Get up close and personal with India’s ceremoniously harvested Second Flush Tea, one of the region’s most coveted exports.
It ’s a buggy nighttime in Darjeeling , India . A Nepali priest-doctor get up an communion table with a variety of incense , ripe bananas , and flowered posy amidst a hemicycle of chairs . A trio of man start to have a go at it out a heartbeat on percussive instrument . The priest-doctor stills , then recrudesce into an rapturous saltation .
From there , the transition is lightning fast . There ’s a phrenetic energy as we pile into a truck . It ’s a choppy ride on rugged terrain , and I grasp the dashboard as we skirt the edge of a cliff . The full moon electron beam overhead , and our driver tells us that if we ’re prosperous , we might be able-bodied to recognise some leopard in the near distance . Then we catch sight of our destination : The gentle slope of the afternoon tea theater of operations , set aflame by the Strawberry Full Moon ’s gold glow , where a single dark ’s harvest will soon relent rare and fleeting cups of Darjeeling Second Flush Tea .
Americans have come a long wayin sympathy and appreciating the origins of the intellectual nourishment and drinks we consume . In wine , what was once a choice between white or violent has morphed into aqvevri - made orangefrom Georgia ’s Kakheti region , or a pèt - nat fromFrance ’s Loire Valley . We go from guzzling $ 1 cups of bodega coffee , to learning to pronounce “ macchiato ” at Starbucks , to only settling for micro - roasted bean sourced from a exclusive farm inColombia . Yet when it comes totea , many of us Statesiders have barely moved beyond a simple bag of Lipton .
The magic of the tea harvest lies in the hands of women.|Photo by Siddhartha Joshi, courtesy of Grace Farms
To well understand what goes into a cup of Camellia sinensis — and , ultimately , how tea and tea - drinking culture connects us to the spacious human race — I was invited to bring down Darjeeling , India withGrace Farms , a nonprofit community center ground in New Canaan , Connecticut . The foundation pass well-off categorisation , its charge to pursue peace treaty through five key mainstay : nature , arts , Department of Justice , community , and faith . attach to this by-line isGrace Farm Foods , a B Corp - certified line of coffee berry and tea that yield 100 % of its net income toDesign for Freedom , an enterprisingness practice to ending forced labor worldwide .
Open to the public and housed in a glass property capable of makingcontemporary architecturenerds syncope , the formation ’s Connecticut headquarters is a scrap easy to access than Darjeeling . Visitors are welcome to walk in , peruse free exhibit , nature paseo , or creative talk , then sit down down for a loving cup of afternoon tea . On any impart day , resident tea victor Frank Kwei might be rain buckets a loving cup for a local New Canaanite , an creative person , or a example of the United Nations .
In June , just before the onset of monsoon season , the Grace Farms team and I plunk head - first into all things Darjeeling — both the town and its eponymic black tea . situate in the northmost region of West Bengal , this mountainous Native American municipality ( population 162,000 ) is the stuff ofWes Anderson films , its historied charm inextricably link to its sheer remoteness . To reach it , we had to fly from New Delhi to Bagdogra — flourish hello to Mount Everest from the woodworking plane windowpane — then hops in a motortruck for the three - hr , weave drive through the emerald , patch - cropped foothills of theHimalayas . And we made that laborious journeying in pursuit of one matter : Darjeeling Second Flush Tea .
The town of Darjeeling sits 7,000 feet above sea level.|Photo by Siddhartha Joshi, courtesy of Grace Farms
Known as the “ Champagne of teatime , ” Darjeeling 2d Flush Tea is made from the 2nd budding of Camellia sinensis leaves before the monsoon season . Some tea producers believe that , as a resolution of biodynamic farming practice , the full synodic month ’s gravitative take out heightens the works ’s muscat grape , a honey - comparable smell that ’s unmanageable to appraise or distinguish . gather the leaves under these cosmic circumstance is more of a spiritual ritual than a regular agricultural shift , and is reserved for only the best pickers . Each year , Grace Farms sends its staff to Darjeeling to take part in the event . Afterwards , they ’re tasked with bring in the tea back to the US where they ’ll package and sell it as alimited - releaseproduct .
“ We ’re traveling halfway around the cosmos to experience this one exceptional evening , ” Kwei explain as we weaved through the mist . “ All the condition need to be ideal — cloud cover , rain , so on , and so away . Everything is up to the immortal , if you will . ”
As we uprise the hillside , passing cars beep in a quotidian fight for space , I caught sight of a channel of women returning home from working in the playing field . They travel as an assembly of color , sporting pretty , patterned head wraps while balancing graceful parasols and massive woven baskets pullulate with piles of light-green leave . A few search up at us to say hello , their faces revealing strikingly hopeful orange - violent lipstick .
The onset of monsoon season brings in heavy cloud cover.|Photos by Siddhartha Joshi, courtesy of Grace Farms
before that day , Jeewan Prakash Gurung , fondly known in the Darjeeling tea community as JP , had blend in out of his way to pick us up from the Bagdogra airdrome . “ There is something extra about this place , ” Gurung tell , during a much - needed pit - point to load up on roadsidemomos . “ It could be the terrain , it could be the people , it could be the coolheaded Himalayan breeze . But go to anybody ’s menage in Darjeeling , and the first thing they ’ll offer you is a loving cup of tea . Whether they lie with you or not ? indifferent . ”
bear into a family of tea granger , Gurung followed in his sire ’s footsteps working for various teatime demesne in Darjeeling throughout the ‘ 70s . Today , he serves as an advisor and adviser for an manufacture protagonism group calledTea Promoters India , or TPI . Throughout his long career — as document in his booksAll In a Cup of TeaandMuscatel Memories — Gurung has seen firsthand how India ’s afternoon tea landscape has evolve and transformed . His presence is strong , solid — The temperature changes when Gurung , who ’s never without a giving hat , inscribe the room . When he utter , people listen , yet any hint of intimidation is wiped away as soon as he flashes his cheeky grin .
A true teller of taradiddle , industry vet Gurung is delighted to answer all our tea - link query . The next morning , we gathered around the front porch of Selimbong Tea Garden , a colonial - era bungalow perched on a bluff pretermit the area of neighboring farm . As Gurung launched into a lesson in local history , I could get word Kwei dramatically slurping his tea leaf , sweep up the same retronasal olfactory technique employed by wine connoisseurs .
The team at Selimbong engages in regular tea tastings.|Photo by Siddhartha Joshi, courtesy of Grace Farms
harmonise to Gurung , it all come out in the mid-1800s , when the British - check East India Company , look for a source of tea outside of China , found that the flora thrived in Darjeeling ’s subtropical , highland mood . When India gained independency in 1947 , the estates were sell to Native American business , and , almost a hundred years after the industriousness ’s inception , trade unionism was introduced . Today , however , there are still echo of British convention , as many tea pickers continue toface harsh workings conditions .
afternoon tea gardens in India are now owned by the body politic , and the land is leased to local direction companies who are responsible for the care of their employees . goodwill Farms take to partner with TPI because of its outspoken committal to constitutional and Fairtrade farming practices . And this trip was an opportunity for Adam Thatcher , CEO of Grace Farms Foods , to see for himself how those honorable standards were being implement , from expanded sanitization services to fair sex authorization workshops . ( As Gurung proudly noted , TPI is the only company in the district of Darjeeling with a woman garden manager on stave . )
Later , Kwei , who once owned his own insurance premium tea leaf companionship , direct me on a saunter through the verdant garden , going over the basics as we brush our hands over waist - high bushes . The Good Book “ tea leaf ” is often used as a apprehension - all for anything steep in simmering water , but only white , green , black , and oolong tea can be classified as such , because they come from thecamellia sinensisplant . The shrub produce naturally caffeinated leaves , and depend on the fashion the leaves are oxidise and work , it can produce a variety of teas .
“Tippy” leaves make for the best harvest.|Photo by Siddhartha Joshi, courtesy of Grace Farms
Black and greenish tea , for example , are born from the same folio , the difference being that the former is oxidate while the latter is n’t . you may make a tea - like tincture out of thing that do n’t get along from camellia sinensis — flowers , leaves , roots , barque , and seeds — but in this showcase , they ’re considered herbal teas .
In the same manner that French wines are name after their region of line of descent , Darjeeling tea is a black tea grown in Darjeeling . It also offers a vino - like complexity — musky , meet with tannic acid , and verge on fruity . In 2004 , Darjeeling tea became the first Amerindic product to beprotected under geographic indicant ( GI ) position — only 87 garden under the District of Darjeeling are entitled to use the terminal figure .
With other types of land , the harvest operation is wide-eyed : When the crop is quick , you pick it . But with tea leaves , the flavor profile changes by the day , and each solar day makes for a different kind of tea . The Second Flush , for instance , is noted for its “ tippy ” tea , or a clump of newly budding leave marked by silver tips . These teas tend to have a more delicate flavor and scent — a far cry from your average Earl Grey or English Breakfast .
Kwei takes in the beauty of the tea garden.|Photos by Siddhartha Joshi, courtesy of Grace Farms
“ Lipton is a achiever story , but it come from a very unlike angle : consistence . Every single cup of tea needs to taste exactly the same — they have proprietary blend and a flavor visibility that their tea suppliers need to match , year in and year out , ” Kwei allege . In Darjeeling , he explained , assessing tea leaf is develop down into year , area , garden , day , and lot . “ A ‘ lot ’ is a batch of tea pick on a specific daytime , in a picky garden , with a finical group of plants . There are hundreds and thousands of lot of the same tea , and JP ’s job is to literally try thousands of these teas to figure out the flaw , nuances , and gadget characteristic . ”
" Go to anybody ’s house in Darjeeling , and the first matter they ’ll offer you is a cupful of tea . Whether they know you or not ? Immaterial . "
Tea pickers , the majority of whom are women because their fingers are turn over more quick , must pick about 10,000 shoot to produce one kg of unripe leafage . Once the moisture is removed and the leaves are fermented , the outcome shrinks down to about 250 gram . Then it ’s sieved , and you ’re provide with 125 grams of drinkable tea . That means it have bushel upon bushels of shoots to make just half a cup of tea leaf .
With those kinds of margins , it ’s well-defined that money is n’t the central propel factor for tea Farmer like Gurung . Rather , they ’re drawn by a awe to a tradition that ’s been around for over a century , and woefully , one that ’s institutional knowledge is increasingly at stake . As veteran Camellia sinensis producer pass away , the few younger individuals brave enough to enter the business enterprise present an onslaught of out of the blue problems : aging President George W. Bush , declining proceeds due to climate change , the economic downswing bring about by COVID-19 , uneducated consumers , and tearing competition within the spheric grocery , to name a few .
For Gurung , it ’s not just about marketing . Tea is fundamental to understanding Darjeeling and its people . “ We are not conduct with a trade good , ” he said . “ We are dealing with something that has been specially crafted , that has overwork the virtues of nature to the hilt , and we are bringing that to you , not as a cup of tea , but as an experience . ”
In 1924 , an Austrian man named Rudolf Steinerproposed a closed - loop system of fertility , in which the physical and phantasmal worldly concern would line up . Today , Steiner ’s biodynamic farming is practiced worldwide by cognitive operation both great and little . The style ban the economic consumption of synthetic pesticide and plant food , and might imply unconventional measure like treating compost with medicative preparations to encourage microbial life , or packing manure into cow horns and forget them into the worldly concern . Tonight in Darjeeling , it ’s about paying exceptional attention to planetary positioning , namely the appearance of the Strawberry Full Moon .
“ Will tonight ’s tea be the best tea in the world ? I do n’t have intercourse . It may not be , but that ’s not the point , ” Kwei state , as the motortruck decelerate to a stop and we tumble out , gaze mend on the teatime fields in front of us . That morning , however , we woke to a good prognostication : The mess of wild pinkish lilies pullulate among the tea plants , a phenomenon the garden coach tell happen only in prediction of the heavenly event . “ The thing is , once you trust the experience — the cause that you put into honoring this daylight , honoring the culture — there ’s not a dubiousness in my mind that the tea made from the leaves picked tonight will be exceeding . ”
Backlit by the looming moon , a group of adult female armed with flannel mullein begin to come down the hill of the teatime garden . They ’re on the spur of the moment hasten past us to pick the leaves that will be processed that same Nox . We ’re all pick up up in the throng , eyes prepare on the direction the master selector twirl the leafage in their finger with swift finesse .
It ’s all over in less than an hour . The chooser take bout dump their rafts onto a big shell outside the manufactory as a team of men crouch around , recording the night ’s identification number in a notebook . Tomorrow morning , we ’ll get to savour the Camellia sinensis . But for now , we take back back to the menage , where we gather around a bonfire and hear to Gurung apportion some stories .
After some gin - induced reflection , I ask Gurung what his hopes are for the hereafter of Darjeeling . “ I would wish to actually call for that Grace Farms , in due track of time , conduct tea hitch for American Camellia sinensis lovers , ” Gurung say . “ The share-out of an experience is always safe than share through words . ”
It ’s an ironical affair to say for a man with two books and interminable chronicle under his whack , but he has a point . All the effort it took to get here — a 17 - hour flight , off - roading through Panthera pardus - laden mound , the trust we localise in the lunar month ’s cosmic influence — made that first sip of Second Flush all the more deserving it … regardless of whether or not my unrefined , American roof of the mouth could really taste the difference of opinion .
