Unexpected Tea Regions Are Flush With Promise

For some of us, tea is caffeinated fuel for the daily grind. But in the Indian state of Sikkim, Nikhil Pradhan considers it an economic lifeline. Once an independent Himalayan kingdom bordering Bhutan, Tibet, and West Bengal, then annexed by India in 1975, Sikkim is remote. Really remote. An agricultural region networked by rugged mountain roads that are prone to seasonal floods, India’s least populous state doesn’t have many opportunities for stable, consistent work. “Rural folk have become dependent on government handouts and infrastructure projects where they find work as porters or drivers,” Pradhan says. “Few are choosing to stay in agriculture and livestock. Most young people are moving to urban centers for better job prospects.”

Pradhan and his wife, Dolka Densapa, are owners of Bermiok Tea Estate, a 40-acre garden producing some of India’s finest and most interesting teas. The estate’s airy first flushes and woodsy oolongs can go toe to toe with pedigreed productions from Darjeeling, the country’s most celebrated tea region, less than 100 miles away. Just as important, Bermiok affords 20 locals an opportunity to earn a sustainable income close to home, without compromising Sikkim’s natural landscape.

As demand for specialty tea grows by leaps and bounds, drinkers all over have the chance to try new and delicious varieties from often unexpected regions.

Thirteen million people worldwide make their living from growing and processing tea. More than 60 percent of them are independent farmers with plots of land even smaller than Bermiok’s, and most don’t live where you think. Tea is produced in more than 30 countries, increasingly in small, premium batches made to stand out from the global market rather than blend in. As demand for specialty tea grows by leaps and bounds, drinkers all over have the chance to try new and delicious varieties from often unexpected regions.

The story of global tea cultivation is one of trade and conquest. Buddhist monks from Japan studied the leaf in China before cultivating it back home; British imperial might planted tea through India and Sri Lanka; Chinese immigrants carried seeds in their pockets to grow on new shores in Taiwan. Kenya, the world’s largest tea producer after China and India, first developed its tea industry through European colonial projects. In places like Turkey and Colombia, though, tea farming emerged and was sustained by homegrown economic initiatives.

Because fresh leaves have to be withered, rolled, and dried within hours of plucking, tea is considered a value-added product with higher returns than subsistence farming or cash crops like corn and soybeans. The Tea & Coffee Trade Journal’s 2023 Global Tea Report calls it a “poverty relief crop” that is “instrumental in keeping populations … in remote rural areas.” This value proposition has made tea a priority for agricultural authorities, even in places with little cultural connection to the drink.

Claudio Gutiérrez, the tea specialist for Bitaco Tea in Colombia’s Cuaca Valley, explains that the region’s secretary of agriculture first received live tea plants from Sri Lanka in 1946, and asked a local coffee-farming family to try growing the plants as part of a crop diversification policy. Bitaco’s fields soar 6,000 feet above sea level on hilly terrain with a humid climate—ideal conditions for tea cultivation. When the initial trials proved successful, farmer Joaquín Llano González cleared more land for planting and studied production at tea plantations abroad. He spent the next decade buying equipment, planting more fields, and training workers to process fresh leaves into finished tea. González’s Té Hindú company became Colombia’s leading tea brand by the 1960s.

Most of the world’s tea farms are single-family, smallholder operations, where growers pluck green leaves to sell to nearby factories.

Gardens like Bermiok in Sikkim and Bitaco in Colombia represent one model of tea cultivation, in which centrally owned farms process their own leaf for sale. But most of the world’s tea farms are single-family, smallholder operations, where growers pluck green leaves to sell to nearby factories. This is especially true in East Africa, and in most cases, it’s a raw deal. Farmers are usually stuck selling to the only buyer in the region at whatever price that factory sets. It’s less “poverty relief crop” and more colonial plantation infrastructure by another name. Typically, the tea is grown with an eye toward yield over quality, and processed into low-grade, anonymous commodity leaf that’s bought and blended by multinational giants like Lipton and Twinings.

However, thanks to the growth of the specialty teamarket—and easier access to affordable tea-making equipment—enterprising smallholders in East Africa and elsewhere are increasingly rejecting this model in favor of farmer-owned cooperatives. Farmers pool their leaves at factories of their own design, then skilled workers process them into higher-quality specialty grades inspired by Indian, Chinese, and Japanese styles. These factories can only produce a fraction of the tea made by the conglomerates, but it’s distinctive tea with terroir that can be sold at a premium.

What’s most exciting is how good the tea tastes already. China still produces about half of the world’s tea, and that makes sense—farmers there have had a few thousand years to figure it out. Specialty tea production in regions like Colombia and East Africa is only a few decades old. In 20 or 30 years, curious growers from tea juggernaut nations might be visiting Tanzania and Colombia to see how indie producers do their own thing. It’s a deliciously diverse landscape to explore.

SIKKIM, INDIA: BERMIOK TEA ESTATE

Sikkim never experienced the same tea industry development as nearby Assam and Darjeeling. A single tea garden called Temi was established in 1969. It took until 2003, with some encouragement from the Tea Board of India, for Bermiok Tea Estate to become the state’s second producer. Bermiok was founded by Tashi Densapa, a Buddhist spiritual leader called the Bermiok Rinpoché. “The Rinpoché was thinking how to use his ancestral land in a way that would benefit the people living around it without negatively impacting the environment,” Nikhil Pradhan says. He and his wife, the Rinpoché’s daughter, took over Bermiok in 2015.

Bermiok employs industry veterans from Darjeeling to manage the garden and factory, which is staffed by Sikkimese workers. The estate makes light, herbal first flush and deep, complex second flush styles much like Darjeeling’s renowned teas, though they also experiment with oolong and green varieties that require greater finesse. The results are excellent, especially for such a young garden: precisely made, with expansive flavors that persist through repeat steepings. Pradhan notes the investment that Bermiok makes in its tea workers. Most have no prior experience with the crop and receive extensive training from managers, including visits to other factories. The aim, Pradhan says, isn’t just to raise good tea, but to raise marketable skills in the community. Available from inpursuitoftea.com, herbsandkettles.com, and ketlee.in

VALLE DEL CUACA, COLOMBIA: BITACO TEA

Descendents of Joaquín Llano González still own Agrícola Himalaya, the leading tea producer in Colombia. Té Hindú is the company’s commodity brand, and widely available in South and Central America. But “the company was affected by the emergence of imported teas from India at well below the production costs of tea produced at our garden,” says Bitaco’s tea specialist, Claudio Gutiérrez, so, in 2016, they began a premium organic line of specialty teas under the brand Bitaco. These loose-leaf varieties range from delicate white styles to woodsy black teas with deep cocoa notes. Some are then blended with spices, herbs, and fruits like dragon fruit, pineapple, and lulo, a berry with a jammy citrus flavor.

Agrícola Himalaya produces 13 tons of tea a year on their 520-acre farm, half of which is dedicated to a nature preserve that’s managed by Colombian environmental authorities. “We work on arduous conservation for these ecosystems,” Gutiérrez notes. Projects include a decontamination program for the local river basin and Rainforest Alliance certification. The company also sponsors educational scholarships for rural students, and free arts, athletics, and language classes for children. Garden workers receive health services, pensions, occupational risk insurance, and bonuses for high-quality harvests. Available from camellia-sinensis.com, svtea.com, and chadotea.com

TSKALTUBO AND TKIBULI, GEORGIA: RENEGADE TEA ESTATE

The Republic of Georgia used to be the tea basket for the Soviet Union. State-owned plantations grew vast amounts of commodity-grade black tea that met domestic demand for dark, strong brews. When the USSR collapsed, the Georgian tea industry followed. Fields were abandoned, garden workers struggled to find employment, and a generation of institutional tea-making knowledge was lost.

Renegade Tea Estate was founded by a group of Estonian and Lithuanian friends. In the 2010s, they began scouting Georgian tea fields with the goal of reviving the plants and crafting small batches of specialty tea. “We started by scanning Google Maps, where patterns of tea fields were still recognizable,” says co-founder Hannes Saarpuu, “even though the plantations were overgrown with weeds.” Most of the garden workers are locals from towns with few other job prospects, Saarpuu notes. A few of them even used to work the fields in the Soviet days.

The company currently rents three gardens that span 100 acres from the Georgian government. They make 17 varieties of tea inspired by styles from Nepal, Taiwan, and Sri Lanka. Frosty nights and chilly winters act as natural pest management, allowing Renegade to grow tea organically in fields that haven’t seen fertilizers or pesticides for 30 years. The resulting brews are rich with savory and herbal flavors. They’re reminiscent of several famous styles, but stand proudly on their own. Available from renegadetea.com

DAR ES SALAAM AND TANGA, TANZANIA: KAZI YETU

Co-founded in 2018 by Tahira Nizari and Hendrik Buermann, Kazi Yetu recently completed construction of Sakare Tea Factory, Tanzania’s first specialty tea processor owned by a cooperative of 1,500 smallholder tea farmers. In the past, U.S. director Ashley Speyer explains, these farmers sold green leaf to a local factory for 14 cents per kilogram. Now they earn 20 cents per kilogram selling to Sakare and split profits from the factory’s tea sales, which yield $4 per kilogram. Commodity-grade tea factories in the region can only earn about half that price, which, thanks to competition from other commodity factories near and far, often falls short of their production cost.

Kazi Yetu sources black and green loose-leaf teas from Sakare, which are sent to the company’s packing facility in Dar es Salaam. A crew of 25 female workers carefully blend the teas with herbs and spices from small East African farms. Potent pieces of cardamom, cinnamon, hibiscus, moringa, and ginger capture the vivid flavor of traditional East African chai blends. Women primarily run the Sakare factory as well, which Speyer says is rare. “They’re usually solely responsible for tea plucking.” As demand grows, Kazi Yetu plans to increase African tea farming incomes on a larger scale and “build economic independence for more women. This is the reason why Kazi Yetu exists!” Available from us.kazi-yetu.com and amazon.com

TRONGSA, BHUTAN: SAMCHOLING GREEN TEA

The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is home to a single tea garden, operated by a cooperative of 25 female farmers who grow and process a unique pan-fired green tea. When tea bushes were discovered growing wild near a royal palace in the 1990s, the government’s department of agriculture saw an opportunity to foster a value-added crop in the region. Samcholing co-op members grow grains and market vegetables at more or less subsistence prices. Tea offers them a path toward greater economic independence. Most of their harvest is sold domestically, but a small amount is marked for export.

Farming in this region is organic in all but certification, in part because growers lack the funds to buy chemical pesticides and fertilizers. The 43-acre garden sits at a high elevation comparable to famous Darjeeling estates, which leads to slow, concentrated growth and tea leaves that can be steeped again and again. Nearby farmers have shown interest in joining the fledgling co-op and expanding its tea production. A few of the co-op’s members have made educational trips to factories in Nepal and India, where they’ve learned from other women in the industry how to improve their craft. Their tea is an intriguing mix of rustic and refined, recalling traditional Chinese green tea styles with a distinctive Himalayan terroir. Available frominpursuitoftea.com and camellia-sinensis.com