Collection: Darjeeling First Flush by Air 2022

There is sometimes a bit of fanfare around various "first fruits" of the season: think of Beaujoulais Primeur, the first new herring or lobster. For some enthusiasts that is a fun or interesting party.

For tea lovers from Darjeeling, India, the first tea of ​​the season is something special. There are several names for that first tea: Royal First Flush, Flugtee. There is not yet a good Dutch name, so we stick to First Flush by Air, or first harvest flown in by plane.

Origin

Darjeeling is located in North India, on the border of Nepal. It is, in terms of tea, a special location: the plantations are quite high in the mountains, at the foot of the Himalayas.

The idea of ​​the First Flush By Air started in the year 1960. Tea lovers all over the world could hardly wait for the first harvest after the winter season. Every year the tea has its own specific characteristics and taste.
The normal harvest comes to Europe by ship during the year. By quickly bringing (part of) the first harvest to Europe by plane, people could taste and enjoy the new tea sooner.

Nowadays, a selection of new hybrids of the tea bush are often cultivated especially for this First Flush to give this tea even more of a special character.

Difficult years

It has not been an easy few years in the Darjeeling Gardens. In 2017, the region experienced lengthy strikes. Many tea pickers and garden managers have also left for other regions in India. They were often better paying jobs compared to the work on the plantations. As a result, the Darjeeling Gardens faced a shortage of suitable workers.

This threatens the quality of the tea. When the bushes are ripe for harvest, you will need enough tea pickers to pick enough leaves. Otherwise the leaves will become too big, too thick and too hard. This affects its aroma and the sweetness of the tea leaf. The result is lower production and Darjeeling tea appears on the market with an inferior quality due to the late picking of the refined leaf. Due to the lower quality and lower production, prices and wages are under pressure again, which in turn leads to lower enthusiasm among employees. So a vicious circle.

The harvest in 2018 was very problematic. Due to the strikes in 2017, the bushes had grown too much and due to the lack of qualified employees, the yield was considerably lower than usual.

2022

This year we see a higher price for the tea. Under pressure from the changing world market, prices of coffee and tea and of food in general are rising.
The tea is nevertheless of high quality and the taste is special.