Giddapahar Imperial Muscatel Second Flush 2017

Description

Imperial Muscatel Second Flush 2017 from Giddapahar tea garden, Darjeeling, India

Giddapahar Tea Estate – The Tea Garden

Giddapahar Tea Garden is located in Darjeeling’s Kurseong Valley at an altitude of around 1500m. With this, the estate is part of one of India’s – and Darjeeling’s – finest tea cultivation regions. The cool climate coming with the tea garden’s extraordinary altitude gives Giddapahar teas a particularly delicate aroma, for whose muscatel character the estate has gained a reputation among tea lovers. In addition, fog covers the tea bushes here on a daily basis for most of the year, an inalienable prerequisite for the finest teas in the world.

The estate stretches across a total area of 115 hectar, 94 hectar of which are covered with tea bushes. These produce 30 tons of tea annually.

Giddapahar Tea Estate – History

Established in 1881, Giddapahar Tea Estate has been the property of the Shaw family ever since. They have always been managing the the tea garden like a family venture, and this is still the case today. At present, the brothers Himashu and Sudhanshu are in charge of the cultivation, production and distribution of their produced teas. Today, Giddapahar is the traditional Darjeeling tea garden that matches the definition of a heritage family venture in the narrower sense best.

Tea from India at Siam Tea Shop

The sustainable trend to more quality with tea on the western market increasingly bears sweet fruit in India, too. Year after year, the mayor tea estates in Darjeeling and Assam compete for the market’s recognition for each season’s best “First Flush“, “Second Flush” or “Autumnal”. However, not only quality comes from India at new levels today, but also completely new diversity of India’s tea portfolio. Black tea, for example, the classic of Indian teas, suddenly comes around in the most diverse appearances. The spectrum reaches from the modern, flowery, spring-hearted first flush to full-bodied, dark roasted second flushes to earthy and malty “autumnals”. One example for a characteristic Darjeeling second flush black tea at its best is our Giddapahar Imperial Muscatel Second Flush 2017.

The Indian Second Flush Season

Most of us might know the term “second flush” only from India. However, this doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be any “second flushes” – summer pickings – in other tea regions, too. Though the spring picking generally enjoys the highest prestige among tea lovers for most types of tea, summer pickings do have their own favorable features. This applies in particular to India, where in summer the flowery notes of the spring picking give way to ever deeper sweetness. To support and highlight this sweetness at its best, Darjeeling tea gardens generally process their second flushes to classic black tea. As a result, most friends of Darjeeling tea will have a place for both in their hearts – and in their cupboards. And there are even tea lovers, who prefer the sweet dark roast of a black second flush from the floweriness of the first flushes.

Giddapahar Imperial Muscatel Second Flush

Already during the first weeks of the SF season 2017, the political unrest around Ghorkaland’s indepence bid overshadowed the picking and processing of Darjeeling’s main harvest. With the ensuing general strike then, production then came to a complete halt. In addition, the Indian central government ordered the shutdown of all public offices and institutions. Along with this came the closure of all communications and trade channels, such als postal services. Therefore, little second flush came about in this year, and even less has reached the western market.

Only thanks to best connections directly to Darjeeling, SiamTee has managed to still save the year for friends of Darjeeling Second Flush tea. So, I finally even got to sample quite a range of 2017 DJ SF’s. As a result of these samplings, I have selected the 3 Darjeeling Second Flushes that I rated as the best. And one of these is our Giddapahar Imperial Muscatel Second Flush 2017.

Just like the estate’s spring picking earlier this year, Giddapahar Imperial Muscatel Second Flush 2017 pleases the palate with downright sublime harmony and balance. This translates to a particularly round and soft mouthfeel that covers one’s mouthfeel like a velvety clove and makes Giddapahar’s second flush 2017 a tea for almost any occasion… And a second flush that despite of the year’s adverse circumstances leaves nothing to wish for.

Preparation

First, pour 200-250 ml water of a temperature of 90°C-100°C over 4g Giddapahar Imperial Muscatel Second Flush 2017. Then, let infuse for 3-5 minutes for mild a full-bodied Darjeeling second flush tea. Plus, asecond worthy infusion is produced in another 5 minutes go of the leaf material.