2026 Discovery Collection
About this set
The Discovery Collection brings together four teas from the summer of 2026 in the Darjeeling hills, each made in a different way. Brewed from light to dark, they show how differently tea from the same hills can taste.
1 · Luminous Spring, white tea, 10 g. The rarest of the four, and found only in this box: about 12 kg of it was made in the whole year. In July the AV2 bushes were pruned, giving up that month's harvest, and while they recovered the weeds were cleared and the soil mulched. After 45 to 50 days they sprouted again, and this white tea was made from those very first shoots. Magnolia blossom, ripe honeydew melon, and brioche.
2 · Velvet Muscatel, bug-bitten oolong, 20 g. Made from China-type bushes grown from seed. In summer, small insects feed on their young leaves, and the plant answers with aromatic compounds of its own, the source of the honeyed muscatel character. Rice pudding, caramelised apples, and cardamom, growing sweeter with every steep.
3 · Rare Red Oolong, red oolong, 20 g. Another rare find from the Himalayas, inspired by the red oolongs of Taiwan and made from mixed cultivars. Hand-rolled and oxidised so deeply that it turns smoky without any roasting. Dark cacao, muscatel, and dried apricot. A unique thing about this tea is how much it changes with the water temperature: brewed hot, it is smoky and nutty, and cold-brewed, peachy and fruity.
4 · Pine Forest, black tea, 20 g. A single-cultivar tea from T78, with dark leaves and plenty of golden tips, picked as the summer flush came to an end. It is finished off with a long roast in bamboo baskets over charcoal, which gives it its notes of smoky wood, dried plums, and roasted almonds.
The card in the box introduces each tea, with a QR code to meet the people who made it, and every pouch carries its own brewing notes. Together the four make close to 100 small cups.
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What's Inside
| 1 · Luminous Spring | 10 g · White tea · Magnolia blossom, honeydew melon, brioche |
| 2 · Velvet Muscatel | 20 g · Bug-bitten oolong · Rice pudding, caramelised apples, dry mango |
| 3 · Rare Red Oolong | 20 g · Red oolong · Dark cacao, muscatel, dried apricot |
| 4 · Pine Forest | 20 g · Charcoal-roasted black tea · Smoky wood, dried plums, roasted almonds |
Set Specifications
| Origin | Darjeeling Hills |
| Makers | Sonam (Luminous Spring, Velvet Muscatel, Pine Forest), Yankhu (Rare Red Oolong) |
| Harvest | Summer 2026 |
| Contents | 70 g in four pouches: 10 g Luminous Spring, 20 g each of the other three |
| In the box | Four teas in kraft pouches and one card introducing each tea, with QR codes to meet the makers, in a sleeved gift box |
| Cups | Close to 100 small cups (28 pots of 150 ml, 3 to 4 steeps each), about €0.50 a cup |
| Rarity | Luminous Spring only in this box: about 12 kg was made, and we have 1 kg, enough for about 100 boxes. The other three are limited micro-batches. |
last updated: October 2026