Description
Darjeeling Rohini Summer Golden Tips is a complex Second Flush Darjeeling from Rohini Tea Estate. It is defined by the presence of plenty of golden tips in the dry leaves, indicating the tippy nature of the tea. Made exclusively from AV2 cultivar plants, it produces a complex liquor with a fruity profile that is light and balanced. This small batch was harvested and processed in June 2022.
You may also be interested in our other 2022 harvest teas from Gopaldhara and Rohini Tea Estates.
Like all our Rohini and Gopaldhara teas, we source it directly from Rishi Saria, the owner and director of Gopaldhara and Rohini Tea Estates. Rohini Tea Estate is located along the route that connects the towns of Siliguri and Kurseong. Surrounded by a beautiful natural environment, this estate produces tea from relatively young trees. The estate has had a chequered past, not actually producing any tea for about 30 years after it was shut in 1962. Recently it has been replanted with young tea trees, so sometimes it is referred to as the youngest tea estate in Darjeeling. It is now going from strength to strength and is producing more and more interesting and higher quality teas. Most recently Rohini have been elevating the quality and flavours by focusing on smaller hand processed batches and more unusual types of tea.
It is made entirely from leaves picked from AV2 plants. The AV2 plant name stands for Ambari Vegetative 2, one of the various clonal plants popular in Darjeeling. AV2 is perhaps one of the most preferred clones in Darjeeling, even though it was originally developed in the plains. The popularity of this particular plants stems from the prominent fragrance and aroma of the finished tea. This plant is very prone to drought and insect attacks so the best teas come from plants grown at higher elevation in very good soil and that are picked during dry weather.
This Darjeeling Rohini Summer Golden Tips consists of handpicked and carefully processed wiry leaves that have plenty of golden tips, a single leaf and a bud. This tea is more oxidised than some other speciality batches from Rohini, leading to a classic black tea flavour that is complex and balanced. The dark amber liquor has a fruity and savoury aroma. The flavours are smooth with notes of malt, fruits, mangoes and plum jam. The aftertaste has a juicy mouthfeel with more fruity notes that progress onto citrus flavours. Makes us think of a sweet black tea with lemon as the lightly tannic citrus finish plays very nicely to the overall sweetness of the main flavour. We found this Darjeeling Golden Tips to be reminiscent of a very light Assam or a less malty Dian Hong rather than a Darjeeling tea. So we would urge anyone not sure about Darjeeling teas to definitely give this one a try!
This tea is best brewed at 90°C for 3 minutes and can be brewed 2+ times. Like all top grade teas from Gopaldhara and Rohini, you can try experimenting with gongfu brewing.