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Green tea, I agree with connoisseurs, is an acquired taste, and sadly I’d been taking too long to wrap my tea-loving tongue around it. My experiments with brewing Darjeeling green tea leaves at home have not gone too well (for reasons learnt later) and my taste buds were in serious jeopardy from the flavourless, odourless green-tea bag I have in office every day, imagining the polyphenols in it are doing a great job of keeping my system clean.
So I perked up when a bone china cup containing a sparkling clear liquid of a light straw colour was handed to me at the Sourenee bungalow. It had a faint woody aroma and tasted very mildly astringent, filling my mouth with a freshness like no green tea had ever done. At an altitude of 4,500ft, there was a nip in the evening air and every sip of that garden-fresh warm tea opened a door to a whole new green world.
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Then came another cup, this time with a “first flush clonal” black tea — a sweetish light golden brew with a lovely floral aroma. Cookies and sausages on the side, all made in the Sourenee kitchen.
Never heard of Sourenee? I hadn’t either, till t2 got an invitation to check out the holiday destination this April. It’s “one of the smallest” tea gardens in Darjeeling district (though I would take a whole day to cover the entire estate on foot), tucked away in the Lesser Himalaya Range right under the nose of noisy Darjeeling town. Like a love letter buried in a pile of papers, waiting for a wandering soul to stumble upon it.
After languishing for years, Sourenee made a turnaround by taking to organic farming a few summers ago; it’s already got German buyers falling in love with its light-on-the-palate organic green tea. And a newly-built bungalow in the factory compound is now ready to give travellers a taste of the tea planter’s life.
“I have designed the bungalow in British-era style with sloped roofs, stone walls and fireplaces, bay windows, teakwood floors, all of which have stood the test of time. It allows you to experience a tea planter’s lifestyle with its fine ambience,” said architect Pravin Mukhia, who has restored several tea bungalows in Darjeeling including Tumsong, Ging and Glenburn. Each of the five rooms and solo suite of the three-storeyed house in Sourenee let the sky and greenery reach in through the large bay windows.
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The place is just a 10-minute drive from tourist hot spot Mirik, yet the two neighbours couldn’t be more different. The hustle and bustle of Mirik doesn’t touch the solitude of the Sourenee bungalow, perched on a hillock that allows it a panoramic 360-degree view. From the front lawn, you can see the silhouette of the Kanchenjunga in the north meeting Sonada-Kurseong in the east, sweeping through the Siliguri-Bagdogra-Balasun valley in the south and blending into Antu Valley, which separates Darjeeling from Nepal, in the west, moving further up to Mirik.
After a dinner of Khao Suey and caramel custard — thanks to hostess Nina Pradhan, whose main course dishes, jams and marmalade made me overeat at all meals — I curled up on a couch on the first-floor veranda, watching the flickering lights of a sleepy Kurseong town. A cup of green tea by my side.
Notes from a tea tasting session:
Tasting a good tea is as much an art as brewing it. It calls for sharp olfactory and gustatory faculties. You take a large swig, not a sip, from the cup and hold it in so that the liquor hits all the taste buds. Now swallow or spit it. Go on spooning liquor from all the cups. To cleanse the palate, sip water in between. Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (clonal variety) is what I loved best, made with one-day-old first flush leaves. The “clonal” is a blend of Chinese and Assamese teas, with subtle floral hints.
Plucked from March and end-April, “first flush is the best tea. It is light and bright, a very sweet cup. It has a good flavour and a good after-taste,” said Santanu Sarkar, the estate manager at Sourenee and my tea tasting guide. Guess what his morning cuppa is made of? All the swigs he takes from the various cups to taste for grading!
Making tea for the tasting:
Boil water for a full one minute. Once the steam is out, brew the leaves in the water for five minutes.
Tips for home: “For four cups of black tea, take five teaspoons of leaf (one for the pot) and brew it for three minutes. Green tea should be brewed for a minute or just a bit more. Hot water scalds green tea, so let the steam subside before brewing. And remember, never use once boiled water,” said Sarkar.
How to reach: Sourenee tea garden is just an hour-and-a-half’s drive from New Jalpaiguri station, and about an hour from Bagdogra airport. A car from the estate will pick you up.
Things to do:
a) With a crisp breeze teasing the lush tea bushes, I made the most of a sunny morning walking for miles. There are several trails leading from the bungalow. Hit one of the longer trails to catch the pluckers at work, or to work up an appetite. Walk down to the stream in the village with a packed lunch, or to the Sourenee bazaar to check out fresh produce. Tea planters inspect the bushes on foot and if you tag along with one of them, there will be a lot to learn about your morning cuppa.
My favourite is the Ghost Trail that winds around a small burial spot perched on one edge of the hill. Tip: Wear sturdy sneakers and a sun hat.
b) Take a tour of the tea factory right next to the bungalow, and watch tea being manufactured. Then, go for a tasting session to know how tea is graded.
c) If you must do the touristy thing, drive up to the Mirik lake in the afternoon and stop by the Buddhist monastery on way.
Look up http://www.soureneetea.com/soureneeexperience/contact.html for details
