Pine Wood Chestlet – Spring Regalia – First Flush

Spring Regalia Oolong is Darjeeling’s new First Flush tea from Rohini Tea Estate, “the youngest tea estate of Darjeeling”.  Rohini is mostly the first tea garden to produce the earliest first flush in Darjeeling. The dry leaves are dark green in appearance and consist of finely plucked whole leaves. The cup is very mellow and fruity with a light body having a fantastic spring fresh flavor. This first flush tea has a fulfilling experience that leaves behind a lingering and pleasant aftertaste with zero astringencies.

The tea has been made from B-157 clones which have a very good citrus finish and a very lively character. The bushes are fresh as they have just come out of hibernation from the prolonged winter of almost 4 months from December to March.  The low temperatures experienced during winters impart a very distinct character to this fresh Darjeeling first flush tea. During the first flush also known as spring flush, we have 100% growing shoots and get excellent buds with either a single leaf or two leaves and a bud. The flavor is prominent as the weather is also very dry and cool which ensures very slow growth at Darjeeling Tea Estates.

The workers are very careful in their plucking to make sure only the best shoots with prominent buds are plucked. But in this season the growth of Darjeeling teas is very slow and the workers bring in a very small quantity of leaves to the factory but all are very special. The plucking is of such fine quality that the tea only needs to be hand sorted and the machines used to make the tea are very few. First Flush teas are known to be slightly oxidized. It takes a lot of experience to make the tea perfect as wither and oxidation have to be just right or else the flavor could be either too light or too strong and bitter.