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No. 3

Margaret's Hope - Darjeeling Second Flush Loose Leaf Tea

Indian Black Tea

Full of fruity notes and classic Darjeeling tea muscatel character, this loose-leaf tea hails from the famed Margaret’s Hope Tea Estate at the foot of the Himalayas.

From: Kurseong, Darjeeling District, India

LOOSE LEAF TEA
Delivery Info

Shipping policy

 

 UK Deliveries

Method

Cost

Carrier

Transit time

Standard

£3.50, Free - over £35

Royal Mail

2-5 days, Tracked

Tracked

£6.50, Free - over £100

DPD

1-3 days, Tracked

Next-Working-Day

£9.95

DPD

Orders placed before 2pm, Delivered Monday - Friday, Tracked

Saturday

£15.00

DPD

Orders placed before 2pm, Saturday delivery, Tracked

 *Most deliveries will be made within the usual time frame, but some areas and services may experience delays.

 

European Deliveries


Currently, there are some delays with sending parcels to EU countries from the UK. This is due to the UK leaving the European Union. We will keep you updated with any notifications as they happen.

Please note that a tracking number is not provided for EU Standard deliveries. 

CUSTOMS CHARGES: All commercial goods arriving from the UK are subject to VAT, Import Duty and a handling fee in the country receiving the goods.

Method

Cost

Carrier

Transit time

Standard

From £5.50

Royal Mail

3-7 days, up to 21*, Not Tracked (Offered for orders less than £50 only)

Economy

From £5.50

Royal Mail

3-7 days, up to 21*, Not Tracked (Offered for orders less than £50 only)

Tracked

From £15.95

Fedex

3-5 days, up to 8*, Tracked

*Most deliveries will be made within the usual time-frame, but some areas and services may experience delays.

Customers Ordering From Ireland - Please Note: Due to recent restrictions we are unable to ship Chinese teas to Ireland at this present time.

 

Rest of the World

 

Method

Cost

Carrier

Transit time

Standard

From £4.00

Royal Mail

8-15 days, up to 30*, Not Tracked (Offered for orders less than £50 only)

USA tracked

From £15.00

Fedex

2-3 days, up to 7*, Tracked

ROW Tracked

From £18.95

Fedex

1-5 days, up to 5*, Tracked

 *Most deliveries will be made within the usual time frame, but some areas and services may experience delays.

 

International Buyers (Including EU) – Please Note:


Import duties, taxes, and charges are not included in the item price or shipping cost. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be before buying.

Customers Ordering From Ireland - Please Note: Due to recent restrictions we are unable to ship Chinese teas to Ireland at this present time.

If you have any questions, please contact us via sales@theteamakers.co.uk | 01322284923

*We aim to dispatch all orders within 1-2 days of receiving your request. However, this can vary during peak times and other conditions outside of our control. Therefore, the below estimates of shipping times have been provided by our couriers.

The origins of our single origin Margaret's Hope Tea Darjeeling Second Flush


With its warm, floral aroma, this second flush Darjeeling black tea is sourced from the prestigious Margaret's Hope Tea Estate in West Bengal, India and produces a delightful amber-coloured infusion that makes for refined all-day drinking. It is available as loose tea leaves and but not our tea bags.

Picked in summer, Darjeeling district second flush teas are famous for their distinctive full bodied muscatel flavour, and this mildly astringent example is no exception. An FTGFOP1 (FTGFOP1 Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe grade 1) tea, it's medium in strength and is mildly fruity. Characterised by brown and silvery rolled leaves, it offers beguiling muscatel and spiced-plum flavours. You can add a splash of milk or honey to this tea if you like, but Margaret's Hope Darjeeling is also delicious drunk black as a vegan tea.

This particular tea is harvested from AV2 clonal cultivar bushes which several of the region's top estates have been cultivating in recent years. While this is largely to help protect the region's tea industry against falling yields due to climate change, the result here is an outstanding tea with plenty of floral and fruity complexity.

Read more about the estate that this tea comes from


About Margaret's Hope Tea Estate


Margaret's Hope Tea Estate produces some of the most exquisite teas in India, if not the world. Located in the lower Kurseong subdivision of Darjeeling, the garden was established in the 1870s by a British man, one Mr Cruickshank, 30 years after the introduction of tea farming in the district.

Two rivers flow through the plantation where tea bushes -– mainly of the Chinese sinensis variety of the Camellia sinensis tea plant – grow at altitudes of 950-1,900m. This particular tea estate is famous for its natural beauty. As well as offering breathtaking views across to the Himalayas, the plantation is surrounded by ferns, trees, wildflowers, gushing streams, velvety moss, lichens and orchids.

The team at Margaret's Hope maintain the garden with environmentally friendly practices in mind, as evidenced by a thriving population of salamanders that occupy a lake within the garden.

As for the name of this wonderful tea? The story goes that when Cruikshank's daughter, Margaret, visited the tea garden, she fell in love with its stunning natural beauty and vowed to return. However, after Margaret died aboard the ship sailing her back to England, her heartbroken father renamed the garden Margaret's Hope, in her honour.


Alternatives to this delicious black tea


With its teas that range dramatically in flavour and style depending on flushes and different terroir, Darjeeling is a wonderful region for tea aficionados to explore. Our Darjeeling House Blend is another great option for all-day drinking, while Darjeeling Earl Grey offers the region's muscatel character with light citrus notes. 

You can find out more about Darjeeling and what makes its flushes so special in our Tea Journal.

Ingredients


Pure Indian black tea

Tasting notes


This tea offers a fresh floral aroma and bright orange infusion. A distinctly muscatel, honey rich and notes of peach with spiced plum mouthfeel.

Region


Darjeeling is the northernmost district in West Bengal, Eastern India. Nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, it is bordered by Nepal in the West, Sikkim state to the North, and Bangladesh on the South-eastern boundary. The eponymous city, 2,100m above sea level, is located on a long, narrow mountain ridge of the Lesser Himalayas.

Learn more about the Darjeeling Region of India

On a clear day, the city offers unparalleled views of Kanchenjunga (the world’s third highest mountain), and Mount Everest can also be seen from nearby Tiger Hill, which itself sits at 2,590m above sea level. The highest peaks in the district are part of the Singalila Ridge and reach 3,600m. Depending on the elevation, the climate is either Humid Subtropical (CFA) in the lower areas, or Subtropical Highland (Cwb) on the higher hills, with a Tundra climate (ET) on the higher mountains, and numerous microclimates along the steep relief.

The city itself enjoys a mild and temperate climate (Cwb), with average lows of 10°C in the winter, and average highs of 21°C in the summer. The summers are wet and overcast with high precipitation from May until September; and the winters are mild and clear. Winds are generally low throughout the year. The land between 1,000m and 2,000m is mostly used for cultivation: principally tea, but also rice, corn, wheat and cardamom. The slopes above 2,000m are covered in forests, with a mixture of semi-evergreen, temperate and alpine trees. The forest around the city of Darjeeling is home to rare, protected orchids.

The reserve forests are also home to small Indian civets, mongooses, badgers, as well as a conservation centre for the elusive and endangered red pandas. Teas from such altitudes are considered high-grown. Considering that Darjeeling is only 280 miles from Assam, it is remarkable that the two regions produce vastly different teas.

As well as climatic and topographic differences, soil quality varies. Whilst Assam is considered very fertile, Darjeeling soil is loose and poorly consolidated, with risks of landslides. But the steep slopes ensure efficient drainage, and the misty, wet summers with limited direct sunlight are ideal for the cultivation of the Camellia sinensis sinensis. The mild, dry winters also encourage a period of dormancy, so the new Spring leaves can burst with flavours (First Flush harvest).

How to brew

3 - 4g

3 - 4g

100°C

100°C

200ml

200ml

3 - 5mins

3 - 5mins

Margaret's Hope - Darjeeling Second Flush Loose Leaf Tea has a rating of 4.9 stars based on 53 reviews.