How to buy Darjeeling online in India without getting fooled
Darjeeling produces around 7 million kilos of tea a year. Somehow, considerably more than that gets sold as "Darjeeling." If you're buying online in India, a little literacy goes a long way.
Look for the flush, not just the name. Real listings tell you when the tea was plucked. First flush, from March to April, is light, floral, and almost green in the cup. Second flush, from May to June, is the famous one, fuller and carrying that muscatel grape note. A listing that says only "Premium Darjeeling Tea" without a flush or a year is telling you the seller doesn't know, or would rather you didn't ask.
Estate or district? Single-estate teas name the garden: Castleton, Giddapahar, our own Kurseong hills lots. Blends labelled just "Darjeeling" may contain a percentage of it. India's GI rules allow the name on 100% Darjeeling only, but enforcement online is thin, so a named garden and an invoice trail remain your best protection.
Ignore the grade doing all the work. Letters like FTGFOP-1 describe leaf size and tippiness, not flavour or freshness. A stale FTGFOP-1 loses to a fresh GFOP every single time. Grade plus harvest date is information, while grade alone is decoration.
Check the pack date, not just the expiry. Darjeeling is at its best within a year of plucking. An expiry two years out tells you nothing about when it was picked. This is exactly why we print batch numbers instead: you can ask us for the plucking week of your tin and we'll tell you.
Run a price sanity check. Genuine second flush from a named garden rarely retails under Rs. 800 to 900 per 100g. If it does, something in the supply chain is lying, and it's usually the label.
Buy from anyone who'll answer the question "when was this plucked?" in one email. Sellers who know, tell.