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Darjeeling Festival – Fulpati (Phulpati) Celebrations

By on September 26, 2009 in Autumn Flush, Darjeeling Festivals, Darjeeling Photos, Personal Ramblings

Its festival time here in Darjeeling and each day is observed differently. Yesterday i.e. September 25 was Fulpati where a cultural rally started from Dali. Every year it starts around 8-9 am and ends at Chowrasta, the considered center point of Darjeeling. I had to reach early so started at 7, walked a couple of kms and reached. A huge gathering had already taken place and I squeezed in to take some shots. Walked back to town along with the rally upto Chowrasta. It was such a marvelous cultural extravaganza.

Some must be wondering what “Fulpati” is, I have taken a para from a local news daily “The Telegraph”:

Phulpati is a unique custom in which community members collect flowers, petals and other offerings from their houses and take them to the puja pandal to pay obeisance to Goddess Durga. The decorated palanquin carrying the sacred flowers, leaves and sugarcane tied in red clothes — the colour symbolising the goddess — is usually accompanied by an ornate umbrella. It is believed that people who pass underneath the palanquin are absolved of their sins. The tradition dates back to the days of King Pritivinarayan Shah (1723-1775) of Nepal when the phulpati procession used to start from Gorkha, his native place, and end at Kathmandu after covering hundreds of miles.

Hope you like the photos!!


Autumn Flush 2009:
I am now gearing up for the next and last tea season of the year namely Autumn Flush. Hope to get my hands on some good Autumn Flush Darjeeling Teas. Will keep you posted.

Happy Tea Sipping, Good Day!

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Our Free Darjeeling Tea winner

By on September 15, 2009 in Darjeeling Tea Facebook page, Darjeeling Tea Updates

Finally, the winner from the lucky draw surfaced today and I won’t have to send emails anymore for the month saying “Congratulations, You are the lucky winner for our Free Darjeeling Tea”. This however gets an irony when the winner doesn’t respond. Anyways, thanks to our Thunderbolt Tea page fans on Facebook for supporting this idea and for making their effort in posting their comments. Highly appreciated. Without you all, our page is just a blank statement. What good is the world’s most amazing musician if he doesn’t have an audience. Yeah, sometimes, you tend to set your mood to be alone – thats completely different!

Yes, the lucky winner is Jozsef Bereczki! Congratulations from the whole Thunderbolt Tea family and of course from me. We will ship your USD 40 worth of tea as soon as possible by India Speed Post which should take approximately 2 weeks for delivery. Enjoy your share of our Darjeeling Teas.

Other friends who did not win, we are here to stay and we will keep on doing the lucky draw – who knows who’s next. You just don’t need to do anything, we do the hardwork :)

If you like Darjeeling Tea Join our Page on Facebook

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Free Darjeeling Tea on our Darjeeling Tea page on Facebook

By on September 11, 2009 in Darjeeling Tea Offers, Darjeeling Tea Updates, Personal Ramblings, Second Flush

join_darjeeling_tea_page_fb Just a short note in advance with some updates. If you aren’t aware then we have a Facebook page dedicated to Darjeeling Tea and of course talks about our company Thunderbolt Tea. People who are tea lovers can become a fan of this page where we give out USD 40 worth Darjeeling Tea every month to the winner for free. We choose it through a lucky draw from amongst the fans.

Once the draw is done, a lucky winner emerges and we make it point to contact them as soon as possible, so that we can announce it and send the gift. As far as I have experienced, it is hard to get in contact with the winners, we write to them and they don’t respond at all and we can’t wait for ever. This is exactly what has happened this recent draw. Anyways, to cut out the long wait and give others a equal chance to be the winner, once a draw is done, we will just wait for 48 hours for the response and if it crosses it, we do a re-do of the draw. If it proves to be the same ‘no-response’ issue, we will throw it out to all the fans.

This is how we will do it – if none of the winners respond, we will throw it open on our facebook page. We will do a status update on Facebook to which you just have to respond with a comment, maybe like this “I want to be the winner”. Kindly do one comment only. This way we will get comments from people who really want to taste our Darjeeling Teas and are serious tea lovers. We will give a time frame of about 48 hours. All comments done within 48 hours from the time of status update will be eligible – we will do a lucky draw amongst these comment makers. Hope this justifies all!!

Watch out for the status update soon!!

A NOTE ABOUT OUR DARJEELING TEA SHIPPING MODES
There were initially three methods of shipping we followed namely, the Airmail which my friend @TeaBoat calls it the ‘slow boat’, India Speed Post and Expedited Service, but the slow boat seems to be rowing real slow. India Speed Post and Expedited Service are no headaches, but the Airmail seems to take a lot of time getting delivered. Though none have been reported lost, we received some complaints about its late delivery – some are even taking 45 days.

We are getting rid of this mode of shipping ie. Airmail. We will only be using two modes of shipment from now on – 1) India Speed Post and 2) Expedited Service. India Speed Post hasn’t disappointed us and is reaching maximum within 20 days. Expedited Services such as Fedex, UPS etc. are great.

However for this to take affect, we have to do something about the minimum total order you can do to get eligible for free shipping. Initially, the minimum order value for free shipping was USD 49, now its USD 59. Hope you can understand. Both the shipping modes are expensive and we are trying our best to deliver it to you free of cost!

DARJEELING AUTUMN FLUSH 2009:
Yes, the new and the last season, the Autumn Flush is here. Will start buying after September end. I have never bought a lot of autumn Darjeeling Teas, but this year, I am planning to hunt it like I did it during the Second Flush. Lets see how it turns up and what teas I stumble upon.

Until then, keep sipping tea, its good for you!! I do it all the time!

Join our Darjeeling Tea Facebook Page and be eligible!

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Tea offer on two Second Flush Darjeeling Teas

By on September 4, 2009 in darjeeling second flush, darjeeling second flush tea, Darjeeling Tea Offers

Its a great pleasure to announce that we are now giving away an incredible offer on our newly purchased two teas, namely Arya GFTGFOP1 Green Tea (EX – 42) and Giddapahar Musk (DJ 29). No where can you find these teas at the price we are offering.

Reason for offer – definitely good Darjeeling teas, but just that we have extra huge sacks in our storeroom. We have got one extra invoice of Giddapahar Musk (DJ 29), the previous invoice already sold. Arya Green Tea (EX 42) – some 60 more kgs lying with us.

Direct Link to page: Click Here!

If you are a wholesale buyer, then please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are giving away this tea with just a marginal profit. You can write to us at wholesale[at]thunderbolttea.com

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