The 750ha-large Glenburn Estate resides in a river valley between the Rungeet and Rung Dung rivers at the foot of the Himalayas in a protected natural forest. The estate is managed by the Prakash family and maintained with the help of 350 tea pickers from 8 of the surrounding villages. During the 9-month harvest period, the tea pickers work in the early morning hours before the afternoon heat sets in, and the tea leaves are then processed immediately in the afternoon. Roughly 1,000 leaves are needed for 1 pound of tea.
The fresh first flush leaves have a high moisture degree of 75% that evaporates during the strictly monitored withering process when air is blown between the leaves. The tea is machine-rolled to open up the leaves, expose the leaf juices, and thus facilitate fermentation. The tea is fermented for a relatively short time, under constant supervision to ensure the full development of the flavour bouquet, which is light, fresh, floral and has a touch of citrus. In the last stage the tea is fully dried in an oven for 10-12 minutes and hand-packed into tea crates.
Each tea is made from a single day's harvest from a specific harvest season: moonshine, first flush, second flush, monsoon, or autumn flush. Each tea therefore has its own character that is influenced by the prevailing weather conditions and is noticeably different from a standardised "single malt" flavour bouquet.
The Glenburn Darjeeling is a hybrid of the China and Clonal varieties and is orthodoxly fermented without mechanical cutting of the leaves (CTC: crush, tear, curl).
Single Origin
This tea is exclusively sourced from the above mentioned tea farm in Teesta, Darjeeling, India. Sourced directly from the tea estate.
