First-flush teas – Page 5 – Discovering Tea

First flush Darjeelings: the good way to infuse them

13 March 2012

If there’s a group of teas that is particularly sensitive to the infusion time, it’s the Darjeelings. Thirty seconds too long and your tea will be bitter due to excessive astringency. First flush Darjeelings must be infused correctly: the water should be around 85 degrees and the infusion time should be between 3’30 and 3’45 maximum. With Darjeelings, the flavour and aroma balance is very delicate, so to appreciate them fully, you’d be wise to heed this friendly advice.

While you’re waiting for your tea to infuse, you can follow my example and have fun taking a picture of the timer. This rather rustic one reigns in the tasting room on the Barnesbeg Tea Estate (India).

I’ve just bought the first tea of the year

9 March 2012

I’ve just received the first samples of the Darjeeling spring teas, or “first flush”. The buds on the plants are very small, and the shoots are still a little slow due to the generally cool winter. The temperature is still too low to allow an abundant crop. Nonetheless, certain planters have produced some wonderful teas.

I’ve just bought the first tea of the year – a very small lot of just 15kg – from the Teesta Valley Tea Estate. This is a lovely plucking, with leaves just lightly rolled, giving a fresh infusion that is both vegetal and fruity, and a supple liquor with pronounced vegetal and almond notes. A pure delight.

To accompany your tea tasting, here is a view of the Teesta Valley Estate itself. It offers the same roundness and sweetness as well as the famous vegetal note… It’s as if the landscape itself was reflected in our cups.

To find good teas, one must be patient

6 March 2012

I don’t need to teach you tea drinkers to be patient. You know how to take time choosing your tea, to prepare it in the right way, steeping the leaves in water that is not too hard or too hot, allowing the leaves to infuse for the right length of time.

In a few days we will be able to try the first samples of the spring teas. However, it’s not always the first that are the best, and sometimes – but not always – it’s better to wait for the next day’s harvest.

Here is a view of Darjeeling for you to contemplate while you wait to try these leaves being harvested at the moment, right here, on these misty hillsides.

The first harvest of the year is about to start

2 March 2012

When I ask planters in Darjeeling when they will begin the first pluckings of the year, they always gives roughly the same reply: around the time of the Holi Festival. Holi takes place in India every year at the beginning of spring. It’s the festival of colours. To celebrate, everyone arms themselves with plenty of coloured pigments and throws them in the faces of people around them. Throughout the day, they cover their laughing friends – and anyone else they come across – in a riot of colours.

With its coat of bright pink and orange, this elegant creature climbing over a tea bud looks like it has been taking part in Holi. The tea harvest is surely about to start.

Japan : drink the best teas with complete peace of mind

24 June 2011

I have chosen this photo of a lovely landscape, taken at Wasuka near Nara, to tell you that it would be a shame to miss out on the Japanese spring teas, the famous ichibancha, this year. Le Palais des Thés has sent all batches of its Japanese tea to be analysed by a laboratory, which will check whether their radioactivity levels comply with European standards. Only once we have received the results can we start distributing the teas to our various stores. In the stores, you will be able to ask to see the laboratory test results for the tea you want.

So you will be able to drink the best shinchas with complete peace of mind. Japanese farmers have suffered enormously this year due to the tsunami, and we must not abandon them, or their deliciously delicate teas!

The best teas are often produced from March to May

13 May 2011

Some regions produce their best teas during the period from March to May. So this is a good time to meet the farmers and planters and see them at work.

I have left China for Nepal, which has been producing excellent teas in the past few decades. While here, I am visiting tea plantations in Hile (Kuwapani, Guranse, Jun-Chiyabari) located in the district of Dhankuta in Eastern Nepal, the most prestigious in the country.

Taiping Hou Kui : a very expensive tea from China

3 May 2011

Taiping Hou Kui is harvested for just 25 days a year, generally between 20 April and 15 May. For the rest of the year the tea plant is allowed to grow without having its leaves plucked. This concentrates the harvest on the best season.

Mrs Zha has a pretty plot of land on the edge of lake Taiping. She is very busy during this plucking period. Taiping Hou Kui is one of the most expensive teas in China, and its price can reach thousands of yuan per kilo.

In China, harvesting of premium teas is in full swing

26 April 2011

Here in China, the harvesting of premium teas is in full swing. Some farmers have their own buildings equipped with various machines for processing the tea. Others, like Mr Li, sell their freshly plucked leaves to bigger farmers who have the necessary facilities.

Once harvested, tea spoils quickly. Here, at the Fuding tea market, Mr Li absolutely must find a buyer in the next two hours. With the quality of his leaves, he should have no difficulty, and he gives a big smile for the camera.

Tea plantation in the mists of Darjeeling

22 April 2011

Before leaving for China in search of different teas, I have spent most of the past few weeks tasting lots of samples of Darjeelings, receiving up to fifty in one day.

Phuguri, Risheehat, Orange Valley, Gielle, Puttabong, Singbulli, Teesta Valley, North Tukvar, Longview, Thurbo: this year our selection reflects the work of many gardens and represents the best of their production.
This is what the mountains look like where these teas grow, so that while you are enjoying them, you can transport yourself to the mountainside and feel the mists of the Himalayan foothills.

Premium green teas : harvesting has begun

19 April 2011

In China, the first tea harvests of the year have begun, and today I am flying to Beijing, then to Huang Shan, the famous Yellow Mountains.

The best pluckings of China green tea take place in April, and Anhui province alone boasts prestigious teas such as Tai Ping Hou Kui, Huang Shan Mao Feng, Huang Shan Mu Dan and Huang Hua Yun Jian, to name just a few.