Editorial Processes exercise by Ross Collins West Gulch Gazette Travel Sunday, May 8, 2011 TeaBy IRVING NERN gardenand I visited Darjeeling, I standard headlinecolor, but with a strong Staff Writer had a chance to see three bite,” said Sharma. “But tea plantations: Happy many of our clients, par- veryone knows tea Valley, Glenburn and ticularly in Japan, prefer originally came from Makaibari. The last one second flush. That’s a China. And that was is most famous as having darker, stronger tea.” Eliterally millennia ago— the world’s most expen- Also generally the most Chinese tea cultivation sive tea, called silver tips. expensive. goes back thousands of These are supposedly In fact, it is also true years. Tea drinking later buds—immature leaves in the United States that reached Japan, and in the just opening—plucked most quality Darjeeling West from the 1600s on. under moonbeams, de- sold is second flush. First People in England scribed as “ideally sipped flush is certainly easily particularly liked tea. So at bed time to cull one to available—but not locally. much that by the early celestial slumber.” That Catalog or online is the 1800s it was the principle said, tea prices are not way to get quality single- export of the British East like wine; $20 buys 50 estate Darjeeling. I do India Company. That grams, enough to make order from Upton Tea—so company enjoyed a mo- quite a few cups. I wasn’t lying to the Glen- nopoly on tea importation burn people! to the West, based on a A visit to Glenburn The monsoon flush is production monopoly, that Estate. darker and more earthy, of China. Visiting Glenburn and autumnal is dark- In 1841 a British Estate was most difficult. est and most full bodied. civil servant, Dr. Arthur It is down a steep single- They are stronger in Campbell, decided to try laned trail studded with flavor and so considered some Camillia sinensis sharp boulders and ruts. of lower quality, and less in the hills surrounding Only a four-wheel drive popular than first and sec- the mountain town of or SUV could negotiate ond flush. Monsoon tea Darjeeling. West Ben- such a rough trail, and we usually stays in India and gal surrounds some bounced more than an is sold for the sweet spicy of the world’s highest hour before arriving (with drink called masali chai. mountains, and was only one flat tire). It’s in the cup you usually British colonial territory. The staff at Glenburn get free for haggling at a It attracted a summer seemed really puzzled at carpet or jewelry dealer in crowd of vacationers. It our visit. The guide said, Mumbai. “Chai” is just the also proved to be a good in English, “He’s a favorite word for “tea” in Hindi and place to cultivate tea. In buyer of Glenburn tea,” many other languages. fact, tea from Darjeeling although I told him earlier Most Darjeeling tea is became so successful that while I’d heard of it, black tea. This means it’s that it replaced China tea I wasn’t actually certain “fermented.” Not exact- in world trade to become I had ever bought that ly—more like it’s oxidized. the world’s highest quality tea. In any case, playing The tea leaves are first black tea. along, I added, “Yes, I’ve dried on long wire racks The tea of Darjeeling come half way around the overnight, with blowers, actually are not grown world to see this estate!” cool in the daytime, warm in that city, as at 6,710 The staff asked me to at night. They are then feet, it’s too high. Most of Tea bushes at Glenburn Estate, a high-quality producer of Darjeeling tea. produce a business card, scooped up and curled— it is grown downhill from which I did, from East usually by machine. This Darjeeling, closer to the estate.” They had brought Sharma explained autumnal flush. Gulch State University. (I bruises the leaves. The city of Ghum (or Ghoom). the boss to meet the tour- the tea operation. Tea in Harvest means that was surprised how useful curling machine in the So really we should call it ist from half way around Darjeeling is harvested only the first two leaves business cards were in Happy Valley plantation Ghum tea! the world. four times a year: around and a bud are plucked— India.) They disappeared, dated from the 1850s, Today the area around Sharma was clearly in March, around June, in the word for picking the returned, invited me to from London. The fer- Ghum and Darjeeling is a hurry, but still gracious late summer, and in the tea leaves. “We are a the estate’s house for—a mentation is actually a carpeted with tea bushes. enough to answer a few fall. Winter is dormant quality tea operation, cup of tea. second drying process. Some of these are very of my questions—after I season in Darjeeling, and so our pluckers must be Presently an agile man The curled leaf produces old—the Happy Valley had passed his lie detec- begins in November. Alas, careful to pick only those of about 40 appeared, moisture that oxidizes. “tea garden”, as the plan- tor test. How, he asked, I was there on November leaves, no other,” said and staff became quiet. How long to ferment is tations are sometimes did I know about Glen- 14, two weeks after the Sharma. “This means one Clearly, this was the boss. dependent on the nose called, dates from the burn tea? fall plucking season had plucker gets about 500 “This is Sanjay Sharma, and judgment of the tea 1850s, and the bushes “I order it from Upton ended. grams a day.” That’s a tea planter,” said the planter. Black tea is 90 are between 80 and 120 Tea Company, in the Unit- The first harvest is little over a pound. innkeeper. percent oxidized, after years old. Happy Valley ed States,” I responded. called first flush. Second “First flush” does not “Someone who plants which it is dried to stop brags that they are sup- He was familiar with is called second flush. necessarily mean finest tea?” I asked. the process and preserve pliers of tea to Harrod’s that company. “Well, any Third is during the rainy quality. It simply means “No. The tea planter in London. When a friend fan of Glenburn is wel- season, so called mon- a tea harvested in the is the manager of the come here,” he said. soon flush. Fourth is spring. “It is a delicate tea Darjeeling to p. 2. Cambridge standard hed Let’s make Washington, D.C. he Other Place is clever standard headline fit here By ERMA NERN tween Capitol Hill and the not created equal: the famous in America, A Washington-area Washington Monument. National Air and Space thanks in part to city magazine lately Flanking the mall stands Museum is awash with TPresident Bill Clinton’s advised readers to avoid a complex of 9 imposing kids on school trips, as stay there. But it was those same old touristy buildings composing the is the more cramped Na- known before that, based areas—the Smithsonian, Smithsonian Institution. tional Museum of Ameri- on to Cecil Rhodes’ the Capitol, the White The name “Smithson- can History, while the scholarship for Ameri- House—and followed with ian Museum” today is lesser-known stops, such cans. a list of obscure muse- misleading. The original as the Hirshhorn Museum The Other Place is ums and interest spots museum established in for Modern Art, is almost what Cambridge Univer- in the area. Reasonable 1846 with funds from peaceful. sity students in England perhaps for bored Wash- English scientist James Inevitably, though, call Oxford University. ingtonians, but for most Smithson has expanded if you want to see the And vice versa. But in of the rest of us, it seems to 15 separate museums, big sites in Washing- Britain the two univer- irrelevant: why would you 13 in Washington and two ton, you have to wade sities are considered want to visit Washington in New York City. Each through other tourists. equivalent. Both are to view things you can of the largest can easily The Capitol is a case in among Europe’s half see in most other major take more than one day point. This great symbol dosen oldest. Architectur- cities? of sight-seeing, if you of the Untied States has ally, while both are jewels Tourist icons they may want to see everything. undergone a fascinat- of Renaissance brilliance, be, but Washington’s Admission is free at most ing history of rebuilding American tourists seem famous monuments and of them. and renovation through to prefer Oxford. buildings form part of our The hub of the Smith- more than 200 years and This ironically may be American identity. They sonian is the original today likely houses some a relief to many Can- form part of our legacy, building, nicknamed “the of teh finest frescoes, tabridgians who must part of who we are as castle” for its liberally tur- gold leaf, scrollwork and deal with narrow streets Americans. reted and peaked sprawls painting of any building already choked with traf- Even if we feel jaded of stone. Enter in anticipa- in the country. Here, you fic, much of it speeding about the corruption of tion of wonders, though, can stand where John bicycles. the people who run the and your in for a surprise: Adams sat, or imagine a Oxford is three times place (which is normal, all the exhibits have gone debate between Clay and as large as Cambridge, and historic), a trip to to other sites.