Category Archives: Darjeeling Tea

Saturday Morning Tea

Good morning, dear tea friends! I had a wonderful trip to NJ and NYC last weekend, visiting my elderly relatives and then taking in the sights of the city.

The 9-11 Memorial was a very sobering place. The day we went there it poured rain and it felt like the sky was weeping for all those souls who lost their lives on that tragic day. It was very sad but I’m really glad I went there. Ok, on to tea…

This morning’s tea is a special treat from the Arya Estate in the Darjeeling district of northeastern India. Called Arya Estate Ruby 2nd Flush, it truly is a “gem” of a tea!

As you can see, the leaves of this tea are much larger than an average Darjeeling. They are plucked from specially grown clonal tea bushes and carefully processed by hand to ensure their leaf remains intact and the flavor is developed. As I’ve mentioned before, the term “clonal” means that this tea came from tea plants grown from the cuttings from other tea plants of superior stock.

I used twice the amount of tea I usually spoon into my glass teapot and steeped the leaves for a little over 3 minutes in boiling point water (212F).

It is said that the Arya Estate was started by a group of Buddhist monks who carefully developed their tea plants from some seeds brought over from China. I love the stories and history about tea, don’t you? It gives more depth to my tea experience.

The beautiful, amber-colored tea liquor glows like a jewel in my glass teapot. As I gently lift the lid, a strong fruity, pineapple aroma delights my senses.

This pineapple quality follows through into the flavor, along with notes of muscatel and other tropical fruit. It is very smooth with the characteristic second flush rich body and a sweetness that lingers in the finish. Yum! This tea would stand up well to milk but I recommend drinking it straight to enjoy the fruity ambrosia.

Today is my grandkids’ birthday party. They are two years apart but their birthdates are 2 days apart so it’s a party for the both of them – a “Princess and Pirate” party. What fun!

Thanks for joining me for a cup of tea and I’ll see you next week!

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Saturday Morning Tea

Hello, my dear tea friends! Today started out with more camera problems, this time with the batteries. It’s not my month for smooth camera operations, is it? Anyway, I managed to get my camera to work after a half hour of charging a battery which appeared to be fully charged. I’ll have to investigate further later. Now it’s time for a cup of tea!

This week’s tea looks like a white tea and even tastes like one, however, it is a black tea, specifically a second flush Darjeeling from the Margaret’s Hope estate called “White Delight”.

As you can see from the photo above, the lovely, variegated-colored leaf is enormous. I steeped the leaves for my normal 3 minutes in boiling point (212F) water but I think this tea could stand a longer steep time. It’s incredibly smooth with none of the characteristic Darjeeling “bite”.

You can read more about the well-respected Margaret’s Hope estate in my post here.

I tried to capture a full leaf set so you can see what is meant by a “fine plucking”, two leaves and a bud. The bud is the brand new growth and, as you can see above, there are 2 little bud leaves there. Think of when you pinch a plant to encourage branching. I do this with my coleus plants. Pinch the tip and 2 branches will grow where there was once one.

The color of the tea liquor is amazing, a deep golden yellow with a tinge of peachy-pink, like the blush of a ripe fruit.

The fragrant aroma smells of apricots which carries into the flavor, along with hints of melon and muscatel. The muscatel is the only hint that this is a second flush Darjeeling. The rest of the flavor notes speak to me of high-quality white tea. I have been told that the estate Manager decided to name it “White Delight” because it is so reminiscent of a white tea.

Sometimes I recommend a second flush Darjeeling for those who like to put milk in their Darjeeling cuppa. This would not be a tea for that. Even though it’s bursting with flavor, it’s just too mild for anything beyond a drop of honey.

The sky looks like a soft gray blanket today and rain has been falling softly on and off all morning. It’s a great day to curl up inside with a good book and a pot of tea.

As always, thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

“The only noise now was the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans.”

~Sherwood Smith

Saturday Morning Tea

Good morning, my dear tea friends! My camera is finally up and running with a new memory card so I can now share a new cuppa with you all. I’m a creature of habit and when my routine encounters a snag, I find it very discombobulating. Thank goodness for tea, right?

I was going to brew up a pot of that Assam from a couple of weeks ago but this tea caught my interest. A 2012 second flush offering from the Castleton estate called “Moonlight”. The leaf is incredibly bold and the color variations are gorgeous. If you’re interested, I reviewed last year’s second flush offering from this estate here.

I used 3 times as much tea as I normally do (in other words, 3 teaspoons for my little teapot) and steeped it for 3 minutes in boiling point (212F) water.

As I lifted the infuser from my glass teapot, the aroma of fresh apricots filled my senses. Mmmm….

The whisky-colored liquor is smooth and delicate, not at all your typical second flush Darjeeling. The apricot aroma followed through into the flavor along with some nuances of melon and a gentle floral note that lingers.

I found this tea unique for a second flush offering. I wonder what flavor notes might be revealed if I steep it longer? Hmmm…

As always, thanks for joining me on this weekly tea adventure. Have a wonderful week!

“Art must take reality by surprise.” ~Francoise Sagan

Saturday Morning Tea

Good morning, dear tea friends! As promised, this morning’s tea is a white tea from the Arya estate in Darjeeling, located in northeastern India.

Called Arya Pearl, its processing is as precious as its name. The full leaf sets are plucked at dawn when the dew is still wet on the leaves. After drying in the sun for several hours they are then carefully rolled in silk cloth and then allowed more drying time.

How does this white tea differ from the China Pai Mu Tan I reviewed last week, I wonder?

Aside from the obvious – grown in different countries – I immediately see a difference in the appearance of the leaf. While both teas are composed of the new growth plucking, the Arya Pearl’s leaves appear to be greener whereas the Pai Mu Tan had more of a white-ish appearance because of the abundance of fine white hairs all over the leaves. I don’t see as many white hairs on the Arya Pearl leaf, do you?

The wet leaf is very similar, with the Arya Pearl being a little longer and thinner.

I found the most pronounced difference to be in the flavor of the hot tea. The Arya Pearl has a strong vegetal aroma and flavor when it is hot. That was all I could taste. As the tea cooled down, however, more notes came out, including that sugar cookie note I really like.

I steeped the leaves for 8 minutes in 180F water. If you plan on re-steeping the leaves, you want to reduce the time on that first steeping.

The tea liquor is the same light straw color with a hint of green.

As I enjoy my second cup, the tea has cooled down considerably and I’m discovering some tropical fruity notes.

Tea continues to amaze and delight me in my journey with it. Not only can two teas from the same category taste different from one another but the same tea can exhibit different flavor notes at different temperatures! Have you ever experienced that? If so, I’d love to hear your tea story.

My company is closed this week for our annual vacation. I’ll be heading to Michigan soon to visit with my family so there won’t be a tea post next Saturday. Enjoy your tea and I’ll see you in 2 weeks.

Happy 236th birthday to the USA!

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

~first paragraph, Declaration of Independence, 1776

Saturday Morning Tea

Hello again, my dear tea friends! I’m happy to be back to share another cup of tea with all of you. This morning I’m enjoying another first flush Darjeeling, this selection from the Glenburn estate. So far, 5 first flushes have arrived and I have to say that this one is my favorite so far. The leaf is from the first plucking of the season and, as you can see from my photo, it’s filled with the silvery white tips of the tea bush. So new, so tender.

The leaf shows off its gorgeous green color as it steeps. I steeped for 3 minutes in just under boiling point water, around 200 degrees F. Remember that this is not a green tea but has been oxidized and processed as a black tea.

My online tea friend, Steph, had the opportunity to visit the Glenburn tea estate during a trip to India last year. She shares her wonderful adventure on her blog, Steph’s Cup of Tea, here. To visit a tea estate in Darjeeling would definitely be a dream come true for me. Someday…

Ok, back to the tea. The tea liquor steeped up to such a pale, delicate golden color. A sweet aroma of flowers wafted up from my glass teapot as I gently removed the infuser basket.

While I do love notes of tropical fruit and banana in a first flush tea, my first love has always been the floral notes. This tea is a perfect example of that – in the aroma and pronounced in the flavor. The liquor is so smooth that you could probably experiment with pushing the steeping time a little bit. If you do, please let me know what you think.

Have a wonderful week filled with many delicious cups of tea!

“One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.”

~Iris Murdoch, Writer