Well, a bit of a delay was there in updating the recently procured Second Flush Darjeeling teas to our main Thunderbolt Tea site. The main man concerned (webmaster) with the updating of the site was not feeling well. Anyways, he managed to update it at last with a thermometer tucked below his armpit : ) . Anyways, just wanted to inform.

My daughter, Neha, recently celebrated her 5th Birthday and my place was crowded with relatives, friends and kids. A small tea party was incorporated with the celebration and the kids enjoyed sipping teas camouflaged as different variety of those aerated drinks available in the market. Just wanted the kids to get used to the natural flavors of tea.

Well, there are 6 teas we have procured from Second Flush 2008 - Castleton Muscatel, Badamtam (CL) Tippy, Singell FTGFOP1, Arya Muscatel, Arya Green (GFTGFOP1) and Arya FTGFOP1 Clonal. All of the teas have their own characteristics and trying 100 grams of each will open an opportunity to distinguish one from another.

The line or lot of Castleton Muscatel is exclusive. It would be like promoting the other vendor, but what the hell, the lot we got was divided into 3 invoices - one was taken by Harrods, second by Lupicia and the third, of course Thunderbolt Tea. If you want to get a great Castleton Muscatel from 2008 then you can shop at any of the vendors, but don’t forget us.

Arya Muscatel was made on request and no one has got this tea. Maybe they will make and distribute from next year’s second flush season, but for this year, it is exclusively available at Thunderbolt Tea only. As far as I am concerned, I have slowly fallen in love with Arya and if you have noticed, we have purchased 3 lines from the garden.

The photo right above is my daughter training her taste buds : ) . She actually loves the vigorous and loud intake and the spitting away part. She actually described one tea to have the cheesy character haha! She liked the green.

Anyways, I won’t delve into all - make your palate make the choice - it is recommended that you try 100 grams each and decide what is best for you. Its 12 am and I am feeling sleepy. Actually don’t really know what I have been writing - without any concentration. If you have understood - well and good.

Second Flush 2008 Darjeeling Teas - Direct Link

Yes, didn’t I mention the fact that fav Tea lover Darjeeling teas hardly stay long on our site. If your favorite tea is out for sale, grab it at the earliest. I am sorry to inform tea lovers who were planning on to buy Arya Ruby from us - the tea is out of stock now - ALL SOLD! Its just been about 2 months and not even 100 grams is left. I was thinking of saving about 500 grams of Ruby on my quota but gosh, now I have to wait for the whole year. I too was late I guess. Can’t cancel any others for my sake.

The same thing happened to Castleton Muscatel last year and I guess it will have a similar situation this year.

The deadline to update Second Flush 2008 Darjeeling teas on our main Thunderbolt Tea site was today, but we were unable to do so - it will be updated by tomorrow evening IST.

Update: The three orders which we received before our site could be updated with the “ALL SOLD” notice for Arya Ruby - no worries, your purchase amount will be refunded in full, but if you decide to buy other teas with the amount that is with us, you can just mail us or write to us using our feedback form. You have already been informed about the status of your order by email. If you haven’t received any of such notices, then your order is probably processed.

I would also like to update some info about our Thunderbolt Tea site - We have recently moved to our new server, though you can order hassle free, there may be some features like the support system not working. Please bear with us while we maintain. Your patience is highly appreciated.

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!

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

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.