Lot 04: tasting notes from a cold April

The flush came in on 6 April, ten days later than 2025. A cold March held the bushes back, and the plucking table at the co-op sat empty long enough that Bikash started rebuilding the firing pan.

Late is not worse. Slower growth concentrates amino acid in the bud, and this year's leaf is sweeter and thicker in the cup than anything we have shipped.

Tasting the lot

◆First infusion, 75 °C, 90 seconds: cut grass, a little cucumber, almost no astringency.

◆Second, 30 seconds longer: sweeter, rounder, a faint chestnut edge.

◆Third: thinner but still sweet; most first flushes are done by here.

Volume is down about 14 %, which is why the 250 g pouch is capped at nine per customer and why the tin says lot 04 rather than a month.

The years the weather misbehaves are usually the years the tea is worth keeping.