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.
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.
Carine Baudry, head of the Tea School, has just returned from Darjeeling. The trip was organised by the school to allow some of the students to visit the plantations and gain a first-hand understanding of how tea is made. Carine and her eight students stayed in the beautiful surroundings of a tea garden and observed every stage in the production process. They met several planters and were able to ask plenty of questions. They also visited Delmas Bari and admired the breathtaking landscapes of this Himalayan region. And there were plenty of opportunities to meet the smiling tea pluckers, like the two women pictured here.
The day before yesterday Darjeeling was hit by a hailstorm, which was not good for the tea plants. What with the late start to the season due to the lack of rain, and the violent weather attacking the tea leaves, the planters don’t know which saint to turn to.
They’ve had enough of these insults from the skies. And they don’t want to see any more tea plants battered in the space of a day.
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.
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.
In the same way that wine can be made using different grape varieties, tea comes from different plants, each with its own characteristics. In this photo you can see the main cultivars used in the Darjeeling region (India). When a particular lot of tea is made solely from these varieties, Indians call it “clonal”. The word “clonal” on a label does not mean the tea comes from a cloned plant, but simply that the leaves were harvested from very specific cultivars. Some of these cultivars have been developed by an agronomic research institute and are known for their excellent quality and flavour.
In Darjeeling, at the beginning of every spring, the first estates to harvest are those situated at the lowest altitudes. They enjoy more clement temperatures. This is what the region looks like at the exact place where the immense plains of India take over from the foothills of the Himalayas. Here, you can see the Longview Tea Estate, and you can make out the ochre-coloured stone bed of the Balasun river.
For the past two days samples of tea have been delivered in large numbers at my tasting room. As soon as they arrive I taste the contents of the little bags on which are marked the name of the garden, the lot number, the grade and the quantity of tea produced.
This is it! In Darjeeling, the season is now properly underway.
Because of the cold and then the lack of rain, the tea plants are growing very slowly in Darjeeling. As of mid-March, only a few lots have been produced, and it will be a while before there’s a good selection available.
I have bought three lots so far though: a very small amount from Teesta Valley, which I’ve already talked about; the first plucking from Mission Hill, which develops a lovely length in the mouth, and lastly, the Hillton DJ1 with its aromas of cut grass and raw vegetables, which has an incredible intensity.
