Clik here to view.
Best wishes for 2013
In India, the gesture of putting your hands together is a very polite way of saying hello. As we start 2013, I also bring my hands together to welcome in another year, and hope that yours will be full...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The first selections of first-flush Darjeelings
As happens every year at the same time, the first samples of first-flush Darjeelings are starting to arrive. There are never many during the first week, then during the peak of the season, around the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The teas and landscapes of Assam: an incredible contrast
Assam teas have scents of honey, tobacco and spices and a very pronounced aromatic profile, unlike some of the flat countryside in this region. The teas are particularly astringent, and here too, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The frenzied pace of the spring harvests
My selection of first-flush Darjeelings is over, the Nepalese season is in full flow, and then it’s the turn of the new-season China teas, before the first Japanese Ichibancha are ready. Between 1...
View ArticleClik here to view.
First visit to Poobong
Vertiginous slopes and lingering mists form the scenery of Darjeeling. Out walking, a tea plucker appears in the thick fog. She climbs amongst the tea plants with astonishing agility. Poobong, a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Darjeeling Toy Train knows how to take its time
I have written before about the Darjeeling Toy Train, and this is its home. Its adventures continue as I write my blog. Sometimes it crosses my path, at other times it runs alongside me. It moves in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Turning our backs on danger
On a visit to a Buddhist monastery, I came across this monk sipping a fizzy drink, his back turned on a store of gas bottles. It made me think of the state of the world. We live as if there is no...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The tea plant that didn’t stop growing
Due to the harvesting of its leaves, a tea plant does not get bigger; instead its trunk thickens. So a tea field looks more like a bonsai forest. But left unchecked, Camellia Sinensis and Camellia...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Knowing how to appreciate bitterness
Bitterness is the only intelligent flavour, Olivier Roellinger told me as we tasted a selection of teas together, when I warned him that some darjeelings have a touch of bitterness. It is a flavour...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It also rains elsewhere in summer
If you are finding the temperatures a bit cool this month, take note that that Western Europe is not the only place where it’s raining. In Northern India and Nepal, July and August are rainy months....
View Article
