This is Abhishek Dev, the tea grower at the Teesta Valley Tea Estate. He is one of six brothers, and most of them work in the tea trade. He started out as assistant manager at Puttabong, then at Sungma, among others. He was then offered a position managing a plantation that was not in a good state.
Everyone in Darjeeling agrees that he has really improved the quality of the teas produced here.
Abhishek had quite a surprise for me when I visited him on 23 February. He had just produced a single lot, especially for me. Just ten kilos of tea, the first Darjeeling of the year, so it was quite an event. The very small quantity is due to the fact that the leaves have not grown much at this stage. So this is an exceptional plucking, due to both its earliness and because it is made up of only very young shoots. In the cup, it has a wonderful subtlety, the freshness of spring, and a unique vitality.
