These world famous teas are grown in the 87 named tea estates in the district of Darjeeling, situated in the Himalayan foothills in India’s northeast. This territory of around 3,200 square km was purchased by the British army from the Maharaja of Sikkim in 1835; today Darjeeling district is part of the Indian state of West Bengal and shares border with Nepal in the west and Sikkim in the east.

The beautiful hilly landscape together with the sunny and pristine climate offering ideal conditions for developing a hill resort for the British army. The region rapidly attracted missionaries and pioneer settlers from Europe. This steady economic development then also attracted many local people from the neighboring areas. In the 1840’s, when China still held the monopoly on tea, the British East India Company had commissioned the Scottish botanist Robert Fortune to secretly explore Chinese tea cultivation and he successfully smuggled thousands of seeds and tea seedlings out of Fujian province with the objective of starting tea production in India. Because the “china jats” require mountain climate with cool nights and misty mornings the first attempts to acclimate them in the plains failed but when finally arriving in the hills the tea plants immediately prospered. It is reported that Fortune went to inspect the state of the transplanted tea bushes in 1854 and was impressed with the quality and the yield of the plantations. By 1874 there were 112 tea estates established in Darjeeling district.

The high quality plant material together with the stimulating climate and the specific local environment was quickly acknowledged to produce exceptionally rich and varied flavor and unique cup quality; consequently the reputation of teas from Darjeeling was rapidly established worldwide. Given the limited area of the Darjeeling district and the relatively low yields of the China jat bushes, production cannot be extended beyond a maximum annual crop of around 10 million kg. In order to prevent replications, imitations or blending in from other territories there was a need for control and protection.

in 1957, fully aware of this concern, the Tea Board of India undertook steps to copyright and protect the Darjeeling logo and since 1999 the denomination Darjeeling tea and the logo have become registered certification marks of the Tea Board. Furthermore the Tea Board has introduced a certificate of origin scheme since 2001, which traces the tea leaves from the gardens to the factory, from the tea sacks to the export certificate thus ensuring that all Darjeeling teas traded in India and around the world are genuine and grown and processed in one of the 87 named Darjeeling tea estates. In order to even better protect these unique garden teas India has applied for registration of a protected geographical indication (PGI) with the EU and the final decision of acknowledgement according to the EU regulation 510/2006 procedure is expected shortly. All these measures have helped to guarantee full traceability thus fully assuring the genuine origin of the teas.

Their main destinations are the USA, Japan and the EU, Germany and France in particular. Quite often retail customers will register their purchasing order with their tea store, to ensure their share of the air freighted batches; many will also go for second flush and it should be recalled that appropriate storage allows one to brew these exceptional cups over at least 6 to 10 months.

 In the fast moving global world of today there are however several challenges which have to be met.

Important population moves have seen thousands of Nepalese Gorkhas flock to this Indian border district where they have come to represent the major part of the tea estate village population and garden workers. Thanks to the influence of labor union politics, social unrest has gained ground linked to a demand for the formation of a new independent state within the Indian confederation. This has led to the creation of the autonomous Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. 

“Since 1986 this political unrest is more and more hurting our life here,” Srirupa Bannerjee, wife of the owner of the Makaibari tea estate told Tea & Coffee Asia. “With no more teachers for their children the estate owners had to move to the plains, to Siliguri, Kolkata or even Delhi. We are the only ones who have remained in the hills, braving the strikes, the challenges and the growing insecurity.” 

In order to offer alternatives Makaibari has introduced a fair trade program and built up innovative concepts allowing the village population to access better income and establish more contact with the outside world. Rajah Bannerjee feels that for most of the other estate owners the tea gardens have become just a source of revenue and the previous passionate personal involvement has been replaced by the recruitment of qualified plantation management. 

With regards to the workforce, a lot of goodwill and patience will have to be invested to ensure appropriate training of the younger generations, who are not very motivated to remain in these remote rural areas, continue to pluck fine teas into the fifth or sixth generation. 

While the protection of the village population and of the garden workers is legally enshrined in the 1953 Plantation Labour Act, the recent unheard of challenge for a 230% wage increase has led to acute confrontation and a total embargo of the first flush crop which was only lifted after four long weeks after a 50% wage hike was agreed on April 2. This dispute may well leave scars and does not brighten the outlook. In order to cope with these social and political problems and to level out risks and losses some asset concentrations have taken place and several families and companies currently own a whole range of tea estates such as the Lohias from Chamong, the biggest estate Ambootia, the Jay Shree tea group and then the Sarias with Gopaldhara and Rohini. They are all aware that good plantation managers are “a must” and that skilled garden workers are needed to pluck good teas.

Fully aware of this quality enhancing step, more and more estates fulfil the requirements and today 40% of Darjeeling tea production is certified organic. While this meets the consumers’ preference the stringent provisions severely impact the gardens’ yields and furthermore generate a significant production cost increase. In addition there is a strong concern about climate change and the cold and very dry spring of 2010 has resulted in an unheard of production drop with an annual total output of the PGI Darjeeling tea crop down to 7 million kg. As spring 2011 has started off with a lot of good rains the current forecast is more optimistic. The lush, light green buds of the 2011 first flush do however attract green flies and other pests which represent the plantation managers’ daily worry; the organic spraying products based on neem tree extract are very costly and need new equipment, hence more training hours for the workers. An integrated approach by a Dutch supplier named as “in harmony with nature” (IHAN) promises efficient pest management, but is yet another challenge to cope with.

Uprooting and replanting; seeds versus clonal material; in-house nurseries versus Tea Research Institute supplies. Several options are on the table and it will be the estate owners who will choose their strategies. 

Rajiv Gupta, the plantation manager of Tumsong Tea Estate explains that running their own nursery which supplies both seedlings and clonal plants is a costly undertaking because it involves six full time garden workers to run the place including a residential night watch. The upside is that they have their own specific plant selection and hence a complete plant traceability. However the cost of their own plants is more than double of the TRI supplies. The fact that there are 25 lots in Tumsong, all with their specific characteristics of bush age, state of pruning and varietal quality, needs constant monitoring to keep up a favourable average yield. 

More such examples are quoted by Shiv K. Saria, the owner of Rohini and Gopaldhara, who explains that uprooting may sometimes be a necessary step when bushes are more than 150 years old and do not any more respond to deep pruning; however, replanting implies that there will be no commercial yield for up to seven years and full yield from year nine onwards only. It is important to note again that the area of the 87 named Darjeeling tea gardens is defined and limited, hence the only growth possibility is vertical, through better yields, achieved by improving irrigation, soil management and varietal choice.

Until about the year 2000 the vast majority of Darjeeling tea bushes were seed material and there are still many lots with ancestor bushes. Because these garden teas have been famous for more than a century the classic Darjeeling orthodox teas have remained unrivalled until recently, when China started to invest and revive its millenary tea production. 

Focused specialty tea promotions have recently enlarged the choice of knowledgeable European, Japanese and American consumers to include a wide list of fine origin teas from China. This is an open challenge for the Darjeeling gardens to brush up their marketing and set up a level playing field for their unrivalled produce and the many Chinese specialty teas, which mainly belong to the green tea, white tea and oolong tea families. 

The choice to opt for organic production is an excellent strategy; the trend to lesser leaf oxidation and the moving towards white and green tea types also appears to greatly appeal to the more sophisticated consumers.

Some additional promotion and reminding consumers of the continued premium product image will also assist with reviving the longstanding unique and unrivalled profile of the Darjeeling garden teas and their four plucking seasons of excellence.