Darjeeling Muscatel –Margarets’ Hope
The aromas and fury of a Darjeeling muscatel is tried and tested. It is the muscatels’ that has given Darjeeling its identity. We believe that any tea lover or a novice who comes across a True Darjeeling Muscatel will never forget the experience.
It is quite rare to come across a true muscatel because this tea is borne out of a balance of many factors involved in the making. The seasons, the harmony of time of pickings and the art of processing, e.t.c.
It is a matter of pride for Tea masters from Darjeeling to mark their small invoices with this term because they know it is occasional. Only few invoices are marked so. All muscatels fetch a four figure digit prices even in the auctions.
Most muscatels are pre sold on prior arrangements with high end paymasters like Harrods.
It is not necessary that muscatels are produced only in the second flush or summer season but it is more pronounced then.
During this time of the year every garden in Darjeeling tries hard to make muscatels but few succeed.
The Gardens those are renowned for producing and exhibiting muscatels every year are Castleton, Margarets Hope, Balasun, Selimbong, Sungma, Jungpana, Makaibari, Ambootia.
Darjeeling is so synonymous with black tea but our purpose is to share and educate our followers and readers about exotic Darjeeling’s. We would like to introduce you to a green tea variety that I found to be most exotic of all Darjeeling’s.
This tea is called “Emerald Green” because of the prominent deep green color it carries all through the steeps. This is a picking from a small family owned garden called” Gopaldhara”. Gopaldhara is tucked high up as 2121 meters above sea level in the Mirik valley of Darjeeling District. An estate that comprises of 172 hectares of gentle hills planted with tea. Among this plantation a small section of the garden about 8 hectares have been occupied by plants imported from Japan. ( 12000 nos tea bushes are planted in one hectare) It usually takes 8-12 years of grooming for a young tea plant to yield a standard harvest, in Darjeeling climatic conditions.
The producer, Mr. Saria claims that the origin of this plant variety is of very high quality Japanese seed culture and I do completely agree with him after tasting the leaves. The hard work Mr.Saria has put into to produce such a small quantity of tea is just amazing. Mr.Saria is one of the pioneer tea planters as well as a respected tea master of Darjeeling and his teas deliver and share with us more than 50 years of enduring experience in Darjeeling.
Emerald is a rare picking because these tea bushes flush or regenerate, periodically in a year. I picked the teas that came off an October first week flush, so in Darjeeling terms lets call it an autumnal green Darjeeling tea.
In my opinion, fair trade is a cleverly crafted marketing ploy designed to monopolize certain commodities and markets. Fair trade items makes more profits and have better margins. Darjeeling Tea is no exception. The fair-trade markets opened up for Darjeeling Tea since the beginning of the millennium.
