Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Issue 3 | Page 45
Tea gardens in Nepal
by Marianne Heredge
Workers picking tea leaves. Photo: RMT.
Many people don’t know this, but the tea grown here can be
better than that of neighbouring Darjeeling. Though similar to the
world famous Darjeeling teas, it is not only quite a lot cheaper,
but can be of much finer quality. Sharing similar geographical
and topographical conditions as Darjeeling, tea here was first
introduced in Nepal a decade or so after it became established
in Darjeeling.
Nepal’s teas stand out from those coming from Darjeeling and
connoisseurs reckon some of the teas to be far better in aroma,
fusion, taste and colour. However, Nepal tea is still unknown to
much of the outside world. It lacks marketing, and production
often fails to meet demand.
Hybrids of tea bushes were planted in Ilam Tea Estate in Ilam
district at an altitude of 1,300-1,500 meters above sea level in
1863. Two years later a second tea plantation, Soktim Tea Estate
was set up in the Jhapa district.
Though the Darjeeling tea industry took off in India in the
following decades, tea in Nepal failed even to provide enough to
meet domestic consumption. Political turmoil and the resulting
economic policies under the Ranas were largely to blame.
It was not until a century later in the 1950s when there were
moves to develop into a democratic country that Nepal’s
economy started to open up to the rest of the world. There was
the start of public and private investment into the stagnant tea
industry and the first private tea plantation, Bhudhakaran Tea
Estate was set up in the Terai in 1959.
More recently in 1996, the Nepal Tea Development Corporation
(NTDC) was set up to assist in the development of the industry.
In the old days, tea grown in Nepal was sent to Darjeeling for
processing. The younger Nepalese tea plants produced leaves
that helped improve the quality of the tea harvested from the
This first flush fetches the highest prices, not
only for its fine flavor, but also as it is produced
in much lower quantity.
older Darjeeling tea plants. Eventually in 1978, a tea factory was
set up in Ilam to process tea, with a second factory set up in
Soktim in Jhapa district soon after.
Up until the 1990s, efforts were made by to encourage small
farmers to grow and produce tea. These small farmers now
produce most of Nepal’s tea. By 1982 there were five districts
designated as Tea Zones of Nepal: Jhapa, Ilam, Panchthar,
Dhankuta and Terhathum.
Various non-governmental organizations like Winrock, SNV and
GTZ have sought to encourage development of the industry,
seeing it as a way to help eradicating poverty in the rural areas
where the tea plantations are concentrated.
Types of tea
Like in Darjeeling, much of the tea is orthodox tea. This refers
to the process where the tea is hand-processed or rolled by
machines that copy the hand rolling process. This includes
most specialty teas like green tea, oolong tea, white tea and
hand rolled tea. The first flush harvest starts at the end of
March and lasts about a month. This is when the leaves are
at their most tender and the liquor is a light yellow-green color,
with a delicate taste and subtle aroma. This first flush fetches
the highest prices, not only for its fine flavor, but also as it is
produced in much lower quantity.
The second flush starts in the middle of May and lasts for a
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