Darjeeling tea Darjeeling tea Darjeeling tea is a tea grown in the Darjeeling district in West Bengal, India, and widely exported and known. It is processed as black, green, white and oolong tea. When properly brewed, it yields a thin-bodied, light-coloured infusion with a floral aroma. The flavour can include a tinge of astringent tannic characteristics and a musky spiciness sometimes described as "muscatel". Unlike most Indian teas, Darjeeling tea is normally made from the small-leaved Chinese variety of "Camellia sinensis" var. "sinensis", rather than the large-leaved Assam plant ("C. sinensis" var. "assamica"). Traditionally, Darjeeling tea is made as black tea; however,
Tea many genetic similarities with Indian Assam type tea (also "C. sinensis" var. "assamica"). Thus, Western Yunnan Assam tea and Indian Assam tea both may have originated from the same parent plant in the area where southwestern China, Indo-Burma, and Tibet meet. However, as the Indian Assam tea shares no haplotypes with Western Yunnan Assam tea, Indian Assam tea is likely to have originated from an independent domestication. Some Indian Assam tea appears to have hybridized with the species "Camellia pubicosta." Assuming a generation of 12 years, Chinese small leaf tea is estimated to have diverged from Assam tea around 22,000