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Darjeeling, IndiaI'm in Kolkata, Darjeeling, and Assam, learning, visiting old friends, and scoping out new teas. I'll try to be posting often, but connectivity is proving to be a challenge. Follow along on my trip through this blog, perhaps I'll embarrass myself again in front of a major governmnent dignitary, as I did in China 8 months ago. There should be some great photos, as soon as I get regular, strong connectivity established. At the least, I can guarantee that you will learn a few things about Indian tea that you never knew, I had that experience just a few hours ago.
So follow along, I'll try to post often.
-Bill Waddington Owner, TeaSource
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Marketplace in IndiaAs we speak, owner Bill Waddington is making his way to the Darjeeling and Assam tea growing regions of India. Before he left, we made sure he had enough space in his suitcase to bring back some souvenirs for us here at TeaSource, but he will also be picking something up for you!
How to enter:
1) Re-post the above photo on Twitter with the hashtag #TeaSourceSouvenir and tag @TeaSource-OR-
2) Go to Facebook and "Like" our souvenir photo Keep your eyes on Twitter and Facebook, we will be announcing three winners on March 26th! (Souvenirs will be mailed to winners the week of April 1st.)
Have fun!
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The Lumbini Tea Factory
The tea profession is old. Not the oldest (we all know what that is), but still old. It has been a part of global trade before any of us knew we were “global”. It’s still mostly transported by large boats over vast oceans. And the main preparation method of steeping leaves in boiled water has gone almost unchanged for hundreds of years. It finds its way to market any way it can, and because of this, sometimes you just have to go to the growers directly, even if they’re in Sri Lanka.
For example, here’s a fictionalized email exchange of us buying Ceylon (Sri Lankan) tea: "Hi Chaminda, it’s Bill from TeaSource. We’d like to buy 500 kilograms of the Lumbini Estate FBOP. Do you have it available?" "Hi Bill, it’s Chaminda from the Lumbini Estate. We do have that available for you. We’ll ship it out right away."
Chaminda Jayawardana doing a tea evaluationAnd as simple as that, a truck shows up around 10-12 weeks later (remember, most of its journey is by boat) with a pallet of tea in wooden chests with the words “Lumbini Tea” stenciled on them. One wire transfer to the Lumbini Estate later and we’ve successfully done business. That is exactly how it happens (with the addition of a lot of unpleasant bureaucracy when crossing international boarders, but let’s keep the story positive).
Leaves from the Lumbini tea fieldsTeaSource has been buying tea from Lumbini estate for the last 14 years and they’ve been wonderful partners to work with. It started in 2000 when Bill was on a trip to Sri Lanka and visited their factory.
Chaminda had presented an experiment of Ceylon “Silver Needles” to the visitors (a white tea from Sri Lanka is rather controversial to most tea purists) and Bill could not help but discretely make an offer on the spot (Bill said he had to buy extra luggage just to get it home).
Since then, we’ve been regularly buying their FBOP (Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe), and now expanded to their OPA (Orange Pekoe A: a long twisted leaf style), and their “Burning Sun” FBOPF (Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings: very small leaf style – which TeaSource recently submitted and won 1st place in the North American Tea Championships in their “Breakfast Blend” category).
The founder of the Lumbini Estate, Mr. Dayapala Jayawardane.The Lumbini Estate and factory was started by Mr. Dayapala Jayawardane in 1984. It is located in the mountainous village of Pallegama in southern Sri Lanka. Because of his faith, Mr. Jayawardane named it “Lumbini” in honor of the birthplace of The Buddha. The factory produces almost exclusively black tea – the exception being their Ceylon Silver Needles – approximately 600,000 kg per year! They pride themselves on their skill as both a grower and manufacturer, employing 80 machine operators and 30 tea pluckers. His son, Chaminda Jayawardane, is now the CEO and generously gives his time to his international customers, like TeaSource. It’s a privilege to work so close with someone so far away, and this month we’ll proudly be featuring all our Lumbini teas.
Team Lumbini -
Tea pluckers in Sri Lanka
Tea from Sri Lanka is immediately identifiable – bright, brisk, quenching, fruity - except for the fact that after gaining independence from the British, Sri Lanka still sells their teas under the old colonial name “Ceylon.” It proves that the idea of “brand management” goes back a lot further than modern management theory, but for the story of Ceylon tea we don’t have to go that far.
Up until the late nineteenth century, Ceylon was producing coffee, not tea. But the conversion began in 1869 when a parasitic fungus that attacked the coffee plants started spreading across the island. The former Dutch and now British occupiers had been experimenting with tea plants they brought to the island and the coffee blight prompted them to convert land to commercial tea production in place of coffee. British demand was so high for these new teas that by 1900 there were over 300,000 acres of tea planted on the tiny island.
Ceylon teas are noted for their “fruity” and brisk flavors, though this is not why you will often see the words “Orange Pekoe” on a package of Ceylon tea (the name has nothing to do with oranges – even more curious is that no one exactly knows how it got the name “Orange Pekoe”, though there are theories). Orange Pekoe or “OP” is in reference to the leaf grading system used in Ceylon teas (and other countries). In the most simple of definitions (and therefore not without inaccuracies) OP is the longer, whole leaf grade, and BOP – or “Broken Orange Pekoe” - is the broken or smaller leaf grade.
We could get very long-winded and annoyingly academic if we wanted to start listing all the nuances and exceptions within that definition, but it’s more important to note that the grading system is not necessarily a judgment on quality, but rather a categorization of size and appearance.
Though it is tiny in size (approximately the size of West Virginia), Sri Lanka is the fourth largest tea producer in the world, at over 325,000 metric tons per year. Part of this is attributable to its warm, lush, tropical environment that prevents the bushes from going into dormancy. This allows the plants to be picked year round, with some areas experiencing fairly dramatic seasonal variation. Because of the year-round growth, Ceylon teas are not grouped into 1st or 2nd flushes like Indian teas nor have anything similar to the spring tea distinction in China. However, the plants are rested periodically by heavily pruning them back to maintain quality and longevity (the plants can stay productive for approximately 40 years, give or take depending on the region).
Quality control during the withering process.
Though its tea history is relatively short, Sri Lanka is always singled out for its commitment to quality. In the 90’s and early 2000’s, Africa and even a significant portion of India focused on producing more tea instead of great tea. Sri Lanka resisted this trend. Ceylon black teas are consistently some of the finest in world and deserve the attention of anyone with even a casual interest tea.
Beautiful map of Southern India and the island of Sri Lanka, still labeled as “Ceylon."
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Here are some more of our favorite photos from the recent Web Party Tea Photo Contest. Now you will get an idea of why it was so difficult for us to choose winners. We had so much fun doing this, we are thinking of doing it again, down the road. Let us know if you think this is a good idea.
My little pony I’m not sure if they made a little tiny TeaSource bag, or if they had really GIGANTIC sized My Little Pony figurines (ok-that thought is going to give me nightmares).Steam & Serenity
Reflections
It’s not the Teatanic, but it’s still pretty funny.
And just a reminder: this Thursday, Feb. 20 at 10:00 a.m. we will Livestream an in-house Darjeeling cupping training for a few of our own employees. We try to make sure all of our employees know what they are talking about in this great big world of tea, and the only way to do this is prepare the teas, taste them, and analyze and talk about them. We do this kind of thing quite often. And we’ve had customers ask, “How do your employees get to know so much about tea?” This is one of the ways.
-Bill
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Goomtee Tea Estate in DarjeelingDarjeeling is one of the best known “brands” in tea. Even those who don’t drink or care about tea have at least heard the name. But what is “Darjeeling” tea and why is the name so famous?
For starters, Darjeeling is actually a town/district located at the edge of the Himalayan mountain range in northeast India. It’s not Darjeeling tea if it doesn’t come from this district. But the tea plant is not native to this area. The only reason it grows here goes all the way back to the early 1800’s when the British were trying to figure out how to circumvent the Chinese monopoly on tea. The early growing experiments failed, and a native Indian tea plant was later discovered in Assam (Camellia sinensis var. assamica). But these Chinese teas plants brought to the mountains of Darjeeling eventually took root and thrived. The Chinese plants fared better in the higher elevations and cooler temperatures of Darjeeling and stood out for their unique fragrance and complex flavors (most Darjeeling teas are grown between 2,000 and 7,000 feet). Over time the region has developed an international reputation, which has boosted demand and prices.
The reputation is well deserved and came from a number of carefully managed factors. The Darjeeling Tea Association has protected and promoted the Darjeeling “brand” with a French-like zeal (think Champagne), highlighting their unique terroir (the total of environmental factors), beautiful estates, and seasonal variations. Three seasonal variations define the inherent character and flavor of Darjeeling tea.
First Flush
These teas are produced from the first plucking of the new shoots that appear in the spring (March through mid-April) after the plant has come out of its winter dormancy. Like many spring teas around the world, first flush Darjeeling teas are highly sought after and produce a cup that is light, fresh, aromatic, and possess a fair amount of astringency. The dry leaf will often contain a lot of green color, which comes from a long withering process that removes enough moisture to inhibit oxidation, but makes the tea more fragrant.
Second Flush
This is the summer production of teas from the shoots that follow the first flush. In some respects this is more of a “classic” Darjeeling since it tends to bring out those “muscatel” flavors Darjeelings are famous for. The cup tends to be richer, and more full-bodied. It is usually less astringent than the first flush teas and can come off as almost “fruity.”
Autumnal Flush
This last picking of the season doesn’t always get the same attention as the first two flushes, but great teas can still be produced and sometimes purchased at an excellent value. The autumnal flush teas are typically the most full-bodied of the Darjeelings with a more balanced and less astringent cup.Unblended Darjeeling teas should (in our opinion) clearly identify which estate it came from, which flush, and the leaf grade (a series of letter that notes leaf sizes and quality of pluck). We find most of the fine, orthodox teas coming out of Darjeeling will be graded “TGFOP” or “TGFOP1” (Tippy, Golden, Flowery Orange Pekoe – with the “1” denoting exceptional quality). This has always sounded like a bit of “artistic license” to me, but it’s hard to blame them for wanting to present the tea in the best way possible. Ultimately, the leaf and cup will say what needs to be said.
There’s much more that can be said about these wonderful teas from an exotic location. Much of this was a gross simplification, but it’s easy to get long-winded and off track. For the uninitiated, I hope it gives a basic understanding of what these teas are like, where they come from, and how to identify them.Check out our Darjeeling infographic!
Shop Darjeeling Teas
Enjoy!
-Michael Lannier
TeaSource manager
