After our brief discussion about 2004 Darjeeling, I asked Upton their
opinion of the tea so far; they said:

"The report I was given is that the first flush season, taking place during
3 weeks in the early spring, started out very strong with ideal weather
conditions. Then, the weather turned cold and wet bringing the harvest to
a dead halt. This made for very stiff competition in vying for the high
grade product that was initially harvested. This competition along with
the weakness of the US dollar against the Indian rupee, Euro dollar and
English pound has resulted in a very high quality product with matching
high prices. We were lucky enough to secure more lots than the ones
already listed on our website. Look for these new selections to be posted
within the next several weeks as they arrive."

So what I hear them saying is that the initial tea is good, but there's not
much of it, with high prices as a result (US$25-30/100gm retail). I've only
tried the Namring so far - I thought it good, but not exceptional.

Has anyone else tried the new harvest yet? If so, what do you think?

--

Regards,
Dean

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"There are three principal ways to lose money: wine, women, and engineers.
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