The Friday Review.....Margaret's Hope First Flush Darjeeling

Hello there,

We are rather excited this week at Tea With Me and Friends Towers as we have been sent a rather wonderful tea chest to sample....

Margaret Hope's First Flush Darjeeling
Whittard

Margaret's Hope Estate was founded in 1865 and is one of Darjeeling's oldest tea gardens, found in the foothills of the Himalayas. The Estate is named after the founder's daughter Margaret, who visited the estate from England and fell in love with the Darjeeling tea. Sadly, Margaret died from a tropical disease on her return trip to England and never realised her dream of making the tea gardens her home. To this day the Estate preserves the traditional methods of the founders.

This wonderful little chest contains "First Flush" leaves....the very first leaves of 2015. It's the first leaves which are considered one of the finest teas to be produced worldwide. So all in all this was going to be a pretty special cuppa.....

The chest itself is so cute.....

Margaret Hope's First Flush Darjeeling

 -Whittard

The tea is cultivated at altitudes of 915-1830m, mainly from the original China Jat bushes which would have been growing in Margaret’s day. The leaves have tinges of light green in them.

It's worth noting that a first flush crop is very dependent on the weather conditions - too much or too little rain could ruin a crop easily.

Margaret Hope's First Flush Darjeeling
Whittard

This tea should be enjoyed without milk and only brewed for a couple of minutes to preserve the delicate flavour.

Once brewed the tea is a beautiful golden colour, which reminded me of a glass of champagne. It has a really fresh and clean flavour which is slightly sweet. It's very refreshing.

Margaret's Hope First Flush Darjeeling
Whittard

We thoroughly enjoyed this tea and would recommend it to anyone looking for a very special brew. It is available from Whittards, visit their website for more information.

We'd like to thank Whittards for sharing this very special tea with us - however please not that our taste buds have not been affected and all opinions expressed here are our own.

Have you been lucky enough to enjoy a First Flush tea? If so we'd love to hear from you...

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna