Thé Violet Gopaldhara 2023

The Darjeeling Purple Tea is made at Domaine de thé de Gopaldhara which is located in Darjeeling at an elevation of 5500-7000 Ft. The plucking of the leaves is of such fine quality that the tea is mostly hand-sorted with very less machinery works involved. Only those leaves that have the prominent purple hue are plucked by the most experienced garden workers under the supervision of the manager. The pluckers ensure that only the best shoots with prominent purple buds and leaves are plucked. Oxidation is skipped in this tea which helps in retaining all the natural anti-oxidants and polyphenols that makes this tea the healthiest.

Like all other tea varieties, purple tea also originates from the plant camellia sinensis. This new variety of tea is grown from special mutated Assam cultivar. The plant sustain more intense sun rays causing it to produce high level of anthocyanin’s and higher level of polyphenols. The new shoot growth has a predominant purple hue to it and is not green looking like the general Camellia Sinensis.

The high level of anthocyanin’s present in the leaves gives this tea its unique purple appearance. Anthocyanin is the same anti-oxidant that gives blueberries, raspberries and other red/purple foods their respective colors.

Les anthocyanes possèdent de nombreuses propriétés médicinales et sont connues pour être bénéfiques contre les maladies cardiovasculaires. Les antioxydants présents dans les feuilles sont connus pour leurs bienfaits anticancéreux, améliorent la vision, abaissent le métabolisme du cholestérol et de la glycémie.

This tea is sweet and not very rich in flavor. Purple tea itself has a dark color; however the steep is very light with a slight purplish hue. We found it to taste very much like a strong white tea with a pleasing character with no particular resemblance to general black and green tea flavor. It has no astringency and no tannin bitterness. If you add few drops of lime to it the cup of liquor turns into a beautiful pink colour.