Tea Profile: Darjeeling

Darjeeling’s glory is scarcity: tiny mountain gardens, steep, misted, cold, yield little but demand devotion. China-type bushes, hand-plucked shoots, Orthodox invoices, and fickle winds, sun, rain, altitude and season give each lot its personality. In great years, especially First Flush, the tea is flowery, astringent, often costly, and utterly incomparable.