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Beverages ·India's cellar ·Tea shelf ·Castleton Tea Estate
tea garden · Darjeeling, India

Castleton Tea Estate

Darjeeling, India
[{'name': 'Goodricke Group', 'role': 'Estate management (part of the Camellia PLC portfolio)', 'notes': 'Castleton is managed under the Goodricke umbrella — one of the professional tea estate management companies that has maintained production quality and international distribution'}] · {'auction': 'Castleton second flush regularly achieves highest prices at Kolkata Tea Auction; international buyers compete for allocation', 'founded': '1885', 'elevation': "1,700–2,100m — among Darjeeling's highest elevations", 'specialties': 'Second flush muscatel (peak production June; limited quantity); first flush; autumnal', 'bc_availability': 'Specialty tea retailers; online from specialty India tea importers'}
Verified reserve 1

The reputation — the story that sells at the table

Castleton Moonlight and Castleton Vintage second flush are the most auctioned and collector-sought Darjeeling teas — the estate whose name appears in the same sentence as 'highest price per kg at auction' with regularity. The muscatel character at Castleton's elevation reaches a level of floral-grape intensity that wine sommeliers immediately recognise as analogous to Muscat de Beaume-de-Venise or aged Riesling: aromatic concentration through slow development.

Practice
Castleton Tea Estate, high in the Kurseong sub-district of Darjeeling, produces what experts consistently consider the finest second flush muscatel character in the district. Their Moonlight and Castleton Vintage expressions command the highest prices of any Darjeeling tea at international auction, with the muscatel character — floral, grape-like, honied, with extraordinary length — reaching its greatest expression at Castleton's specific microterrroir.
Positioning
ultra_premium · Allocation-based; pre-order through specialty India tea importers.
Importer lines
US — not yet · UK — not yet · Japan — not yet
Each absence is a signal the demand ledger holds.
Where to get it — Pat's Rule

Origin: Castleton Tea Estate, Darjeeling — named here for every reader, everywhere, as the discovery authority.

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