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Darjeeling Always Lucky!

By on March 25, 2009 in First Flush, Personal Ramblings

If its Darjeeling Tea, I have always noticed that the media hypes it sky rocketing and plasters on the walls of local as well as International dailies.

Darjeeling as a place has always earned a reputation of being what the locals call “Lakshin” meaning place which is lucky and blessed by the Gods. There are two reasons for it – it’s a small place with an economy that is not overwhelming and still people can be seen clad in the most expensive and fashionable attires as compared to the rest of other Indian places with a similar economic background. I wonder how people manage to maintain this when their earnings are not up to the mark – God knows! Secondly, it is considered blessed by the Gods themselves with Mount Kanchendzonga smiling right on the face and this has provoked us all, local residents, to become and believe in something ‘supernatural’. Anways, what I meant to say is that whatever hardships Darjeeling faces, gets solved in no time. There is some political turmoil at the moment, and hopefully this will have a better path towards Darjeeling’s glory.

Now talking of ‘Lakshin’, take ‘First Flush Darjeeling Tea weather drama’ for instance – news roared with similar quotes as “Darjeeling tea hit by severe drought” and blah, blah – definitely this was a great concern for Darjeeling. Supply of drinking water to Darjeeling town was seriously cut down due to the reservoirs being on dry spell and the most important industry, namely, Darjeeling Tea was on the verge of turning into a total disaster due to rainless sky everyday for the past five months. But guess the Hindu ‘Rain God – Lord Indra’ just couldn’t bear the pain and blessed Darjeeling with the much needed rain.

Darjeeling still needs more rain for water supply to its citizens as well as for the famed First Flush tea and mystically everyday is turning out with light showers which is adequate enough to bear the new shoots and solve the drinking water problem.

Darjeeling Tea Lovers – nothing to fear now – we are having excellent First Flush 2009. Yes, the quantity will be low due to cut-short period in growth and production.

I pray that Darjeeling attains normalcy and every Darjeeling related issue gets solved soon.

First FLush Darjeeling Tea 2009
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EC may approve Darjeeling tea GIs in 2 months

By on March 24, 2009 in Tea News

After waiting for one-and-a-half years, India expects to get geographical indications (characteristics of a commodity peculiar to a specific growing region) of the famous Darjeeling tea registered with the European Commission (EC) in the next two months.

The Tea Board also hopes to wrap up registration of traders of the Darjeeling tea in the UK and Germany, where it is already protected under the GI norms, by April 2009.

GI identifies a product as originating from a region or locality in a territory, where a given quality, fame and other characteristic of the product are essentially attributable to its geographical origin.

“We have provided the online registration facility for traders, both from the UK and Germany. By April, the process may be over,” Tea Board Chairman, Mr Basudeb Banerjee said.

“We had also approached the EC in November 2007 to approve the GIs of the Darjeeling tea so that other European countries get to recognise them. I am optimistic of getting the permission in the next two months.”

However, the Board’s primary focus is on the registration of traders in the UK and Germany as both of them, among European countries are the major importers of the Darjeeling tea, Mr Banerjee added.

PTI

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Darjeeling blessed with the much needed Rain

By on March 20, 2009 in First Flush, Personal Ramblings

The grim attire which every tea garden in Darjeeling had worn was relieved today with some amount of rainfall. Apart from the tea industry’s worried look, each home in Darjeeling was suffering from acute water crisis.

All the homes in Darjeeling get its water supply from the reservoirs situated in Senchel, 10 km away from Darjeeling. Two reservoirs namely the North and South were almost empty and the natural resources or springs which fed it had begun to dry up due to insufficient rainfall. The South reservoir had almost dried up and the North only had about 8.7 feet of water when the actual figure of about 12 feet is necessary for adequate supply.

The Darjeeling Municipality was supplying water every 15-20 days to sustain the adverse situation. It had slowly compelled the residents to buy water brought from far away natural spring resources by tankers.

Darjeeling seemed clad in dust and the prevailing dry condition resembled the polluted Indian plains. I had chapped skin and had to use moisturizers to keep it going smooth :)

Hope today’s rain will solve the problem for a while, but we need more rain.

Darjeeling got the rain – what about Darjeeling tea production now?
Definitely, the production quantity of Darjeeling will be low when we take in consideration of the time period of each tea season. If the rain had occurred during the winter season then there would be more time and hence more production of teas before the “banji” period entered. Now there is less time for bulk tea production, but this does not mean low quality.

According to Mr. S. Roy (Manager, Arya Tea Estate) and Mr. Sagar Rawat (Manager, Goomtee Tea Estate) – The production condition is at its peak with perfect soil and atmospheric temperatures, humidity, sunlight etc. and the only needed ingredient needed was water (rain). Now since all the needed things are in place, they are of the view that they will have top quality First Flush teas, though the production is going to be low.

It rained today – all the tea gardens which received the holy sprinkle are going to do “full flushing” from Monday or Tuesday.

In short – Now the garden spirits are high though, Darjeeling Tea production will be low, but quality wise it will be high – After all Darjeeling Tea is not quantity but quality.

First FLush Darjeeling Tea 2009
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