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Indian Himalayan First Flush Loose Leaf Black Tea

£22.99
£0.00 £22.99
£0.58 per cup
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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

£0.58 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 2.5g of tea per 150ml of water.

  • Temperature

    For the optimum infusion use 80°C 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...

Shipping Information

UK Shipping Rates
FREE UK Tracked when you spend £40 or more
FREE UK Express - Next Day* when you spend £60 or more
UK Tracked - Two Day Tracked £3.99
UK Express - Next Day* Tracked £5.49
UK Express - Next Day* Courier from £6.99

USA Shipping Rates
FREE DHL Tracked/DHL Plus Tracked when you spend $50 USD or more
US Tracked Delivery from $7.00
US Express Tracked Delivery from $8.00
US Priority Tracked Delivery from $11.00
US Courier Delivery from $11.00

Europe Shipping Rates
FREE Europe Tracked when you spend €70/DKK 515/CHF 65 or more
Europe Tracked Delivery from €5.95/DKK 45/CHF 6
FREE Europe Express Tracked when you spend €120/DKK 860 or more
Europe Express Tracked Delivery from €21.95/DDK 165/CHF 21
Europe Express Courier from €26.95/DKK 205/CHF 26

Canada Shipping Rates
FREE Canada Tracked Delivery when you spend $80 CAD or more
Canada Tracked Delivery from CAN$12.00
FREE Canada Express Tracked Delivery when you spend $120 CAD or more
Canada Express Tracked Delivery from CAN$14.00
Canada Express Courier Delivery from CAN$52.00

International Shipping Rates
FREE International Tracked when you spend £60 or more
International Tracked Delivery from £5.99
International Express Courier from £26.49

*Subject to next day cut-off and postcode location. 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. Prices quoted in £ GBP will be converted to your local currency if available.

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.

IOSS for EU Orders

Rare Tea Company uses IOSS (Import One Stop Shop) for EU orders placed on the website.

How IOSS works and how it is applied on the website.

The IOSS scheme allows us to collect VAT on personal orders* during checkout on your behalf, meaning that no VAT is due when your order is assessed by your local authority.

  • If the combined value of the products in your cart are equal to or below €150 (excluding tax), VAT will be included at the point of sale and you should not be charged any import VAT when your order arrives.**
  • Once the €150 threshold is exceeded VAT will be removed from the items in your cart and from this point onwards when your order ships you will be liable for local VAT, duties and import fees.***

To avoid unnecessary import charges, keep your orders under €150 (excluding tax and shipping). Tax is included on all applicable products at Rare Tea - if your order is applicable for IOSS tax will be shown at the checkout.

Valid for IOSS

Not valid for IOSS

Your order confirmation and shipping confirmation emails will also confirm whether your order is valid for IOSS.

As with all complex shipping methods, the IOSS system isn't foolproof, and orders that are valid for IOSS are occasionally incorrectly charged VAT by customs.

If an order shipped via IOSS and that you have paid VAT on does get incorrectly assessed by customs, please don't worry. It's usually just a mistake that can be fixed by contacting customs and explaining that the order shipped via IOSS with VAT already paid.

If this does happen to you then we suggest the following:

  1. Please contact us before speaking to customs.
  2. We will double check that the order was valid for IOSS.
  3. We will provide a VAT receipt and a shipping label as evidence.
  4. Contact your local customs for assistance, using the shipping label as evidence.
  5. If all else fails we will attempt to get our shipping provider to investigate, but this process can take a while.

*IOSS is not valid on orders for businesses and we do not recommend that you use any business address for your order (even if it is a personal order sent to your place of work) - customs authorities are likely to treat your package as a B2B shipment and ignore the IOSS status.
**This does not include any a) any duty charged when the item is cleared or b) special customs administration fees levied by customs for import. Within the EU tea is free from duty, but your region might have a different rules for non-tea items such as tins and teaware. Some governments have also introduced low-value consignment administration fees (either per order or per item) for orders under €150. Any duty or fees charged are payable by you, the customer before delivery via your local customs authority. We cannot refund these fees.
***In special cases where custom fees have been unexpected we have retroactively refunded these in select cases. As of the 15th February 2023 (the start of IOSS) we have discontinued this process.

What is IOSS?

The Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) is the electronic portal businesses can use since 1 July 2021 to comply with their VAT e-commerce obligations on distance sales of imported goods.

Up until the 1st July 2021, no import VAT has to be paid for commercial goods of a value up to €22. New VAT eCommerce rules abolished this provision as of 1st July 2021. Thus, from 1 July 2021, all commercial goods imported into the EU from a third country or third territory is subject to VAT irrespective of their value.

What is IOSS for?

IOSS allows suppliers and electronic interfaces selling imported goods to personal buyers in the EU to collect, declare and pay the VAT to the tax authorities, instead of making the buyer pay the VAT at the moment the goods are imported into the EU as it was previously the case (for products over €22).

What are the advantages of IOSS?

IOSS facilitates the collection, declaration and payment of VAT for sellers making distance sales of imported goods to personal buyers in the EU. The IOSS also makes the process easier for the buyer, who is only charged at the time of purchase, and therefore does not face any surprise VAT when the goods are delivered. If the seller is not registered in the IOSS, the buyer has to pay the VAT and usually a customs clearance fee charged by the transporter.

What countries does IOSS apply to?

IOSS applies to the EU member states of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

It does not apply to the EEA.

Are there any exclusions to IOSS?

IOSS does not apply to business purchases and our checkout cannot distinguish these from personal purchases - even if it is a personal order sent to your place of work. Customs authorities are likely to treat your package as a business shipment and ignore the IOSS status. It is likely you'll be charged both import duty, VAT and a fee for processing. If your order is valid for IOSS and contains a company in the shipping name, we will not be able to challenge any importation fees. If you reject a parcel in this scenario, then you will be refunded for your shipment excluding any postage you have paid.

IOSS is only valid on orders under €150 - please keep the total of your items (i.e. tea/teaware) under this value.

How much tax will I get charged?

Tax will be charged at the base VAT rate of the shipping country.

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