With all due respect, I find that a little bit hard to believe.
That's because during a recent trip to Sri Lanka, all the teas I
could find from the highest growing area (Nuwara Eliya, 2.000
meter above sea level) were "greenish blacks", similiar to
Darjeelings (yet also quite different). I also had a couple of
teas of the same type from the Uva district, which I supposed
were from the highest parts of the district (which goes from mid
to high level). And it's clear that both Sri Lanka's internal
tea market and export market prefers *black* teas, mainly of
broken grades. So for this reason I have thought that tea from
the highest growing areas simply do not get fermented to the
same degree as teas produced in other areas.

Jon

"Nigel at Teacraft" > skrev i melding
om...
> Because a thing is so now does not mean it was ever thus.
Teas also
> change with time.
> Going back 40 years or so the UK was the major importer of
Darjeeling
> tea much of which went into the hugely successful Maison Lyons
blend,
> universally drunk with milk in the English way. However it
was not
> the Darjeeling tea that you would now recognise as such; it
was a
> truly black fermented tea with an orange liquor - properly
oxidised,
> much like a rains Darjeeling is nowadays when hard withers
cannot be
> achieved (these rains Darjeelings are sold domestically in
India - not
> exported as).
> Then one day Lyons switched their house blend away from
Darjeeling -
> whose producers had quickly to find another market. North
Europe was
> targeted but required a lighter cup that would drink in the
European
> way - without milk. And so the nearly green, hard withered,
Darjeeling
> tea was developed and became universally recognised as "the"
> Darjeeling. But how will it be forty years hence?
>
> Nigel at Teacraft
>
>
> J Boehm > wrote in message
>...
> >
> > I stick my head out for a bet that most English people do
not know the
> > term Darjeeling, same as with most Germans. Nothing wrong
with that, if I
> > am correct. I always found it not easy, to say the least, to
find
> > Darjeeling tea, or loose tea generally apart from the
Twinings and similar
> > mass product teas. Single estate teas are a rarity to find
in England,
> > although they exist. Most people, as far as I can tell, have
tea bag teas
> > with milk and/or sugar. Earl Grey is common as well, then
without milk.
> >
> > JB