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Indian Himalayan First Flush Loose Leaf Black Tea

$34.00
$34.00
$0.85 per cup
Sale Sold out
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A new whole leaf first flush black tea from the Wah tea garden, in Himachal Pradesh. This northernmost region of India is not as famous as Darjeeling, but every bit as wondrous - known as the Land of the Gods. Picked at dawn in the first days of spring, this is the brightest tea you’ll ever drink.

Tasting Notes

Fresh, bright and clean. Elegant vegetal notes of fresh pea pod lead to tropical notes of mango and pineapple. Like the first rays of sun on your face in the morning - the potential of autumn released in spring.

Origin

Himachal Pradesh, India

Cost Per Cup

$0.85 per cup based on 2.5g of tea per 150ml of water and 2 infusions.
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🍃 HIGH IMPACT TEA

While all of our teas are the best available from around the world, this tea makes a vital socioeconomic impact on the community that grows and crafts it.

With these high-impact teas, we are shining a light on the people who most need our support.

A prosperous nation like Japan, with a long history and strong domestic market, commands great prices for great tea. Land, labour and expertise are highly valued. Demand for the most famous teas often outstrips supply and buyers compete to get their hands on the best.

For less fortunate economies, where even safe drinking water is not a given, tea is an export. Origins are obscured. Terroirs hidden. If all we are shown is a packet and a brand with no connection to the people and place it comes from, we remain ignorant of its impact.

Many people do not know that much of the tea they drink comes from places like Malawi in East Africa. They are unaware that land, labour and expertise are given little value; that their tea is traded as a commodity by giant multinational agribusinesses, bought for low cost and high quantity over quality; that the farmer has no control of the price. Nor do they know that people in tea communities often do not live beyond their 50s.

It is our business to change that, to establish a value market for their incredible craft and amazing terroirs, much like fine wine.

Recommended Infusion Guide

  • Quantity

    Use 0.1 oz of leaf per 5.5 fl oz of water.

  • Temperature

    For the optimum infusion use 176°F water.

  • Time

    Infuse for 1-2 minutes, tasting regularly.

  • Infusions

    This tea can be infused at least twice. With each careful infusion, different subtleties of flavour are revealed.

1 3

More infusion tips

How to infuse your tea is very personal, and these are just our recommendations based on experience. Please experiment with these variables to your heart's delight. These are our recommendations, not hard and fast rules. The most delicious tea is the one you love.

Our guide uses a standard tea cup size (150ml/5.5 oz) as a measure, please adjust the quantity of leaf accordingly for less or more water. Our whole loose leaves are of such a high quality that you can infuse our teas at least twice, and the second infusion is often better than the first, with different flavours revealed as the leaf softens. If you prefer your tea stronger, add more leaf, don’t leave it for longer (this will just make it bitter).

Crafted by India’s next generation of tea pioneers, from a legendary terroir

This first flush gets harvested around 4am to allow withering & processing in the cool night, mountain air, before sunrise. This care and attention and incredible dedication is detectable in every sip.

Surya and Upsana live and work in this remote but magical region. As the fourth generation to develop Wah, they work alongside Surya’s father, Deepak Prakash. They have made the switch to producing organic, orthodox tea.

The garden has been making orthodox tea according to organic principles since 2019.

The biggest challenge was to convince Surya’s father to lower the farm’s output because making organic tea inevitably lowers the farm’s output. Now, they aim to produce half of the previous output of the garden. But more than double the quality.

Shipping, delivery & more...

US Shipping Information

US Tracked Delivery from $9

FREE US Tracked Delivery when you spend $50 or more

US Express Tracked Delivery from $10

FREE US Express Tracked Delivery when you spend $100 or more

US Courier Delivery from $11

Availability of rates depends on location and order weight. For a complete overview of our shipping rates please see our delivery page. Prices displayed at the checkout are based on live currency exchange rates and may differ slightly from the listed price.

Returns

The Rare Tea Lady believes that our teas are some of the greatest in the world, and that our range and service are second to none.

In the isolated case that you are not completely satisfied with any product you purchase from our website, please get in contact with our customer services team to discuss returning your order.*

In most instances, we will give you a full refund of the item's cost, excluding postage. We may ask you to return the item to us.** Customers in the UK & European Union have statutory rights not affected by this guarantee, but any bags of tea must remained sealed for this to be in effect.

*We only accept returns/refunds for tea within 30 days of receipt, because it is impossible for us to know if the tea has been stored correctly.

**We will endeavour to ask for pictures where possible - but if you have changed your mind and are outside of any statutory rights time period, return postage is payable by you.

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