Spring Clonal Black

Alongside its century-old Chinary, Giddapahar keeps a careful selection of clonal bushes — cultivars chosen over decades for aroma above all else. In the first pluck of spring, they are at their most expressive: the young leaf carries an almost muscat perfume before the summer has even arrived.

The pluck is the same exacting standard — two leaves and a bud, gathered by hand through March and April — and the making is fully orthodox: withered long, rolled whole, oxidised briefly and fired gently. The result sits beside the Chinary spring tea like a second voice in the same key: brighter, more floral, distinctly its own.