My tea making process

In the beautiful valley of Darjeeling the tea grows in the hills during spring and summer. The First flush is harvested in spring and the Second flush is harvested in summer.

Darjeeling’s First Flush tea should have a category of its own, because no other tea is made quite like it. After plucking, fresh leaves are brought indoors and laid out in withering troughs: long rimmed tables with screens on the bottom, and fans at the end to move air through the leaves, done at room temperature for usually around 12 hours. After this, the leaves are much more pliable, and a floral aroma starts to develop.

The next stage is rolling the leaves: this ruptures their cell walls, which furthers the release of oxidative enzymes, and redistributes moisture, which draws flavorful juices to the surface.

Rolled leaves may then be set out to oxidize for a brief period (usually not more than 15 minutes), or in some cases, not at all. For the Second Flush the tea is oxidized for almost a day.

Then the leaves are fired, as they are distributed into thin, even layers on metal conveyor belts and baked in a large oven, often at about 250°F degrees for about 20 minutes. After a final sorting of the dry leaves by size into grades. First Flush is ready for shipping.