Blog – Page 22 – Discovering Tea

Hoping for better times

10 April 2020

What’s the point of a tea sourcer who can no longer source tea? What’s the point of a tea sourcer who can no longer spend time with farmers and has no samples to taste, who watches springtime unfurling through the window of his tasting room that usually receives around 100 samples a day at this time of year, compared with just a handful for the whole of the past week? What’s the point of a tea sourcer who can’t offer his customers rare batches to taste, because they can’t be served in stores, or sent out by post?

Although I feel alone, I’m trying to look on the bright side. In my tasting room I’m lucky enough to have an endless selection of premium teas, all bought over the past year. I taste them and hope for better times, and think of you all.

Update on the spring teas

3 April 2020

Many of you have been calling and emailing us to ask about the next harvests of spring teas. As you can imagine, the situation is very unusual this year.
In India and Nepal, people have been told to stay at home, which means they cannot harvest the tea. Of course, farmers will continue to pick fresh leaves from their own gardens and produce a few kilos as best they can. They will use these for their own consumption and sell any remaining leaves on the local markets once they open again.
In China and Japan, the situation is better. China is starting to allow people out again and the farmers are going back to work, just in time to harvest the new shoots. In Japan, it seems there is nothing to worry about at the moment. The news we’ve received indicates that the harvest will still go ahead at the end of April and early May.
I’d just like to remind you that this virus is spread between people and not goods (make sure you get your news from reliable sources), which means tea is perfectly safe, and in just a few weeks you will be able to savour delicious teas with complete peace of mind.

Working outside

27 March 2020

These tea pickers have less to fear from Coronavirus than others. They walk to work, they move about in single file, they keep a good distance between themselves, and what’s more, they work outside. Sadly, this isn’t enough in a country of more than a billion inhabitants, and now the entire Indian population must stay at home. Let’s hope that we can banish this virus quickly, and get back to savouring their country’s delicious teas.

Thank you

20 March 2020

At 8 o’clock in the evening, everyone throws open their windows and starts clapping, or they bang on a saucepan or some random kitchen utensil to make as much racket as possible; they sing, they shout, they chant… And I cry because it’s beautiful, it’s so beautiful that in this sometimes selfish world, people still have the urge to do this, that there are still these moments of humanity, that people still find room in their heart to shout out their love, to say thank you, to encourage and support those who are saving lives while risking their own. Thank you.

The joy of singing

13 March 2020

They haven’t seen one for nearly twenty years – a rainy winter. For almost two decades, planters constantly complained about the dryness in January or February, or both. In 2017 the weather really was against them: not a single drop of rain fell between October and March. At last, in 2020, the region was treated to magnificent rainfall all winter. But water isn’t everything. For the leaves to grow, they need heat too. And this year, it’s too cold for them.

While we wait for the soil to warm up, we’re tasting last year’s teas again, to remind ourselves of them, as well as the few low-altitude batches that have been freshly produced in miniscule quantities. Meanwhile, the pickers keep themselves happy by singing.

While we’re waiting for Northern India, discover the South

6 March 2020

Every year, many of you eagerly await the first spring harvests from Darjeeling. But as you perhaps know, the first Darjeelings of the year aren’t the best, and it’s a good idea to hold back.
As it happens, I’ve just selected a rather exceptional Kotagiri Frost from Tamil Nadu. Although Southern India produces vast quantities of tea, the quality is rarely up to scratch. However, if you look carefully, you can find small plantations that produce remarkable teas at certain times of year. This is the case with this Kotagiri Frost, which will be available in a couple of weeks. Enjoy savouring it while the winter mists clear from the Himalayas and give the young shoots freedom to grow.

In focus

28 February 2020

Focusing is important, as any photographer will tell you. You can focus on the foreground, middleground or background, or you can try to capture everything with the same clarity. As for me, even when I have a stunning landscape before me, or a spectacular mountain, I only need an expanse of tea leaves to enter the frame and I switch my focus to them. I want to see them clearly. Their beauty demands to be focused on, and I forget about the rest.

A question of altitude

21 February 2020

The harvests will begin soon in Darjeeling. Happily, the tea is still picked by hand. The low-altitude plots are harvested first, for a simple reason: the tea plants have benefited from higher temperatures, meaning the terminal bud has grown faster. We can see that this photo was taken at the bottom of the valley, due to the gentleness of the slope and the density of the covering that protects the bushes from excess sunlight.

The tea plant reawakens

14 February 2020

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while will know that tea belongs to the camellia family. There are many varieties of camellia; the one that interests tea enthusiasts goes by the name of Camellia sinensis. The shrub is deliberately kept low to make it easier to pick the leaves – a height known as the “plucking table”. In winter, the tea plants enter a dormant period. Come the spring, they wake up again, then you must wait until the bud is a respectable size so that it can be picked, along with the next two leaves. This is known as a “fine plucking”. There is just one more month to go before the first harvests start.

Tea plants in winter

7 February 2020

This is what a Japanese tea garden looks like in winter. Against the backdrop of volcanoes, rows of freshly clipped plants wait for spring to release them from their dormant period. They slumber under the benevolent watch of the fans, ready to chase away any frosty mists.