DARJEELING TEA
It’s almost a 200 years history of Tea planting which started in India in 1841 by Archibald Campbell. In the Indian district of Darjeeling , a civil surgeon of the Indian Medical Service. Campbell was transferred as superintendent in 1839 from Nepal. In the year 1841, he brought a few seeds of the Chinese tea plant (Camellia sinensis) from Kumaun and began to experiment with tea plantations in Darjeeling. Today that has become the largest Tea producers of the world with impeccable quality and flavor.
Darjeeling tea is primarily the tea cultivated in Darjeeling district, Kalimpong District in West Bengal, India and exported across the world. It is primarily processed as black, green, white and oolong tea. Traditionally speaking, Darjeeling tea is classified as black tea; however, the modern Darjeeling style employs a hard wither (35–40% remaining leaf weight after withering), which in turn causes an incomplete oxidation for many of the best teas of this designation, which technically makes them a form of oolong. Many Darjeeling teas also appear to be a blend of teas oxidized to levels of green and black. Still, Darjeeling oolong and green teas are becoming more commonly grown and easier to avail, and a growing number of tea estates are also producing white teas as well.
When properly brewed, the Darjeeling tea yields a thin-bodied, light-golden infusion with a faint floral aroma. The flavor can include a tinge of astringent tannic specialties and a musky spiciness sometimes described as “muscatel”. Unlike the other varieties of Indian teas, Darjeeling tea is normally made from the small-leaved Chinese variety of Camellia sinensis , rather than the large-leaved Assam plant .
After the sanctioning of Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection Act, 1999) in 2003, Darjeeling tea became the first Indian product to receive a GI tag, in 2004–05 through the Indian Patent Office.
