Saicho Darjeeling
In stock
Darjeeling, in first flush.
Saicho was founded in 2019 by Natalie Chiu and Charlie Winkworth-Smith — food scientists, husband and wife, working between Hong Kong and the UK. The brand takes its name from the Japanese Buddhist monk who first carried tea from China to Japan. Its purpose is to give tea its rightful place at the table — alongside wine, in the same glass, with the same considered hand.
Sourced from a single estate in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, harvested in the brief spring window when the leaves are at their most tender — first flush, the cup at its most delicate. Cold-brewed for twenty-four hours in English spring water, then finished with a fine carbonation. The result holds the muscatel character that earned Darjeeling its nickname — the champagne of teas — with stone fruit, grape, and white flowers moving through a clean, persistent finish.
Darjeeling has long been the tea drinker's wine — single-origin, vintage-driven, sensitive to season and slope. Of the four Saicho expressions, this is the bottle for occasion: a toast, a celebration, the first pour of the evening.
The Pour
Pour it cold from the bottle into a white wine glass — the way it is served at the table. As the aperitif, with raw bar, delicate canapés, anything bright and briny. Through the meal, with white fish, lightly dressed greens, soft fresh cheeses. Or simply on its own — the bottle for the toast, when the moment asks for occasion.
The Rienne Index offers a clear perspective on how each bottle is best experienced.
The Tea Reading™ — The Rienne Index, applied to this bottle.
Origin — Single estate, Darjeeling, India. First-flush black tea.
Character — Stone fruit, muscat grape, white flowers. Bright, refined, lifted.
Structure — Dry. Light body. Clean, lingering finish.
Moment — The toast. The opening pour. Aperitif. Spring and summer.
Service — 46–50°F. White wine glass.
