An Approach to 2nd Flush 2008:

We have already entered the 4th week of May and we are looking forward to the world famous Muscatel teas made here in Darjeeling during this period of time, Its been raining since the 1st week of May and we were a bit worried as a good 2nd Flush tea needs dehydrated leafs for that typical muscatel flavor unlike the First Flush Harvest which needs only the fresh and young leafs and shoots for that refreshing flowery aroma, coming back to the 2nd Flush topic we are happy to say that the production level of the gardens are good and the pre-2nd Flush tea samples are clearly showing the upcoming brown/coppery character of the 2nd Flush .
Talking in general, in this particular harvest we need to have a heavier character i.e. a strong cup which also has to be round in taste that should not have any sharpness or bitterness, only this type of cup will give a pronounced honey like aroma from teas made from the clonal bushes and of coarse Muscatel notes from the chinery origin bushes and hence, this would be a perfect 2nd Flush character Darjeeling tea unlike the First Flush where we look for a lighter cup where the floral character gets pronounced and a little briskness that does the frame work as an aftertaste to define the First Flush character. In this period of time we look upon to gardens like Castleton, Margaret`s Hope, Rohini, Namring, Lingia, Chamong etc. meaning garden of medium altitude and not very high, as the medium altitude gardens in Darjeeling makes better Muscatel teas due to the atmospheric temperature and humidly in this period of time. We request our entire respected tea lover to wait patiently so that we can serve them the best teas as usual!

1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2008 – Overall Review

Well its been a very busy and tough 1st Flush crop this year, only after being in Darjeeling through out the year one can understand how tough it has been this year to procure the good teas. Actually in the early March the atmospheric temperatures were very low as a result of which the 1st Flush harvest started at least 9-14 days late, specially high elevation Gardens like Puttabong, Risheehat, Gopaldhara etc. suffered a lot. But again in terms of early production Gardens from Mirik Valley Like Thurbo, Phuguri etc did very well throughout. Specially seeing the Thurbo teas in general I personally think it is one of the best 1st Flush producer this year and on the other side famous gardens like Sungma and Singbulli tea estates which used to be our favorite did not do so well.I must also admit that I have seen some of the best clonals from gardens like Castleton and Thurbo this year, specially talking about the Castleton Moonlight this year it was awesome and all our mail clients were crazy for this tea and the full invoice tea was sold out within 3 weeks, that’s unimaginable for such an expensive tea but of coarse an excellent tea.
Not to forget the “Thurbo Oriental Delight White Tea” this was another surprise for us, within a span of 4-5 days this tea matured like anything and was wholeheartedly accepted by most of our elite customers, even some of the black tea lovers admired this tea, well at the end of the day I must also thank the Thurbo Garden factory assistant Manager Mr. Anil Gurung for this tea, as he did exactly what we wanted for this tea, well let that be our trade secret but I’m also happy that our customers are satisfied. Now we are looking for ward to the 2nd Flush 2008 teas, we hope we will be able to procure excellent teas again… at least we’ll do our very best...

PUSSIMBING Tea Estate 1st Flush 2008 Darjeeling tea / FTGFOP-1 /Organic DJ-1

For last 2 years we had been trying get teas from this wonderful garden of Darjeeling but we were some how not successful enough to get what exactly we wanted from this estate as this is a small garden that produce great Darjeeling black teas and only serve their teas to Premium tea sellers all around the globe and above all this is a Certified Bio-Organic Plantation and has 100% china bushes.
To describe the tea all I can write is that this is simply the best among the finest traditional 1st Flush teas that Darjeeling could conceive this year, this tea is plucked from the pure china origin young bushes and has been sorted very well as a result of which almost all the leafs are of similar size in the tea, the blossom of the tea is very greenish and bright mainly due to the high altitude growth and early harvest factors, when infused the cup gives an extravagant high fruity aroma and an aftertaste that reminds of caramellic,honey and lemony like taste and we are honestly proud to have the 1st invoice of this great plantation. A majestic 1st flush tea for the tea connoisseur

Goomtee,Balasun,Jungpana 1st Flush teas 2008

As I have mentioned earlier that this year, the early harvest was very slow and since we exclusively deal with the early season exclusive teas, we had a tough time procuring the best teas from various different plantations of Darjeeling but now I’m also very happy to launch some of the premium black teas of the season that has been added to our list of 1st Flush Darjeeling tea 2008: Please note that this year we have some of the1st invoice teas from few gardens, mostly first invoices teas are the cream of the best teas produced by various plantations these are marked as DJ-1,DJ-2,DJ-4 etc so these numbers indicates the actual production period of the teas and also not to forget specially the DJ-1s are not given to any buyers but to only those who has a reputation of dealing with only the high end teas.




1. Goomtee (ftgfop-1) DJ-1 `08: A top of the line super quality tea from one of the most prestigious plantation of Darjeeling. Being the 1st invoice of the garden, the leafs are well withered as a result of which the tea is extremely greenish in dry leaf state and in the cup, the tea has a very intense fruity and nutty flavor which ends with a very balanced briskness, A super refreshing tea of the season.

2. Jungpana (upper/ftgfop-1) DJ-4 `08: A finely plucked tea from some of the youngest china origin bushes of this prestigious plantation of Darjeeling, the leafs are well sorted as a result of which the dry leafs forms a very good brick on each other, this tea is extremely floral in the cup and creates that typical buttery and muscatel layer on the palate followed up by a mellow after taste. A true symbol of an exotic Darjeeling tea.

3. Balasun (classic/sftgfop-1)DJ-4 `08: A nicely sorted and well fired tea which has a very fruity cup that reminds of young fruits and flowers and an after taste that lingers on the palate for a long time without any bitterness. A perfect spring tea for the afternoon.

Castleton Moonlight (ftgfop-1) 2008 First Flush

This year, the month of March i.e. the beginning of First Flush 2008 has been a nightmare for all tea growers in Darjeeling due to shortage of enough leafs for the manufacture, specially we were scared as we had a huge order from some of the Merchants from the west and also some individual tea lovers, this year we are at least 1 week late to procure this wonderful young tea, I was in touch with Mr.. Mukhia (Manager Castleton T.E.) from the last weeks of February for this tea, actually this tea is produced in a very limited quantity by this plantation, this tea is grown exclusively at the “allay” section of the plantation at a height over 5500feet,so the growth of the leafs in this section is very slow due to the extreme cold atmospheric temperature, the leafs are plucked when they are very young just before the sunrise by expert tea pluckers of the plantation, the tea is then withered for over 28-30 hours to have the even freshness in all the leafs, then its only fermented for over 20-25 minutes for that slight touch of flavour and fired for the perfect crisp, as a result of which the tea is extremely rich in anti-oxidants. The real tea maker behind this early spring exotica is Mr. Gurung (factory assistant) who is also one of the most renowned tea makers in Darjeeling District.

1st Flush 2008 - Thurbo Oriental White Delight (White tea)

Its seems like this garden is blessed by holy angels and Gods this year as its already been 3rd week of March and we are not satisfied by any other garden’s teas compared to this garden’s products so far, this year we have a very high demand from one of the most prestigious tea buyer from the west so seeing the quality of the leafs of the Thurbo estate, we gave them the order for a very high quality White tea they have ever made and not to forget they completed this order with heart and soul and I give that special credit to Mr. Anil Gurung ( Factory assistant Manager- Thurbo Estate).

The tea is actually made in a very careful manner, firstly its plucked by the most expert pluckers of the garden from the northern side of the young clonal fields of the estate that faces the Kanchanjunga range, they say that young bushes facing the Himalayan Mountains make better aromatic teas as the cold breeze that blow through the bushes coming from the mountain does the magic, well I think there shouldn’t be any debates against their saying as at the end of the day the tea is truly wonderful, soon after that the tea is withered for over 48 hours at a constant temperature of 20-22 degrees Celsius and soon after its fired very carefully and the whole process is highly depend on hands as this type of tea cannot be made in a machine, the end result of the tea is truly amazing as the infused leafs are totally green and only the young and tender leafs are seen very clearly without any mixture of any old leafs.
All the 3 Assistant Managers and (Mr. Rai) the Senior Manager of the Estate were present during the first tasting sessions and of coarse I was very nervous, but the end result came out very well as the tea came out to be extremely flavoury and as the temperature of the tea in the cup went down the tea showed different layers of flavour and character with each sip and above of the last sip when the tea was completely cold gave another distinct floral after taste which is commonly not found in many teas, well I think there won’t be any better white tea than this tea ,this season, I guess not even from the same estate!

1st Flush 2008 - THURBO TIPPY CLONAL

Thurbo Tippy clonal (ftgfop-1) 1st Flush 2008

I am very happy to introduce the 1st tea of this year to all tea lovers, this year has not been very easy to procure the best teas as the crop growth is extremely slow, after waiting for weeks Mr. A. Gurung of the Thurbo Estate finally gave me a call regarding the 1st invoice of the Thurbo Tippy clonal 1st Flush 2008 which is simply awesome this year, I reached the estate at around 9 a.m. and I`m also proud say that I made my own tea, meaning I personally planned the style of my tea where I tried my best to sort out the floater leafs and keep the long well twisted young tea leafs as a result of which the tea is extremely floral and ends with an unique fruity after taste ,the dry leafs contains over 40% unbroken silver tips which gives the extra glow to the tea.

We are proud to mark this tea as one of our signature teas!