Blog

We have heard the ominous words from Darjeeling – there is going to be no second flush (summer harvest) this year. We were hoping hard that somehow the political troubles that have engulfed Darjeeling since early June would ease off and second flush production would resume. But last week we heard from our partner tea gardens in Darjeeling and they gave us the dreaded news.

The Darjeeling hills have been engulfed in political turmoil, bringing normal life, including tea production, to a standstill for nearly a month now. Around five people have lost their lives in alleged police firings. The second flush, or the summer harvest of tea, for this year is close to being written off. This would be perhaps for the first time in nearly three decades that political troubles have scuppered a major tea season in Darjeeling.

One of the interesting developments after our Leaf Tea Bar was selected by CNN as one of the top 11 tea houses in the world, was receiving queries from many tea producers around the world. They wanted to know if we would like to feature their fine teas at our shop. One such missive came from an unexpected place – Colombia.

Last month we were truly humbled and honored when Leaf Tea Bar​ found itself listed as one of the World's 11 Best Tea Houses by CNN​. The news came out of the blue. For the first few moments we were just so stunned that we did not know what to say or think.

A rare presentation on Japanese Tea Ceremony or chanoyu was held recently at Leaf Tea Bar, a newly opened tea house in South Wedge. A booked out audience of tea enthusiasts participated in the ceremony that was led by Rie Maywar, a local certified chanoyu instructor.

We have named our upcoming presentation on Japanese tea ceremony, Chigusa. The event takes place this Sunday 01/22 at Leaf Tea Bar. If you are curious what Chigusa means, it is but a name of a clay jar that was used to store tea in Japan. No, not a type of a jar, but a jar that dates back to the 14th Century and was named Chigusa by tea men who had fallen in love with it. Today, the jar sits in the Smithsonian Institution.

Amidst the political whirlwind of 2016, we took a significant step in our business with the opening of Leaf Tea Bar in a charming Rochester, NY neighborhood. This brick-and-mortar avatar of Happy Earth Tea came after nearly 12 years of nurturing the dream which began with our first business, Darjeeling Tea Exclusive founded in 2005 in Darjeeling, India.  

This 1890 photograph from the archives of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, shows one JC Oswald (third person from the left), at a tea tasting room in Fuzhou in China's Fujian province. According to the photographer's caption, in order to consistently judge the color of the tea and the tea leaves, a tea-tasting room would face north and be top-lit, just like an early photographer’s studio.

It is always exciting to receive reviews from our customers. Tea is a personal experience – as someone rightly described, each cup is a voyage - so descriptions of the same tea by different people can vary. And, that enhances our own experience of the cup.