Darjeeling

The word darjeeling derives from the Tibetan rdo rje gliṅ, literally the place of the thunderbolt. Rdo rje is the Tibetan name for the vajra, the ritual scepter of Indra representing indestructible enlightenment. Gliṅ means a domain or land. The Nepali form Darjeeling (दार्जिलिङ) was already in circulation when the British East India Company began surveying the area in 1828.

The British obtained the Darjeeling hills from the Raja of Sikkim in 1835. Arthur Campbell, the British Political Agent, planted experimental tea seeds in 1841 using stock originally from China. By 1874 the region was exporting over two million pounds of tea annually, and the word darjeeling attached itself to the tea rather than merely the territory, becoming an English tea-category designation before the end of the Victorian era.

Darjeeling's so-called muscatel flavor is produced by a specific physiological response. When the green leafhopper (Empoasca flavescens) bites the second-flush leaves, the plant produces defensive compounds that oxidize during processing into monoterpenoids including linalool oxide. The result is the floral, grape-like quality that tea buyers have called muscatel since the nineteenth century. It cannot be replicated in other regions even with the same seed stock.

In 1986, India registered Darjeeling as its first geographical indication for any product. The Darjeeling logo depicting a tea-picker beneath mountains was trademarked internationally through the 1990s. European and American courts have ruled in favor of the geographical indication in cases where other countries marketed tea under the Darjeeling name. The thunderbolt has become a trademark.