Tea Plucking Season In — Tea Plucking Season in Meghalaya: When to Buy and Why the Timing Matters — is one of the topics we explore on The Tea Story blog, drawing on our direct experience growing, processing, and tasting tea from our own garden in West Garo Hills, Meghalaya.
Tea is a crop. This is a fact that gets obscured when tea is sold in a tin on a supermarket shelf with no harvest date anywhere on the packaging. But like any other agricultural product — wine, olive oil, fresh produce — tea has seasons, and the season in which it was grown and harvested has a direct bearing on what it tastes like.
In Meghalaya, the tea year follows a pattern shaped by the monsoon, the temperature cycle, and the growth rhythm of the Camellia sinensis plant itself.
First Flush: March to April
The first plucking of the year, after the winter dormancy period, produces what the tea trade calls the “first flush.” In Meghalaya, this typically begins in late February or early March, when temperatures rise and new growth appears on the pruned bushes.
Order fresh-season tea direct from the garden
First flush tea is characterised by lightness. The new growth — the bud and the first one or two young leaves — is tender, low in chlorophyll, and high in amino acids including L-theanine. The flavour is delicate and floral, with a fresh quality that experienced drinkers recognise immediately. The colour in the cup is lighter. The aroma is more pronounced. This is the most prized tea of the year in many single-origin gardens.
First flush is what a tea plant has been saving since it stopped growing in winter. The energy and chemistry concentrated during dormancy is released in this first growth — and you can taste it.
Main Flush: May to June
As the monsoon approaches and temperatures stabilise, the tea plant enters its most productive growth phase. The leaves are larger, darker, more developed. The flavour is fuller-bodied, more robust, with greater depth and a longer finish in the cup. This is the period that produces the bulk of our harvest and the most versatile teas — varieties that work well both as plain tea and as the base for chai.
Main flush teas have a rounder, more assertive character than first flush. They brew to a deeper colour. They hold up well to a second steep. This is the season that produces our black orthodox and most of our green tea range.
Monsoon Flush: July to September
During the heaviest monsoon months, growth accelerates sharply. The leaves are produced quickly — sometimes too quickly for the most delicate qualities to develop. Monsoon flush tea is typically bold and strong, with less complexity than either the first or main flush but considerable strength. It forms the backbone of robust everyday blends. Our CTC teas, designed for chai, come primarily from the monsoon and post-monsoon harvest.
Autumn Flush: October to November
As the monsoon withdraws and temperatures begin to cool, growth slows again. Autumn flush tea shares some qualities with the first flush — a lightness and clarity of flavour — but with a slightly more developed body than the earliest spring tea. Some of our most interesting green teas come from this final harvest of the year.
Why This Matters When You Buy
When you purchase tea from us directly, you are buying from a specific season’s harvest rather than from an undated blend. We note the harvest season on our batches where relevant. Buying tea this way — knowing when it was plucked and from which season — is not a connoisseur’s indulgence. It is simply knowing what you are getting, the same way you know whether the mango you are buying is Alphonso from April or Langra from July. Both are mangoes. They are not the same experience.