With the Global Pandemic, there have been some challenging times for Indian Tea. Last year the plantations were shut down during the First Flush season to prevent the virus from catching hold with no tea plucking during this time. Later, in a bid to bring income into the region, tourists were allowed in, but with them came Covid and the shutdown of most plantations.
We managed to find some very nice teas last year though no true First Flush.
Shipping delay was the tricky part with our Indian tea orders not arriving in store here until January 2021 as there were no ships loading at origin port and strike issues and backlog in Port Botany.
This year, we have yet to hear any reports of the season so far. We have tasted some First flush Assam’s but no great signs so far. And - Considering how the climate is progressing and the eagerness of plantations to commence plucking when quality is not yet very good, we believe that good quality first flush will be scarce, and will be in big demand from Japanese, German and American buyers who are willing to pay high prices for teas that have only appeared rarely in the past 5 years due to seasonal and industrial relations factors. And then we must deal with the current high cost and slow transport conditions with a preference for sea freight as airfreight is just unrealistic for the quantities we buy to offer best value to our customers.
At the moment we are not sure as to how much tea we will need this year as we normally ship bulk to keep prices down for our customers. We are also looking for some really nice second flush teas this year. Second Flush teas make up the majority of the Darjeeling we import and are added to our shipment later in the year. This said we will not ship likely until the second half of this year with an ETA mid to late year. We understand that other companies bring in tea by Air-freight but as above we like to keep prices down for our customers.
We can recommend some teas that we currently have in stock, First flush from 2019 season and some Second Flush from the 2020 season if you are interested.
Always recommended,
1st Flush Castleton Estate Tea DJ17, We believe this Tea to be above any that we have seen over the last few years and would highly recommend.
https://bit.ly/2QCpUOt
1st Flush Margaret’s Hope Estate DJ7 – a slightly greener flavour to the Castleton.
https://bit.ly/3tv4zF9
1st Flush Singbulli DJ35– featuring some more prominent muscatel.
https://bit.ly/3tz4Re0
2020 season
If you would like some Second Flush tea from this season,
We can recommend and pack 2nd Flush Margaret’s Hope. This tea has good body and muscatel taste. Please contact us if you are looking for this tea not found on our website.
