First flush Darjeeling tea arrived in London

The first harvest of the year debuted in London with a tea tasting event held at East India Company’s flagship store in Mayfair.

Exclusive sale of Darjeeling first flush at East India Company

Tea Master Lalith Lenedora was swelling with pride on Wednesday evening. He introduced to Londoners Darjeeling first flush of 2011, an exclusive production of a once-a-year harvest black tea leaves.

Growing at the East India Company’s Arya estate, this first flush rewards tea-makers like Lenadora, who patiently work on the plants to get an exquisite production from the leaves.

Lenadora explains: “The plants have been in dormancy during the wintertime and therefore we have to pluck the leaves out to encourage the sprout. It’s a process that takes about 20 days and the result is a delicate tea.”

The first sunny, warm days of the spring cast a spell on the new buds helping the leaves to get the characteristic aroma and flavour that are sought by tea-lovers.

According to Lenadora, most people enjoy drinking Darjeeling tea only because “it gives a gentle muscatel flavour in the mouth that stays for sometime”.

The East India Company brought to London an exclusive production of 36 kilos, which were selected from a blind tasting conducted on-site by Lenadora. The aim was to pick the best harvest out of 42 lots that the Arya estate has.

There were 18 sample cups, all of which had 100% Darjeeling first flush and the winner was the lot 31. “This is a selected tea that confirms my three lucky numbers; we tasted 18 cups, we picked the lot 31, and we produced 36 kilos.”

Offered as loose tea, the box of 100 gr. is sold at £30 and found only at East India Company store at Mayfair.