Everest, a super long and large-leaf Nepalese tea, is from Jun Chiyabari Tea Garden, a small & exclusive single estate located in the mid north-eastern Himalayan hills of Nepal.
This tea’s leaf is elegant, beautiful and wholly intact; a sign of careful hand-plucking and gentle handling during manufacture. Everest shows some tip, in a perfect proportion, that adds crispness and finesse to its otherwise rich and smooth style. This tea is a true artisan presentation and must be measured carefully so that all its balanced flavor and full taste is drawn out in the steeping. Being such a lofty tea in volume, it requires either measure by weight or a generous scoop. If steeped short it can easily be re-infused for a second steeping that is almost the equal of the first, or it will steep nicely for a long first infusion. However you choose to prepare it, Everest will delight the palate and the eye.
Our Everest Hand-Rolled Tea is a second flush tea. The second flush produces some of the best black teas from this region.
Jun Chiyabari’s tea gardens are located at 6,000 to 6,500 feet in the ‘hills’ around Hile, a typical Himalaya hill-town, about 15 km west of Ilam (the major tea-producing region of eastern Nepal) not far from Sikkim and Darjeeling to the east, and Sagarmatha (Mt Everest) to the north.
The garden’s tea director says: “Hand-rolling is a laborious and time consuming task that requires patience, tender touch and a passion for creation from the person rolling the leaves to ensure that everything is perfect. This is why only women are selected for this delicate task.”
It’s tough but I have to watch it too.
Things are going down the way they did when I first got into tea in 2006. (Took a break from 2010-now.) Basically, I went crazy trying 4 million different teas for a couple of months, and then I settled into just a few.
I have quite a bit of tea, but I have favorites and a limited amount to spend on tea. I keep an eye open for free samples (the last tea I reviewed freom teajo was one of those). Value to me is also in the quality. It’s a waste if I don’t like the tea or can’t resteep it. A few good friends to swap with are valued assets, especially when you find ones that have similar taste in tea or who have interests that you’d like to try. When I cup out artificially flavored tea, my enjoyment increased.