This First Flush black tea from Jun Chiyabari Estate is a tea with a sweet floral aroma, with a hint of honey-like sweetness. This tea is made from naturally grown tea leaves, resulting in a rich aftertaste and a lingering fragrance. It is also recommended for iced tea. To make iced tea, we suggest preparing a concentrated brew and then diluting it with chilled water (or cold-brewing), rather than steeping it directly in cold water.

 

Jun Chiyabari Tea Garden, which practices organic and natural farming

Among the many tea gardens in Nepal, HOJO chose Jun Chiyabari tea garden. The reason is that while many other Nepalese tea gardens grow tea with fertilizers, Jun Chiyabari tea gardens is an exceptional. This particular tea garden practices natural farming method and the quality of tea is outstanding. In this tea garden, only plant-derived compost is used, and they do not use any nitrogen-based fertilizer. So, the tea grows slowly, and accumulates a lot of tea substances. Tea gives a long-lasting finishing, strong aftertaste and a rich taste. One of the owners has also visited my store. He is actively practicing natural farming method, and his attitude is well-reflected in the quality of the tea.

Up to 2100m above sea level

Jun Chiyabari Tea Garden is located at an altitude of 1650m to 2100m and produces high quality tea with a climate peculiar to alpine. At high altitudes, tea gardens are exposed to very strong sunlight during the day, promoting tea production activities, and the temperature drops sharply at night, slowing the rate of tea consumption (breathing rate), resulting in accumulation of polyphenols and minerals in tea.

Aroma of honey and a strong aftertaste

The characteristics of the tea in Jun Chiyabari Tea Garden are the long-lasting finishing and sweet honey-like aroma (muscatel flavor) produced by natural cultivation. Since the tea plantation has acquired organic certification by IMO, naturally no pesticides are used, and many planthoppers inhabit the tea plantation. The planthoppers suck the juice from tea leaf, and as a result, the tea produces a sweet scent reminiscent of muscat and honey. In particular, the longer it ages, the stronger the muscatel flavor. And, it is essential to store tea in anorexic condition (without oxygen) for long-term aging to get the ideal flavor. In addition, slightly fermented tea is more suitable for ultra-long-term aging.

Carefully selected tea that is not overheated during the drying process

A common practice in Jun Chiyabari tea garden is that during drying of tea leaf, it is heated to higher temperature compared to general Darjeeling teas. In Chinese tea, such a finish is called "Gao Xiang", which means tea is heated with higher temperature to produce a baked flavor. The finished tea has a faint aroma and a woody aroma. Some people like this kind of high-temperature treated tea, but I don't like this scent, so I carefully selected from nearly 100 types of tea, and  finally I selected my ideal tea which gives a transparent scent.

For this reason, we would like to introduce tea that has the unique characteristics of HOJO, unlike the tea produced in the Jun Chiyabari tea garden which is available in general market. Furthermore, when we received the tea, we gently dried the tea again to refresh the tea leaf and finish it with a sweet scent. Tea has a sweet honey-like flavor with a smooth and soft drinking sensation.