The titel „Travelling through Tea Estates in West Bengal, Darjeeling, Sikkim and Nepal“ isn't totally correct, but in all these districts or countries tea is a big topic and one might hear more about Dooars (or Assam by the way as it isn't out of the way) and Darjeeling than the rest. I have already written about a tea estate in Darjeeling [1] and have translated some fragments of this text, but the former blogpost had another intention, it is devoted to the topic of tea and I have written extensively about tea, more so on Chinese tea in German on my blog. This article however will be devoted to travelling through this region and tea.
You are hardly out of the airport in Bagdogra, a small town in West Bengal, and you drive through tea plantations. Bagdogra roughly has 25,000 inhabitants and belongs to the Dooars region. The airport (IXB) is the gateway to the hill stations like Gangtok, Kurseong, Darjeeling, or Kalimpong. Dooars is not to be confused with Assam. The Dooars tea growing area is located South of Darjeeling and west of Assam. Tea processing is comparable to Darjeeling teas, but the teas of Dooars are stronger and more flavorful, on the other hand they are milder than Assam teas (and in Assam more tea is processed according to the CTC method). Due to the lower altitude first flush harvests in Dooars begin earlier than in Darjeeling or Sikkim. Later on my journey I passed even through larger platation – on the Sikkim to Bhutan stretch. Tea may be quite expensive, especially when it comes to Darjeeling teas, but Dooars might be an alternative – maybe Sikkim teas, too.
I visited the Happy Valley Tea Estate in Darjeeling, which is the closest one to the city center and also is very old, still producing tea. The state maintains a museum, where old equipment can be seen and where you can also taste the different types of tea. I later noticed that the plantation could be seen across town from my hotel.
Established in 1854, the core of Happy Valley is Darjeeling's second oldest tea plantation. It lies at an altitude of approximately 2,100 meters and covers over 177 hectares; more than 1500 employees are employed there. The tea bushes are up to 150 years old. The months of March to May are the most active time, because then most of the tea leaves are picked and processed [2].
The Englishman David Wilson called the tea garden "Wilson Tea Estate". In 1903 the estate was taken over by Tarapada Banerjee, an Indian aristocrat from Hooghly/Hugli (district in West Bengal state). In 1929 Banerjee bought the nearby Windsor Tea Estate and merged the two lands under the name of „Happy Valley Tea Estate“ [3].
In March 2007, S.K. Bansal's estate was taken over by the Ambootia Tea Group, which built a new factory and, in particular, switched to organic farming. The plantation has been open to the public again since 2008. At the time, Happy Valley's (hand-rolled) tea was trading at Harrods in the UK at US$75 per kg.
The specialization in black or green tea no longer exists. These modern plantations are able to produce all sorts, although I would like to give a foreshadowing: I liked the green tea the best. I tested all the sorts they had, but haven't been allowed to take pictures. But I show you one, which I've made in Gangtok (Sikkim) on a similar occasion. For more on the different teas, please refer to the footnote [4]. As teas of the Himalaya-Region might be very expensive, you have to choose well. No matter how expensive or exclusive the tea is, the most important thing about tea is -: enjoying its taste in peace.
As the sun is hot and the tea pickers have to spend hours in the open, I've seen some with umbrellas fixed to the baskets on their back. Even with conditions of the workers having improved, it still is hard labor and also this work is mentally straining.
Sikkim also has remarkable teas. They are also sold in Darjeeling. The region is equal in altitude and weather conditions and composition of the soil. Maybe these teas still are somewhat of an insider tip. But you will also have high end teas with high end prices – I've just seen Sikkim Temi First Flush („Passable tea for every day.“) at 219.00€ per 1kg [5].
In the pedestrian mall of Gangtok I saw various tea shops, visited some, but I was out in a downpour without proper protection and took refuge in a tea parlor to have a tea - wait and drink tea, which is the literal translation of the German idiom "Abwarten und Teetrinken" - just wait and see! In the wake of the downpour I returned to the hotel.
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| Darjeeling |
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| Fresh leaves on the cut down tea plants |
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| Tea plantation in the Dooars region |
The trip ended in Nepal, in Kathmandu – I've never seen so many tea shops in my life and did not remember having seen so many shops 25 years before. Nepal produces tea, but in these shops they also sell teas from Darjeeling and Sikkim. Nepal pruduces orthodox tea, which uses the method used in Darjeeling in which the tea leaves are rolled (either by hand or machine) or the method used in Assam which is descriebd as crush, tear, curl (CTC) [6]. The tea leaves for orthodox teas are picked durng four flushes: First flush, Second flush, Monsoon flush, Autumn flush, the first begins in the fourth week of March and last ends at the end of November. I sampled some Nepali teas and they were tasty, but as I'm more used to drink green tea, you have to test for yourself. Straying from Darjeeling to Sikkim and Nepal is well worth the effort.
Let's close with a few words on Bhutanese tea. Bhutan has been the eminent reason for my trip. In Bhutan I have only seen herbal teas (better called herbal infusions) and no thea sinensis, but these teas exist in small quantities, produced by handwork. I found one the internet (it may be the only one!). Up till now they are more of an oddity, a collector might buy them, because they are rare on the market.
Bhutan Green Tea is an organic green tea, produced in Samdrupcholing [7], a small village near Trongsa, which I visited 23 years ago, but I don't recall having seen tea plants – I remember having seen hemp, hemp in huge quantities growing in the wild. Another source: „Amateurs of oddities will be served with this rare green tea from Bhutan. […] In Samcholing village, 43 acres of land were dedicated to tea farming and a micro-factory was put in place to produce an average of 600 kg of fresh leaves each year. The only tea production in the country.“ [8] But who knows, what might evolve out of this modest beginning. Allow me to quote Mao Zedong: „A single spark can start a prairie fire“ (05.01.1930). Bhutan has a geography and topography similar to Darjeeling, so there might be a small scale tea industry in the future.
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| Kathmandu tea shops |
Links and Annotations:
[1] https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2023/04/happy-valley-teeplantage-in-darjeeling.html
[2] https://darjeeling.gov.in/tourist-place/happy-valley-tea-estate/
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Valley_Tea_Estate Interestingly, William H. Ukers makes no mention of this venture. William H. Ukers: All About Tea, 2 vol. New York, The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal Company, 1935. https://china-bibliographie.univie.ac.at/2018/03/22/ukers-all-about-tea/ And the internet is silent about Tarapada Banerjee or one only "knows" that he was in 1903... (see above).
[4] White tea -: only the first, budding leaf is picked (the silver tip), steamed (to prevent any fermentation) and then dried.
Yellow tea -: I haven't seen it or can't remember it. In principle, it is even rarer than white tea because there is not so much demand, but it is also produced in Darjeeling. The process is more complicated as very little oxidation is allowed to take place. The tea leaves are stewed and then rolled in damp cloths to be dried a little later as white tea.
Green tea -: the top leaves are picked, the fermentation is stopped by heat (either steaming or roasting in a pan), then the tea is rolled and dried.
Oolong tea -: I also saw it in Sikkim. The tea leaves are shaken and slightly injured so that fermentation takes place, but must remain incomplete, i.e. it is broken off by rolling and drying. In my Sino affinity, however, I would prefer Oolong teas from Taiwan.
Black tea -: the tea leaves (two leaves and a bud) are rolled and allowed to oxidize completely (fermentation), then they are dried at very high temperatures. the different varieties result on the one hand from the time of picking (First Flush, Summer Tea, Monsoon Flush, Autumn Tea, also known as First Flush, In-betweens, Second Flush, Autumnals [4a]) and then from the grading in SFTGFOP1 (Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe 1st, highest grade), FTGFOP1 (Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe 1st), TGFOP (Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe), FOP (Flowery Orange Pekoe), OP (Orange Pekoe), P (Pekoe). The majority of Darjeeling teas are black teas.
[4a] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_(Tee)
[5] https://www.puretea.de/sikkim-temi-first-flush-biotee.html
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepali_tea
[7] https://tasteofbhutan.com/product/bhutan-green-tea-loose-tea/
[8] https://camellia-sinensis.com/en/bhutan-samcholing/6433
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