Darjeeling

This prestigious tea was named after the Indian city of Darjeeling, the center of Bengali tea cultivation and once the starting point of a caravan route to Tibet. Even today this ancient city is still best known for the very best quality tea of the same name. The tea cultivation in the West Bengal Darjeeling district goes back to Englishman Arthur Campbell (1805-1874) who experimented with different types of tea in his private garden in the wider Darjeeling area.

This led to establishing the Darjeeling Company in 1864 which was renamed in 1896 to Darjeeling Consolidated Tea Company. Nowadays, Darjeeling is the brand name for every tea variety coming from this region, be it green, white, yellow tea or oolong. In particular, Darjeeling tea usually goes by the description of a fermented tea, combining the properties of oolong and black tea but it is most commonly associated with black tea.

Depending on the harvesting period, it is available in several varieties: First Flush, Second Flush, Monsoon and Autumnal Flush. Since Darjeeling has always been one of the more expensive teas whose rare blends can retail for up to $200 per kilogram, there are serious problems with counterfeiting and adultered blends.

Every year about 40.000 tons of tea is sold worldwide as Darjeeling, while only 8.000 to 11.000 tons of the original tea is actually produced. To prevent this so-called Darjeeling piracy, the Tea Board of India was established in 1953 with the purpose of awarding seals, certifications and license numbers only to those whose blends are made with 100% pure Darjeeling tea.