Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/658240
60 STiR tea & coffee industry international / Issue 2, 2016 (April/May) Flavorful slow growing high-altitude tea plants Tea is terraced in the Ilam tea hills where misty micro climates closely resemble conditions in nearby Darjeeling, India. high quality tea varietals brought in by farmers who migrated here from other villages in Ilam district, is situated at 6,500 feet (1,981 meters) just above Jasbirey Village. Unlike some of the other Nepali estates, where workers are paid a wage to pick and process the tea, Sandakphu is wholly owned by the farmers, and the self-employed smallholders believe that the only way to achieve top quality teas is for control of the land, cultivation of the bushes, and processing of the tea to remain with them. It is in their interest to harvest the finest leaf for processing and to produce the best teas possible. The local growers are also shareholders in the processing unit built by the Subbas and it is inside this beautifully designed, small-scale factory that the Sandakphu tea makers craft the rarest of Ne- pal's teas. The aim here is to employ more women at all levels and to ensure that they have oppor- tunities to hold positions of authority where rel- evant. The factory currently has a female finance manager and a female factory manager and San- dakphu Teas are marketed by Subbas marketing company called "Tea Direct" (www.teadirect.org). The teas vary in style and flavor profile from the country's traditional seasonal black teas and offer tea lovers aromas and flavors that are unex- pected and deeply satisfying. Careful research and experimentation has allowed the Jasbirey Village tea makers to take advantage of the changing sea- sons and to work hand in hand with nature to en- courage the best possible flavors from the leaves. The ruby black, with its dark, reddish-brown curled leaves, is made by the women of Jasbirey Village in their homes and the slow oxidation that takes place at these high misty elevations gives the tea liquor its rich malty aroma and roasted malt and caramel flavor. The Himalayan hand rolled black yields amber liquors with hints of orchids and wild mountain flowers. Himalayan Gold, the North American Tea Championship black tea winner of 2015, is made during the monsoon when high tempera- tures and heavy rains usually produce teas that are rather plain. But this Sandakphu tea, picked at the time of year when bees take shelter from the rain in the nearby forest, is oxidized slowly for several hours and then wood fired and, against all expec- tations of monsoon teas, gives liquors that have a wonderful complex character with wild honey flavors. Khumbu black took three years to develop and its very unusual black-brown dry leaves have a remarkable dark green luster and yield an orange- red liquor with powerful pine and citrus notes. Sandakphu black pearl is crafted by a process of withering, rolling, long oxidation, rolling and dry- ing in a machine that shapes the leaves into tiny, half-moon pellets, followed by wood firing. The liquors are coppery red, mild and honey sweet. To make white orange, silvery buds with one leaf are gathered during mid-summer or in the depth of autumn and are withered, hand-rolled, rested, machine-rolled, dried over low heat, rested again, then fired to increase the flavor and prolong the shelf life. The quality of these impressive Sandakphu teas is increasing all the time and they offer tea lovers an array of beautiful leaf shapes and intrigu- ingly tantalizing flavors. They and other beautiful- ly crafted teas from Nepal deserve their growing fame and should be included on tea retail shelves, in website listings and on the menus of tea loung- es, tea bars, and tearooms all over the world.