New Release of IMO Certified Organic Nepal Black Tea | HOJO Online Speciality Tea Shop

We purchased interesting black tea from Nepal. The tea garden is located behind the Himalayan range, on the opposite side of Darjeeling.

IMO certified organic tea garden

Out of many tea gardens in Nepal, we selected Jun Chiyabari tea garden. This garden practices natural farming method. They use no nitrogen-based fertilizer and no pesticide. I noticed that their material quality is pretty ideal. Thanks to the natural farming practice, tea grows very slowly. As a result, it gives longer lasting taste and rich in flavor. Jun Chiyabari garden is also the IMO certified organic tea garden.

Maximum 2100m of elevation

Jun Chiyabari garden is located at 1650 – 2100m. The high mountain climate makes the taste of tea very rich and soft. At high elevation, tea garden is exposed to strong sunshine in a daytime, and tea trees effectively carry out the photosynthesis, while the temperature dropped drastically at night and the consumption activity in the tea tree is very slow at night. As a result, tea contained high poly phenol and mineral content, and it is reflected in the intensity of the after taste.

Long lasting flavor and Muscatel flavor

The characteristics of tea from Jun Chiyabari tea garden is the long lasting after taste. Generally, the flavor of their tea lasts longer than the most of Darjeeling teas. In addition, their autumnal teas emit the delightful muscatel flavor. The muscatel flavor is produced as the result of green flies which usually appear a lot in a tea garden that practices natural farming. Once tea leaf is attacked by the particular fly, it generates substance called terpene which subsequently transformed into muscatel flavor during fermentation.
Generally, the muscatel flavor becomes stronger after tea is matured for a longer period of time. For further maturation purpose, we would like to suggest you to keep tea with oxygen absorber. It is essential to remove oxygen for the development of the ideal flavor.
In particular, the flavor of the First Flush tea is distinctive when it is further matured. In country with equatorial climate like Malaysia, tea produced flavor reminiscent of grapes in 3-5 years time. In our shop in Malaysia, the aged-First Flush tea is always more popular tea than the fresh First Flush.

Unique selection following our preference

As the characteristics of Jun Chiyabari garden, their teas are generally baked longer at higher temperature during the drying process. As a result, a number of their teas give slight woodsy flavor and baked aroma. Some people may enjoy this characteristic. Nevertheless, I personally prefer tea that gives refreshing floral or fruity flavor. So out of many batches of tea, we have carefully selected the particular batch that undergone the least heat treatment, and it has refreshing floral bouquet that suits our preference.

Autumnal Muscatel Jun Chiyabari Estate

This tea is manually hand-picked in autumn. During the process, the tea leaves are carefully hand-rolled by skilled tea master into the naturally curled-shape. The leaf appearance is reminiscent of Oriental Beauty from Taiwan. Unlike spring tea, this autumn tea gives quite strong muscatel flavor. Since it is an autumn tea, it gives much mellow and gentle drinking sensation as compared to Darjeeling second flush (which is also well-known for the muscatel flavor).

Nepal First Flush Jun Chiyabari Estate

This is the spring tea harvested earliest in the season. It gives long lasting after taste, with fresh floral flavor and muscatel undertones. The flavor is similar to the Darjeeling First Flush. But its after taste is much stronger.

Brewing tips

Tea leaf has a finer size, please brew it in a shorter time.
Firstly preheat the teapot with boiling hot water. Add 3g of tealeaf per 150ml of water. For first brewing, steep for about 10 seconds, and for subsequent brewing, steep for a few seconds.