From plant to cup – Page 33

The first tea from “Delmas Bari” has just arrived

22 May 2012

It must be nearly 10 years since a plot of land on the North Tukvar estate was given my name. In high season, these hectares produce a remarkable tea thanks to the skill of the planter, of course, but also because of the quality of the tea plants selected. They are among my favourites.

For the first time, a single lot of tea from this plot has arrived in Paris. For fans of delicate, fruity, vegetal notes and the fragrance of white flowers, this is its name: Darjeeling North Tukvar DJ14 Delmas Bari.

Tasting new teas is like a bowl of fresh air

18 May 2012

While many of you are taking advantage of the long weekend of the Ascension holiday to escape to the country, I’m in Paris at my tasting table with an impressive number of samples before me. I won’t have time to taste them all over the weekend. In Darjeeling, the harvests are over, but I’m now receiving new-season green teas from China, all very fine examples indeed. Every year, their vegetal aroma is like a big bowl of fresh air. I’m also getting sent most of the Nepalese teas which, in nearly a decade, have achieved excellent standards. New gardens are joining them and making themselves known. Excellence is worth waiting for – it has taken them years to reach this point. Just like these young tea plants, which are receiving such attentive care.

Leaves of the tea plant also attract frogs

15 May 2012

The leaves of the tea plant attract many predators, undoubtedly due to their delicious taste.
In addition to its gastronomic qualities, tea is supposed to promote wellbeing and serenity. This harmless frog, very much at ease, would surely agree.

Panels for trapping harmful insects

4 May 2012

On the tea plantations there are plenty of ideas for trapping harmful insects. For example, here in Hangzhou, they place little panels covered in glue everywhere among the tea plants. The fluorescent yellow of the boards attracts the insects, but most of all it is the pheromones in which they are coated that appeals so much to bugs.

These are clearly unrelated to all the election boards that are flourishing, right up until this weekend, all around our voting stations.

My niece Aurélie launched Le Palais des Thés US

24 April 2012

Twenty-five years ago I created Le Palais des Thés to turn my passion into a job, and to share with other enthusiasts the pleasures of tasting the world’s best teas. Since she was little, my niece Aurélie has always seen me with a cup of tea in my hand and has listened to my stories of distant travels to the plantations of China and Japan. A year ago, Aurélie, who has grown up to be a great connoisseur of tea herself, decided to start an exciting new venture and a fantastic challenge. Accompanied by Cy, her husband, she has decided to move to the United States and write a new chapter in this family story, by launching Le Palais des Thés in North America.

I am hugely proud of my niece and I know she will succeed – I have seen how passionate she and her husband are. They have a pioneering spirit.

Bi Luo Chun: one of the rarest China teas

20 April 2012

Bi Luo Chun is one of the rarest and most prestigious China teas. Here, my friend Waterqian – one of the few farmers to produce the highest quality Bi Luo Chun – is showing me how much must be taken off the stem during the harvest: a small bud with just one leaf. This type of plucking is extremely rare. It explains the very high price of this tea, whose name means “Spiral of Spring Jade”. In one day, each worker only harvests around two kilos of fresh leaves which, after processing, will produce just two hundred grams of tea.

Mid-April, my attention turns to China

17 April 2012

Every year, in mid-April, my attention turns to China. This is the time when production starts of the magnificent China green teas such as Long Jing, Bi Luo Chun and Bai Mao Hou. Right now I’m not far from Suzhou, on the shores of Lake Taihu.

Every day I do my best to sleep in the middle of the tea fields. And this is the kind of view I get when I wake up.

The hairy caterpillar, another tea enemy

13 April 2012

Tea has a number of enemies, and among them is the hairy caterpillar. This one may look rather shy, but don’t be fooled. This delicate creature is less timid when it comes to munching through the bottom of a young tea plant, a task it performs so thoroughly that it cuts right through the base of the main stem. And the poor plant ends up flat on the ground, dead.

My favourite tea plant: “Ambari Vegetative 2”

3 April 2012

Now that the Darjeeling First Flush season is well underway, today I’d like to introduce you to my favourite tea plant in this region. Its name is AV2, short for “Ambari Vegetative 2”. Despite its slightly spindly appearance, this cultivar produces the best teas.

I’ve just bought a single lot, Puttabong DJ7 “Clonal Queen”. Its producer reserves this prestigious name for lots plucked exclusively from AV2 plants. So this is not a blend. It has remarkable delicate aromatic notes that are both vegetal and floral.

I taste about 50 teas a day

30 March 2012

This March I’ve tasted about 50 samples of tea a day. The first flush Darjeelings launch the season, followed swiftly by the Nepalese teas. A little later it’s the turn of the new-season China green teas. Then the Japanese Ichibancha. The teas are tasted blind, of course. The ritual is always the same: having smelt the infusion, you suck in the liquor and swish it around your mouth. You analyse the texture, the flavours, the aroma groups. You take your time. You taste and you taste again. You have to concentrate… Except for when a photographer bursts into the tasting room and captures the moment.