If you have never tried a cup of true authentic Darjeeling tea, you may want to stop into the Darjeeling Tea Blog – Darjeeling Cuppa. From the looks of it, it is about as authentic Darjeeling Tea experience you can get without actually trying it. The blogger at Darjeeling Tea is a tea merchant who owns and runs “Thunderbolt Tea†and seemingly consumes more tea than is actually sold. He is an avid tea lover, and this is evident in his most recent bloggeries: Darjeeling, Weather, and Tea; Blowout Offer Repeat!; Some more thoughts and updates; Second Flush teas and my thoughts; My Second Flush Darjeeling Teas 2007; A come back at last; Does tea indulge in politics; One last tea garden venture; First flush Darjeeling Teas 2007 updated; and Second Round Darjeeling Tea Tasting.
Navigation on the site is very simple. Posts are right marginalized and there is a left navigation bar. Posts have the standard black text on white background and the blog opens up with a maroon colored header and an advertisement for the blogger’s store Thunderbolt Tea. I like how the ad is incorporated with the header, I did not even realize at first that it was in fact advertising. The links and remainder of the blog is color co-ordinated with the reddish maroon header. In the left navigation bar you will find a Categories, Archives Menu, AdSense, tea poll, and a menu called Sections. The Sections menu will take you to the About page and you can look at reviews of the teas, copyright information, Site map, and other administrative links for the blog. The categories menu contains the blogroll, Darjeeling Tea Updates on the RSS feed, Miscellaneous Posts, and Travel Updates. There is a Recent Posts menu on this site, you will have to go to the About Page to find it though where it is listed as Latest Articles. You also will find many very pretty pictures on the site with almost every post. The pictures are true representations of authentic Darjeeling Teas and definitely convey an appropriate feel for the blog.
I give this blog a 3/5 for now, there are some issues with the menus I wouldn’t mind seeing changed. The categories menu could be extended to include other categories that are relevant to the bloggeries. The About me page is contained in the categories menu and should be separated to stand on its own as well. I think the Sections menu can be made a little more prominent, perhaps as a top menu bar or even footer menu bar. As these links seem to be strictly administrative they would probably be more appropriately found here to ease navigation a little bit. I think the content needs to be a little more frequent as well. There was some fairly regular content in July but there hasn’t seemed to be much since. The content however when it is there is well written and conveys the true personal voice of the blogger which adds credibility to his tea reviews. I like the pictures and think adding more would only add to the blog’s appeal. Overall I think this is a very interesting blog with a unique concept and unique niche. With a few formatting changes I could see this one doing very well.