Garden: Rohini Tea Estate
Tea type: Very mildly oxidized first flush tea
Flush Season: First Flush
Type of plucking: 100% fine leaf, mostly comprising of two leaves and a bud
Temperature: 15°C – 30°C
Invoice no.: RTE-01/23
Date of picking: January 2023
Grade: FTGFOP1 Jethikupi First Pick
Elevation: 3000-3500 FT
Fermentation: Mildly Oxidized
Specialty: This First Flush Tea 2023 is the first production of Darjeeling. So it’s very rare
Rohini (RTE-01) First Pick Jethikupi – Goddess of Spring – First Flush Tea 2023 – Master Series
$7.67 / 25 gms tin caddy
Limited Edition FTGFOP1 First Pick Jethikupi – First Flush Tea 2023 from Rohini Tea Estate is the season’s first produced tea just after the winter season. Rohini is mostly the first garden to produce the first flush teas in Darjeeling. The tea bushes are grown and harvested at an elevation between 1500-3000 feet. The bushes are fresh as they have just come out of an extended period of the remaining inactive cause of the prolonged winters of almost about 2/3 months from the month of November to mid-January. The low temperature experienced during winter has given a very well-defined character to the tea.
This first flush tea 2023 is made from the best quality B-157 clones which is one of the best clones planted in Darjeeling. The dry leaves are bright green in appearance and consist of two whole leaves and a bud. The teas are mildly oxidized and delicately processed to induce minimal damage. All oxidation done is overnight and natural with nothing being induced vigorously. This tea is very light on the palette having a very spring-fresh and flowery aroma. It has a mouthful of fruity flavor that leaves a clean note of olives, peach, and vanilla with a pleasant and distinct aftertaste. You won’t get any green, vegetal taste, or any astringencies in this tea.
The workers carefully pluck the tea leaves while making sure that only the best shoots with eminent buds are plucked. During this season the growth of Darjeeling tea is very slow and the workers could only bring in a very small quantity of leaves that are very special. The plucking of tea leaves is of such fine quality that the tea is mostly hand sorted with very fewer machinery works involved.
Daryl Potter (verified owner) –
quality tea!
Richard Spurgeon (verified owner) –
This is a very special tea. Brewed hot, the high notes are pine, maybe rosemary, and hay, yet the mouth-feel is quite full, with a honey caramel overtone, and the finish is gently crisp. The movement of tastes and overall balance is elegant and makes this very drinkable. As might be expected from the picking time, there is subtlety mixed with power, creating a sense of strength in reserve. Brewed cold, it is quite different. The lower end is less full and the bright flavors, though still more herbal than floral, are more varied, apparent and discrete. Which makes this a very interesting hot-cold comparison!
herman –
absolute top ! beautifull , delicate and very pleassant
Daniel –
Seems oxidation level is very low, closer to green tea but without any astringency, taste slightly vegetal with flowery fragrant
BCM (verified owner) –
Great tea. I brewed this gongfu style (4g per 100ml at 85C) and found it worked quite well (the leaves are nice and intact).
The dry leaf is quite bready smelling. The wet leaf smells perfumed, herbaceous and floral and little spicy and fruity. The liquor has a creamy, almost nutty taste and feeling, with a bit of pleasant astringency, nice herbaceous notes and fruity notes similar to grape. The aftertaste is fresh with almost a bit of a mentholated feeling.
Dey M. (verified owner) –
This one is something special. It’s buttery and vegetal. Allowing it to cool a bit after steeping makes this a refreshing tea.
Kazuma (verified owner) –