TATA or Lipton Green Label DJ?

Difficult to compare. I buy them interchangeably. TATA has different variety. As does Brooke Bond. Make sure they say Darjeeling on the package. Some also say "Export Quality".

Try them out. You can't be risking that much for $4.

Wondering if you can get Makaibaris "Apoorva" in the US. IMO one of the nicest ready-packed DJs out there, quite a bit of punch-body-briskness, bio-dynamically grown and fairly cheap.

I´m afraid that´s not enough, even with TATA (it should say something like "100% DJ", otherwise welcome to the flavor of Doaars and Terai teas). Only 10000 of those 40000 tons of so called and labelled DJs sold worldwide per year come from Darjeeling. Look out for the "Darjeeling logo" (google for an idea of what it looks like) of the Indian Tea Board to be a bit more on the safe side.

Best, Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

Wondering if you can get Makaibaris "Apoorva" in the US. IMO one of the nicest ready-packed DJs out there, quite a bit of punch-body-briskness, bio-dynamically grown and fairly cheap.

I´m afraid that´s not enough, even with TATA (it should say something like "100% DJ", otherwise welcome to the flavor of Doaars and Terai teas). Only 10000 of those 40000 tons of so called and labelled DJs sold worldwide per year come from Darjeeling. Look out for the "Darjeeling logo" (google for an idea of what it looks like) of the Indian Tea Board to be a bit more on the safe side.

Best, Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

I haven't seen it here in the US, but I've drunk a fair amount of it. It's all my sister-in-law in Calcutta drinks.

Sorry, but I found it disappointing. It had briskness, sure, but not a lot of what I think of as Darjeeling character. It's possible that at the grocery in Calcutta where it was bought the stock doesn't turn over fast enough for it to be fresh, but honestly I found Sikkim tea better than this.

/Lew

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Thanks for the info, I have never seen "Apoorva" in any of my Indian markets.

The other night I had a wonderful conversation with the owner of our local Indian restaurant after our meal about life in India, food, tea, and politics... I thought you might be interested. He was telling me how he just returned and he was there for a month, and how he hadn't even seen a glimpse of a cloud and it was in the 90's. We began talking about how the high-tech industry is really taking off (since I work in IT) and he was explaining how it is starting to introduce stress and faster paced life as well as the need to work through the night due to the time difference to here for phone support. He also explained to me why their tea goes to Russia (which was news to me). He stated that they trade Coffee, Tea, and Cotton to Russia on a sort of barter economy in exchange for arms. America only sells on a credit like system and is partially responsible for the bankruptcy of Pakistan, and India wants no parts of that. He was also talking about President Bush's latest trip there and the motivation behind it from their perspective. All very interesting, and I could not disagree with one word the man said. He spends 3 months here in the US and 1 in India all year, and travels the world as well. I found it also interesting that of all the cities in the world, he picks Prague as the best by far. We had a great conversation and he was pretty impressed with my knowledge of India which is what got him to open up to me, he is normally very quiet and reserved. I had a blast and it was like I had been to India after hearing his insider's tales of the food/history/culture. It is now on my short list of places to travel to for sure, I have much more respect and understanding now.

- Dominic

Lew´, that might be the reason. I used to drink it as breakfast tea for some time, but my packs were definetely fresh, IMO a real DJ for little coin. I agree that some Sikkimese (only one estate - Temi) or Nepali ! teas surpass Apoorva in terms of quality but at what cost ? Any info (grade) on the Sikkimese tea you mentioned ?

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

I guess he´s not alone with that one. A truly terrific place to kill some time (and beers). Arrgn, that leaves me pondering over a potential favorite city of mine ...

OT ... schnipp ...

- Georgetown/Penang - Malaysia, my old favorite ... Malaysian multiculture at it´s finest, some of the best food I ever had, people (girls), colonial architechture, the ocean, a good selection of chinese teas and most probably the best selection of pipe tobaccos in Malaysia

... (Tromso/Norway, Mandalay/Burma, Yangshuo/China, Inverness/Scotland, good old Darjeeling, Kathmandu, Vancouver, Longyearbyen/Spitsbergen, Donegal/Ireland, ... soo many more, but then Í enjoy life in the sticks more than the cities.

Sorry for messing up the thread but what are your favorite places ?

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

Actually it was Temi. I got it in Gangtok last year in one of the small shops in the big street that shuts down to vehicular traffic late afternoons. I can't remember the price, but it seemed, like some other teas' prices, shockingly low at the time.

/Lew

Hey it was my thread, I can take it in any direction I'd like! :)

My personal favorite places are domestic. Assateague/Chincoteague Island, Maine (any of it), and Ridgway, PA. Ridgway is a little mountain town where I was fortunate enough to grow up in while it was still pristine, now it has lost it's innocence but still my favorite place on Earth. Time stands still while there, there are elk, bear, mile after mile of deep forrest, and even more miles of some of the best fishing known to man. A truly unique place. I prefer out of the way and rural areas, tourist traps hold no interest for me.

My goals to still hit are Guangzhou, Okinawa, India, Burma, London, Jamaica, and Hawaii.

- Dominic

California! Great place, very sunny, always something going on.

Ian

Dang Ian, used to live there (South San Jose / Santa Cruz area) for some time and couldn´t agree more. Time to come back for a while (and work on my rrrotten english).

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46'] (hot water in cup, Soledum in inhalator and 2ml of a homeopathic immunemodulator in my late night syringe, yummie :)

I think the Minutemen are from that area. (The band, not the soldiers.) Can't say I saw much of that area. I was always down in Anaheim and Orange.

Ian

I´m afraid that´s not enough, even with TATA (it should say something like "100% DJ", otherwise welcome to the flavor of Doaars and Terai teas). Only 10000 of those 40000 tons of so called and labelled DJs sold worldwide per year come from Darjeeling. Look out for the "Darjeeling logo" (google for an idea of what it looks like) of the Indian Tea Board to be a bit more on the safe side.

The folks they are buying from frequently are.

That said, there are some Darjeeling-style teas from Sikkim which are pretty good, and often cheaper than the Darjeeling-of-unknown-provenance.

--scott

would be "cheating" and misusing the Darjeeling moniker?

Yes. For example if the pack doesn´t say "100% Darjeeling" you can be pretty sure that the better part of those leaves has been plucked somewhere else. As mentioned before that doesn´t necessarily mean the stuff is bad.

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

Could you pull your strings ad find out which plantations are mostly used to make popular products like Lipton Green Label and Brooke Bond Supreme teas?

Or is it too mixed up and impossible to tell?

By the way, I have here a can of Green Label. It says

"The rare flavour of 100% pure Darjeeling tea"

"100% pure Darjeeling. High above the mist lines, in the soft shades of the Himalayas, the gentle rain and the cool mountain winds makes the soil porous and rich. Like none other. Only this unspoiled earth can give you the unique flavour of Lipton Green Label - the 100% pure Darjeeling Tea"

Congrats Aloke ! How is it ?

Indeed, the rain has been very gentle this year but I wonder where they found their "unspoiled" earth, there´s not too much left in the foothills ...

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

Aloke wrote:

The consistency of these commercial blends is amazing. Of course, this could be from last year crop. It's hard to say.

That's why I was hoping that your tea garden contacts would know where the big guns get their raw materials.