harvest or the monsoon harvest which stretches from the month of July- October 2nd week produces huge quantities of teas but the quality is not as good as the 1st or 2nd flush as a result of which these plantations gets a very low price for their crop as compared to 1st or 2nd Flush harvests. This happens due to excess rain and humidity during the monsoons in Darjeeling.
This year the autumn flush 2011 harvest has started slightly late, the original or the peak time autumn flush teas have started coming in from the 1st week of November. We have tasted a lot of tea samples right through the month of October but all the teas harvested during October are mostly pre-autumn teas. This has happened as this year we had a prolonged monsoon season which stretched till the 3rd week of October and we also had 2 major festivals during the month of October for which the plantations were declared closed for the festive season. The climatic temperature is also a major factor for this harvest. There should be a minimum temperature difference of 9-10 degrees Celsius for day and night. The normal temperature in Darjeeling for this harvest is about 18 degrees Celsius during the day and 8-9 degrees Celsius during the night.
A perfect autumn flush tea in dry leaf state should be bright coppery/reddish in appearance. The liquor of the tea should be dark golden in color and the most important factor which should be kept in mind is that each tea from the different garden will have a distinctive aroma of its own but the basic aroma that should be present in all true autumn teas are that it should always have an identical pine like aroma or the smell of dry leafs found in the forests during the winter time.
These are the few important facts about this wonderful Darjeeling tea harvest. Keep visiting us for our exclusive teas and Have a great tea time!

Sungma (ch) Musk sftgfop-1 /Organic DJ-149- 2nd Flush 2011

Sungma (ch) Musk sftgfop-1/Organic DJ-149 2nd Flush 2011
This is an exceptional traditional muscatel 2nd Flush tea offered by one of my personal favourite garden in Darjeeling. The Sungma tea estate is an organic plantation situated at the pokriabong area of Darjeeling. This garden has over 70% china origin bushes and 30% of the bushes belongs to the assamica or clonal variety and over the years this plantation has produced some of the finest high quality Darjeeling teas.
I was continuously in touch with the tea makers of this plantation and had pre-booked few of their finest muscatel teas which were yet to be produced right after the 15th of June 2011 which was the peak time for 2nd Flush teas in the pokhriabong valley in Darjeeling. I tasted a lot of muscatel teas from various plantations like Pussimbing, Lingia, Singbulli, Castleton etc, but as all my respected customers know that our expectations are very high from the gardens that fulfill our orders. I had very high expectations specially from the Castleton tea estate for their Castleton Muscatel tea but somehow it did not come out to our expectations so we just brought the Castleton moonlight tea from them which is very good, but here we were looking for a very high quality traditional muscatel 2nd flush tea. So we were offered about 5 top end muscatel samples from the Sungma tea estate and to be very honest all were exceptional, so we brought about 600 kgs of muscatel Sungma tea this 2nd flush season and we are offering the invoice no.DJ149 for our consumer customers, I will not be able to mention the other 5 invoice numbers that we brought from Sungma as we have exported these exceptional teas to some of our wholesale merchant customers around the world …….
Our final verdict for this tea is that this is simply one of the finest muscatel tea that will surely satisfy a true tea lover and I`m really proud to have this fantastic tea in our list of 2nd Flush 2011.

Risheehat (ch)Musk sftgfop-1-DJ142/Organic 2nd Flush 2011

Risheehat (ch.) musk sftgfop-1 DJ-142 /Organic 2nd Flush 2011:
This is a very fine quality Darjeeling Muscatel variety 2nd Flush tea that was offered to us by the Superintendant of the garden, actually we wanted to have a very good invoice of Risheehat clonal Flowery in our list but we were not very happy with the clonal teas from this estate ,especially after having the Turzum clonal delight sftgfop-1/DJ19-Organic ,the standards and the expectations were very high,so we rejected various clonal invoice samples from this estate this season.
On the 20th of June 2011 we received this excellent sample of Risheehat (ch)musk sftgfop-1/Organic –Dj142 and indeed we are very happy to have this wonderful tea in our list, this tea has been plucked from the “Liza Hill” sub-division of the garden from the purest china origin bushes of the garden,the dry leafs are sorted small in size and has a typical Almond like aroma in the dry leaf state, for best results this tea should be steeped for complete 5 minutes. The cup gives out a dark/bright golden color with exotic flavours of flowers like Rhododendrons and marigold and ends with a very balanced briskness with a hint of musk.
Our final verdict for this tea is that this is an exceptional tea made extremely affordable for all!

Turzum sftgfop-1 clonal delight/DJ-19 2nd Flush 2011

Turzum clonal delight sftgfop-1/organic Dj19/2nd Flush 2011

I`m personally very proud and happy to have an exotic and traditional Muscatel Darjeeling tea like this one in our list of 2nd Flush 2011 teas, we were regularly in touch with Mr.Jha (Superintendant, Sungma and Turzum Tea Estate) from the end of April 2011.I was personally very upset about their 1st flush teas as all the teas that we had sampled from their 1st flush harvest were not up to our satisfaction mark and a lot of our customers were waiting for a super quality tea from them. Actually they could not maintain the same quality mark in the 1st Flush Harvest like last year as this garden is situated in the pokriabong area of Darjeeling district which suffered a very draught like situation from the beginning of this year but as the month of May passed away heavy rainfall occurred in this area and once again we saw massive quality improvements in their teas.
As soon as the 2nd Flush started Mr.Jha continuous send us samples and we selected the DJ 19 Batch as this tea is simply perfect with rich 2nd Flush character, this tea is plucked from pure and dehydrated (best 2nd Flush muscatels are made from the most dehydrated leafs and shoots) BB157 clonal bushes, the dry leafs are well shorted and rolled and has a very unique aroma of cardamoms and ripe oranges in this state, when steeped for complete 5 minutes this tea releases a dark golden liquor in the cup with flavors of spices, sandalwood and fresh fruits which further ends with a pronounced hint of muscatel flavor on the palate followed by an unique sweetness.
Our final verdict for this tea is that this tea is simply “EXCELLENT” and if you have not tried this batch then you have not tasted the best of 2nd Flush 2011 Darjeeling teas.

Casleton Moonlight DJ146/2nd Flush 2011

Once again we have been able to procure the best of the Moonlight tea from the world famous Castleton tea estate, this exclusive tea has been plucked from the highest elevation “allay” section of the garden which is about 3500 feet high altitude during the early hours of the morning to achieve the maximum high quality leaves, then this exclusive tea is withered for about 48 hours and then it is hand rolled by 15 women workers of the garden as a result of which the dry leaves are filled with wire like silver tips, the made tea has a beautiful appearance and when this tea is brought near the nose the dry leaves gives out a very fruity aroma of pine apples and chocolates. When this tea is steeped for complete 5 minutes, the cup gives out a bright golden color and a blast of exotic flavors rise high above the cup, each sip in the cup reminds of fresh fruits,roses and chocolates and has an extremely smooth finish.
A well crafted exotic tea of the season!

Thurbo (summer delight) 2nd Flush 2011 Darjeeling tea!

After the grand success of Thurbo (spring delight) Ex-1 / 1st flush 2011 I was pretty worried about a tea of this category in the 2nd Flush harvest, everyone who ordered Thurbo spring delight 1st flush from us have really appreciated the wonderful tea and I have received numerous amount of e-mails from many of my respected customers demanding a great tea of similar quality in the 2nd Flush, this was a serious challenge for me, I was in constant touch with Mr.J.D.Rai (quality controller and head of Goodricke group of Gardens in Darjeeling) all throughout the month of May when the dormant period was going on in Darjeeling and we did a lot of experiments with their clonal tea leafs like AV2,P312 and T4 ,finally on the end of 2nd week of June I received the sample of this wonderful tea and I was really thrilled to make a cup for myself, the dry leaf is well twisted and clean sorted and consists of needle like tiny golden tips, when steeped for about four minutes the tea release a matured fruity aroma which further ends with a rose like after taste and the best thing I`m noticing in this tea is that its maturing everyday and the flavours are just getting better each day,All I can say about this tea is that if you have tried our 1st Flush offering Thurbo (spring delight) then you`ll just fall in love with this tea!