I expanded my palate horizons a bit this week and picked up the first estate-specific Darjeeling I've tried, offered at Indigo Tea Company. It won't be a revelation to those of you who are already well-steeped in the traditional Indian teas and their nuances, but for myself, it's uncharted territory. I've enjoyed Indigo's Darjeeling blend, and I have probably sipped teas elsewhere that were once marketed as Darjeelings, but may have been imposters. (I admit I may never truly know until my own palate is a bit more refined). What took me so long to take the leap, you ask?
What caught my attention with this one is that it's organic, and about $2 more expensive than it's single-estate counterpart, which is to be expected. A Makaibari Estate second flush 2011 Darjeeling, to be precise. I like the idea of buying and supporting organic agriculture, though it isn't always easy to know what's "truly" organic and worth the extra cost versus things that might fit the criteria in some small way but are otherwise run-of-the-mill. I took a blind leap, not knowing anything yet about Makaibari.
Once home, I steeped the first few pots and fell in love. It's got a slightly floral aroma and cup note that is indeed different from the Darjeeling blend from the same shoppe. It's got a deepness to it, could be the almost grape-like quality that's classic Darjeeling, but it doesn't have a heavy or rich mouthfeel. Just wonderful.
And then there's the second part of the story where I did a little research and discovered more about the Makaibari Estate. Turns out it's the largest and oldest tea plantation in Darjeeling, still family-run and also the first to go truly organic. A popular tourist spot, and a bit avant-garde in the fact that there are women hired as supervisors, which isn't so common in that part of the world.
You can find out more at the Makaibari website, and I encourage you to watch the youtube video series that interviews the estate's current manager/owner. The organic philosophy is explained in more detail, you can see where the spiders and other rainforest animals have co-habited with the tea plants. Fruits and other types of crops share the mountainside in a departure from the monoculture trend.
I'm sure there are other estate-specific Darjeelings out there to try and maybe tastier teas yet to be sipped, but I'm happy to know that such a large and old plantation can still manage to find a way to be organic and offer a fine quality tea. As to the politics of its workforce and whether there's improvement to be made - that's hard to say. There's been no shortage of political turmoil in the region, and I've yet to come across an online source that discusses tea processing from the worker's point of view, but any place that's willing to trust women in supervisory roles has to have something positive going on.
One last side note: in watching the Makaibari documentary, I learned that the same tea is also sold in France under the Monoprix label. That's meaningful to me personally, as I find myself in France every once in a while, and I now know where I can go to get a quality cup of tea without stopping at a special tea cafe. Monoprix is a national supermaket chain, sort of like an American Target or Wal-Mart.
c:_:
"...such a large and old plantation can still manage to find a way to be organic and offer a fine quality tea."
ReplyDeleteBeing organic is one of the points that used to set Makaibari Estate apart, but in recent years, more and more tea estates in Darjeeling convert to organic agriculture (which is a great thing). Drinking single estate teas is the only way to get to know Darjeeling teas; it will open a whole new world for you. But watch your wallet, it can easily become an expensive hobby...
Thanks, Jo! I do get the impression that my discoveries are just beginning, and I hope that continued transformation to organic in Darjeeling might help convince other world regions that organic farming can be done successfully on a large scale. So far in the U.S., the organic movement is limited to smaller farms and cooperatives.
ReplyDeleteI really like indigo tea company!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this post...reading this inspired me to write a post of my own about Makaibari Estate - My Favorite Darjeeling Estate.
ReplyDeleteI also have a response to your comment about the scale of organic farming in the U.S.
It is not necessarily a bad thing that the organic movement is limited to smaller farms and cooperatives. "Organic" farming is not the be-all and end-all of sustainable agriculture. An operation is not necessarily more sustainable just because it's organic certified and because another operation isn't.
True sustainable agriculture encompasses much more than just organic certification. For example, you can have a monoculture of genetically-identical crops and have it be organic certified, but this sort of practice isn't very sustainble.
It's important to think critically about what ideal future we envision. A widespread practice of big monoculture "organic certified" farms owned by big corporations is not the ideal future I want to imagine. I'd rather imagine ones in which there are no big corporations dominating agriculture...instead in which our agricultural system is made up up small farms and cooperatives. So, instead of imagining the scale of the farm increasing, imagine the number of small farms and cooperatives increasing. This will ultimately be more sustainable.
Monoculture is part of the problem.
@zach - a good point, but organic certification of larger estates is simply one place to start.
ReplyDeletePart of the problem with battling monoculture is infrastructure. In the U.S. at least, we farmed ourselves out of the equation to where there are literally millions of people living far enough away from arable land that they don't have what they see as "viable" options for getting what they need. We all aren't yet able to grow enough diversity of vegetables to sustain our nutritional needs, let alone satisfy our culinary curiosity with multiple varieties of teas and other so-called "luxuries" - we depend on larger agriculture to bring the goods to us, and the sooner more of those larger farms make the choice to grow organically, it can only improve the situation from what it currently is.
This is also why I subscribe to two tea CSA's - smaller farms that each grow their own tea specialties, many of them organic, but not all. Especially with the radition concerns in Japan that are apparently reaching down into Shizuoka prefecture - it's more important than ever to keep those smaller farms sustainable as well.
Hello, I was interested in your comment "Turns out it's the largest and oldest tea plantation in Darjeeling, still family-run and also the first to go truly organic" where did you find this information?
ReplyDeleteIf you read the links I've included on the page, you'll find where I found this information - there's a documentary, the plantation's web site, and if you Google it, you'll notice they're not the only people discussing this plantation.
DeleteIf you have different information, please feel free to share.