Beschrijving
Machapuchre FF24
Nepal, Astam
hand gerold, grof, vol en rond
“A racy and round tea with great complexity. It reminds us of some very good Yunnan, but it has a character unique to it with its clonal Darjeeling tea plants and its mountainous terroir of the Annapurna flanks and the sacred mountain Machapuchre” Harvest date: End of March & beginning of April 2023. It’s a tea as they were made in the past without the help of machines. The leaves are rolled by hand and the final drying done in the sun. It is a tea craftsmen who would not even have thought that their teas are exported to France and offered to European customers. It is produced in small quantities with tea trees from a garden with a breathtaking view of Annapurna and the sacred mountain Machapuchre.
Producer: Mrs. Radha & Mr. Nandalal, a couple living at the foot of Machapuchre
Altitude: 1600m.
Locality: Astam, near Pokhara, Nepal.
Cultivar: These are clonal cultivars from Darjeeling, Radha & Nandalal don’t know which variety.
Manufacturing method: The leaves are harvested by hand and then withered for about fifteen hours. When the leaves are ready, Radha rolls the leaves by hand in an ancestral way, gestures that are very rare now in the world of tea where machines have replaced the processes of yesteryear. Then the leaves are rolled out and oxidized for several hours until they reach the desired color. Sun drying is then carried out to obtain the finished tea.
Garden management: Radha & Nandalal have a small hotel with a view of the sacred mountain Machapuchre (6993m) and Annapurna South (7219m) and the rest of the Annapurna range. They have a small tea garden which if harvested intensively would produce around 300kgs of finished tea. They produce teas according to their needs, and sell their teas to hotel visitors in 200g sachets. They explain that they have never put fertilizers or pesticides in their teas.
