Aroon Thaewchatturat

Ethnobotanist - Photographer

 
 
   
 

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Organic Tea in Darjeeling, India
       

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Asia and Away (Voyage)

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LifeStyle+Travel

 
 
  Tea Pluckers at Makaibari Estate, Dajeeling  
     
       
Mr. Banerjee at his morning tea test.
           
                       
     
Mr. Banerjee at work, Makaibari Estate, Dajeeling
Tea Drying Process at Makaibari Estate, Dajeeling
       
               
 

“Life is chaos, the world is chaos. The only constant is change. I like chaos and the way you position yourself in it. Where do we come from? What are we doing here and where are we going? We need to answer these questions to be free, to find our way. That’s what I’m doing in my tea garden.”
Not the sort of introduction one would expect from a tea plantation owner in the Darjeeling hills. But then, Rajah Banerjee is not an ordinary man.
The enigmatic fourth heir to Makaibari sells the most expensive tea in the world. His top of the range Silver Tips wholesales at 440$ a kilo and markets in Europe, the US and Japan are fighting for the estate’s annual crop. 85% of Makaibari’s tea is sold outside India.
The Makaibari Tea Estates produce only organic and biodynamic tea. The green revolution brings high dividends and other plantations are increasingly taking note.

Full Text by Tom Vater www.tomvater.com