Hi folks, this is just an update to inform you all that all of Second Flush 2008 Darjeeling teas have been procured. The most wanted Castleton Muscatel is one of the prized possessions this Second Flush.

While purchasing in Castleton Tea Garden, I was given a choice by Mr. D.B. Gurung, the tea maker, to choose from two grades 1) various grades of Castleton Muscatel and 2) Castleton Moonlight. The dry leaves of both the teas, Castleton Muscatel and Castleton Moonlight, were excellent and really aromatic, but in the cup, Muscatel grade was way ahead of what I was seeking in a “Castleton Second Flush tea”. I don’t mean to degrade the Moonlight grade, but I had to skip its purchase due to its “fishy” taste in the tongue and nose (smell). It seems that you are in a fish market, though some may like it! : ) No offence! But I would like to be straight! ‘Moonlight’ cup was light as eminent because Moonlight is actually a clonal product rather than the china grade. I have noticed that clonals are not successful in bringing out the eminent muscatel nose. ‘Castleton Muscatel’ is produced from special china grade leaves meant for the special purpose of making muscatel tea. What Darjeeling has been boasting for decades - “muscatel” character is prominent in “Castleton Muscatel”. After observing for several years, no other tea garden have been successful in producing another muscatel second flush tea as Castleton have been doing it for years.

Anways, I will just update the list of teas we have procured. Well these have not been updated to our main site yet and will be updated by Tuesday or Wednesday. But we have made it a point to make it available for you right here. Yes, you can order from this very page by just clicking on the order links. You will be taken to our payment processor site right away i.e. 2checkout.com - Just click on “continue shopping” and you will be brought back to this page where you can order other teas as well.

List of teas for Second Flush 2008 Darjeeling Teas:

1) Castleton Muscatel (DJ 132)
2) Arya Muscatel (SFTGFOP1) (EX 21)
3) Arya Green Tea (GFTGFOP1) (EX 24)
4) Badamtam (CL) Tippy (DJ 189)
5) Singell FTGFOP1 (EX 32)
6) Arya Clonal FTGFOP1 (EX 26)

Some more may add up to the list, but for the present, this is what we have stocked from Second Flush 2008. Haven’t been able to click photos as well, just finished clicking Badamtam (CL) Tippy of which I am attaching it below - has a lot of golden buds or tips and less of silver tips. Golden tips is a sign of high quality tea. This Badamtam has it all. Check it out! Darn that photo didn’t come out as fine as the leaves look : (

Will delve into this matter more later on! In the meantime, those tea connoisseurs waiting eagerly for Darjeeling Second Flush teas from 2008 can order on this post. Update to the main site may take sometime, but most likely be up by Tuesday or Monday.

Hope you like our Second Flush Darjeeling Teas from 2008!!

Update (July 9):
The “purchase links” from this page have been removed - it has been updated to our main Thunderbolt Tea site - You can now purchase the Second Flush Darjeeling Teas - Here!

Thanks Alexander for your comments, really appreciate after being totally being stumped out due to server problems. Hope this works out fine. Thought I would make this a post instead of answering you on the comments box. One more post is added to my blog’s list haha! Well, yes, long time ago I used to visit, forums, discussion groups etc. but I have somewhat moved away these days - simply for the reason - I couldn’t update it or answer them timely. I used to visit a lot of such areas such as google groups etc. but time just didn’t permit me to answer queries which require thinking as well as simply ‘time’. I got too much engrossed in my company works and other nitty-gritty settlements.

Anyways, here on this blog, I try to explain in the simplest of simplest form I can, keeping in mind the very “tea beginners”. Don’t want to hit them with the book of the ancient Greeks or Sanskrit.

Well coming to Arya Ruby, I am sorry for I cannot be of much help to you, if you want detailed info on the Ruby processing. Let me be sincere here, Arya Ruby is a special tea and the making of this tea highly depends on the tea maker. Its his secret which he will not let it for any cost - for the simple reason - there will be too many Ruby’s cropping up from various other tea gardens. Yes, I did try to dig up the question once with Mr. Roy, the manager, and he simply answered - “Benoy, thats my secret”. I guess he is right in his own way, but for tea lovers like us, we can just analyze the processed product. Its not that I am blind to Ruby’s making, I have some info though - 4 factors highly affect the quality of any particular Darjeeling tea a) weather, b)altitude a tea garden is placed, c) Kind of leaf or tea bush used and d) last the most important is the Tea maker (his processing timings).

Arya as a garden is among the highest altitude tea gardens, higher the altitude better the tea, but also not so high where you have snow : ) Weather conditions are also important - mist, rain, temperature and sun - this is a trademark of Darjeeling’s weather. There is one saying the locals quite often refer - Don’t trust the “3 WWW” of Darjeeling - “Women, Weather and Wine”. : ) Arya Ruby uses special clone bushes which was spread using vegetation process. Its a special type of clone called ‘AV-2′. Yes, the wither seems light and the rolling too in order to save the tenderness of the leaves. Fermentation is the most important factor with Ruby, only the tea maker can make the decision by the right ‘nose’ acquirement. Drying is normal and the firing is full. It is manually cleaned. Regarding the timings which are the most vital, only the tea maker can tell you. Oh have I let the secret out? Don’t tell anyone. : )

Now regarding the white teas, I was referring to and comparing to other white teas indigenous to Darjeeling only, because I am aware of other tea garden white teas here. And not to forget the different characteristics of each tea estate (which are unique in itself and that is why Darjeeling tea is famous, each tea is different) and grade tea. No tea will be the same, could be somewhat similar in characteristics, otherwise we would find Darjeeling teas growing in Japan or someplace else.

Hope this helps a bit! I am a learner in process, will never become a tea master, coz to become one is attaining infinity. Yes, can become an expert one day, but the tag “Tea Master” is quite a ‘dwindling thought’ at the moment.

Now it took sometime to answer this, imagine posting such answers or queries in a number of discussion forums or groups. “No can do!” : ) I will be pooped out!

Well, we have been tweaking here and there so that our new as well as existing tea clients get the best of what we have to offer - I mean ‘best of all deals which tea vendors can offer’ pertaining to Darjeeling specific.

Second Flush is flooded with tea offers, of which some are straight 50% reduced. And I won’t forget to mention the offers on First Flush Darjeeling Teas 2007 which is almost over due to stocks being sold out!

Now talking of Autumn Flush Darjeeling Teas, we have decided to give you another irresistible offer. Guess what, we were selling Sungma China Classic (Autumn Flush 2007) at USD 6.95 per 100 grams (which you still can order), but if you want to go with the “discount bandwagon”, then this very tea is now available for USD 16 for 500 grams. Can’t guarantee its availability - till stocks last!

Suck the juice out of our offers! : )

Happy tea shopping! Autumn Flush Tea page Here!

From time to time, I will be updating this blog with such offers, so keep on checking from time to time or you can subscribe to our feed for automatic update notes.

As I had earlier posted that we had to go a major overhaul of shifting from one server to another. My webmaster, Julian, recently finished the migration process. This blog too has been shifted and I thought I would give it a fresh new start.

First Flush 2008 Darjeeling teas were updated to our parent site, www.thunderbolttea.com, during the First Flush tea season, but I haven’t mentioned about it in any of the posts here. So here we go!

Stocks in Stock:

• Arya Ruby
• Castleton Special China
• Thurbo China Bloom
• Sungma Delight (ch)
• Margaret’s Hope Green (green tea)
• Arya FTGFOP1
• Risheehat Supreme (ch)

The First Flush this year was delayed a bit, but no worries, got hold of good First Flush Darjeeling teas. Keeping in mind the variety of customers we have, we always hunt for good quality teas with some cautious look on the price tag as well. If we invest more on a particular tea, the price tag will naturally be high for our tea buyers. So we try to procure the best which also does not have a cut-throat price tag as well. But when we look at exclusive Darjeeling tea varieties as Arya Ruby, there is no compromise on the price tag. If we don’t give a certain price per kg to the respective tea garden, the tea will be taken by another vendor. So you see…a tough competition. But in a way, I welcome competition as it makes you improve your services more and therefore better customer support and satisfaction.

One thing I would like to make clear here is that, clients have asked me - “The same tea cost us USD.. last year and this year it is USD…”. Well to answer that - Tea is such a buzz which does not stay static and keeps on changing - I am talking about the price factor. It all depends on the quality of tea produced on particular season which totally depends on the weather conditions, processing standards and tea maker timings.

Hope I have cleared some of your queries!

Good teas never last long on our site and its just been about 2 months and Arya Ruby is on the edge of extinction for one year. Don’t worry, next year, we will procure it again: ) Most of the First Flush teas procured this year is comparatively good and trying 100 grams of each could give you a choice of your liking. No matter how good a tea is, it all depends on the palate of an individual, his taste. Some may like the taste of a ‘medium price tag’ tea and some the most expensive one. Lucky are those who like the ‘medium price tag’ tea - don’t have to spend much - What do you say?

Anyways, I may have deviated here and there or altogether I suppose, but its not my fault entirely - blame it on my ‘think-box’.

Well, I wanted to update you with the change in the Tea Club membership pricing. Many of our existing as well as new clients wanted to join our tea club, but complained about the cost of membership. Keeping in mind the cost factor and other customer grievances, we have wiped off the USD 120 tag cost for one year membership. Guess what, now the same membership is available for USD 59 only.

What do you get with this membership?
Plain and simple - you get one thing - 20% discount on all of our products - flat discount! If we reduce the normal pricing of a particular product you get 20% further discount, but there are some cases when the product price is reduced so low that if we give you further 20% discount it would have a negative numerical value and we have to dig our pockets in order to ship it to you. Hope you can understand this.

Frankly, in comparison to other commodities, Darjeeling Teas are quite expensive and just imagine getting a discount of flat 20%. If your total order value is USD 100, you just have to pay USD 80. Don’t you think getting 20% discount on one of your most passionate and expensive addiction is great?

Well if you are interested you can always opt for our Tea Club Membership for $59 for one year:
Get your membership here

An exclusive offer for our Second Flush 2007 Darjeeling teas. Limited stocks available. Most of the teas now have heavy discount. Hurry till stocks last!

Details for the Second Flush 2007 tea offer:
Puttabong China Fine:
Cost you USD 5.98 for 100 grams
Buy 400 grams of the same tea at USD 15.96

Jungpana Wiry:
Initial Cost USD 6.20 for 100 grams
Now Pay USD 6.20 and get 200 grams (50% off)

Risheehat Flowery:
Initial Cost USD 11.98 for 100 grams
Reduce price USD 9.50

Thurbo Muscat:
Initial Cost USD 8.98 for 100 grams
Now Pay USD 8.98 and get 200 grams (50% off)

Log on to Second Flush 2007 page at Thunderbolt Tea

Stocks are very very limited, Order before its “out of stock”!

Oh how the tea connoisseurs love Castleton has been proven through our client-inquiries. A lot of them are constantly writing and inquiring about Castleton Muscatel. Last year we had bought one invoice of Casleton Muscatel Darjeeling tea and it got out of stock in just a matter of few months. Some bought 100 grams first and ended up buying 2+ kilos, while some couldn’t get lucky and had to be satisfied with what they had purchased before. Some even called us and inquired! The craze for Castleton Muscatel among tea connoisseurs is remarkable. Thanks to our customers for liking our teas. We will try to get you the best.

No worries for Castleton Muscatel fans - the tea has been procured and is lying in our store room. Last year’s Castleton Muscatel was worth appreciating. The authentic muscatel character, so much Darjeeling tea is famous for, could be found in abundance. The company (Goodricke, owner of a couple of tea gardens in Darjeeling including Castleton) did a group tasting here in Darjeeling at the Planter’s Club last year and the tea and invoice which we had bought got a recommendation and appreciated highly.

To inform you, this year’s Castleton Muscatel was bought during the peak Second Flush tea season and the tea simply excels. Infact when I did the tasting, I found it to be better than last year’s tea. So those who had tasted our Castleton Muscatel last year know the quality and good news is that its even better this year. According to Mr. DB Gurung, the main Castleton tea maker, there were 3 invoices made from which we bought one. The other two happens to be taken by tea vendors from outside India, one from Japan and the other from Great Britain. Its one hell lot of a tea you can imagine and if you have been drinking those mediocre Darjeeling teas, I recommend you to try this one. Its not a ’sales note’ but a recommendation for true tea connoisseurs.

Many have complained as to why our tea prices are a bit higher, well I’ll tell you straight - plain and simple, we don’t sale fake Darjeeling teas; we personally taste them and buy - good teas cost! And we warn you - you may get addicted to our teas

From the very first deal struck with Arya Tea Estate, I have been fascinated by the teas they produce and that too 100% organic. Arya as a tea estate is small when compared to larger tea gardens in Darjeeling, but way better off than some of such larger ones when it comes to producing quality teas.

The first instance sipping Arya was at my friends place - Arya Ruby. It was simply irresistible and I bought it for my clients. I won’t delve too much into the sophisticated tea acronyms, and for simple understanding, I would like to say that this tea is quite rare and produced in very low quantities. I was informed by the Manager, Mr. S. Roy, that only about 200 kgs of Arya Ruby was processed this year (First Flush 08) - so you can imagine the demand for it, keeping in mind the quantity produced. While budging towards the cost factor - its quite expensive, but I tell you its worth it.

It is a strange tea! It is actually a clonal tea and most of the clonal Darjeeling teas are lighter in cup. And not to forget the fact that whether china grade or clonal, First Flush Darjeeling teas are always weaker in strength, but this particular tea is amazing. Clonals are said to be lighter than china grade, but this tea has a body of its own reminiscent of the ruby color - thats why the name Ruby. The same china and clonals from other tea gardens start to attain a good amount of body during the second flush, Ruby doesn’t become awfully strong, it maintains its quality of a second flush.

Arya is 100% organic and besides Ruby, it produces numerous other grades of tea, black, white and green teas. A word about Arya Green teas - most of the Darjeeling green teas I have tasted appear to have a yellowish liqor, but Arya Green slides more towards transparent or white. The white teas they produce is also quite different from what we find from other tea estates - white teas as a leaf is totally green and seems unprocessed, highly aromatic and having a weak body. Vege notes dominates all, though there are other complexities mingled in the characteristics of this white tea. Buying Arya for us is like going bankrupt - it is expensive, but a tea that would stand out among the best of what Darjeeling has to offer.

Well, don’t misunderstand my post - Arya produces unique teas, but each tea garden in Darjeeling is famous for its particular grade. For example, nobody can beat Second Flush Castleton Muscatel - Arya cannot produce muscatel tea similar to Castleton Muscatel characteristics and Castleton cannot produce a tea similar to the charateristics of Arya Ruby. This is highly due to the region the garden is placed, the kind of tea bushes used and the most important factor - the tea maker.

Hope you enjoyed the post!

A sigh of relief with the transfer of Thunderbolt Tea and Darjeeling Cuppa to a new server. I don’t mean to be harsh to my previous server, but it was too unreliable with a lot of downtimes and mail problems. I stuck to them for quite sometime but I just couldn’t bear the inconvenience any longer. Our webmaster had to hunt for a new server space and found one. Many of our client emails could not be delivered and we apologize for the inconvenience. In order to give you a better customer experience and support, we had to do the server migration. Hope this one lives up to the standards of being a good host.