The Tea Trail · six nights
In 2004 Darjeeling tea became the first product in India with its name protected as a geographical indication. Across the Rangeet, on Tendong Hill, Sikkim's last Chogyal planted Temi in 1969. This journey follows the leaf over that river.
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Day 1 · Kurseong
At Cochrane Place, ringed by Makaibari, Castleton and Ambootia, your guide sets out one tea from each at 17:00. The last two do not open their factories, so we buy their current season ahead. You taste with a spoon and a loud slurp, as buyers do, and pick before the labels come off.
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Day 2 · Ghum, 2,258 m (7,410 ft)
An early visit to Makaibari, certified organic in 1988, while the rollers turn last night's leaf. Then up through Kurseong to Ghum, the week's highest point, and down the Peshok road to Glenburn. In the afternoon, Gorkhay Daara, with the estate below and Kanchenjunga beyond.
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Day 3 · Kimble Division
Two leaves and a bud, snapped clean between thumb and finger and tossed over the shoulder into the basket: the gesture drawn on the 1983 Darjeeling logo. In spring the shoot is small and pale, and your own basket fills with humbling slowness.
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Day 4 · Manjitar
The British hung it in 1902, after the floods of 1899 carried off the cane bridge. From the middle, the tea behind you is Darjeeling's and the forest ahead is Sikkim's. Indian guests may cross; foreign passports stop at the far end and enter Sikkim by road the next day.
Photo: Boudhayan Bardhan / Unsplash
Day 5 · into Sikkim
89 km and about four hours, past slopes near Namchi where large cardamom grows under alder, to Ravangla at about 2,000 m (6,560 ft). Foreign guests show their printed Sikkim permit at Melli. Mt Narsing, the last house, is plain and quiet, and we say so.
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Day 6 · Temi
Temi falls in terraces from Tendong Hill across 177 hectares, set up in 1969 by Palden Thondup Namgyal. Organic conversion began in 2005 and was complete by 2008. Walk the terraces, taste the grades from 'Temi' through 'Solja' to 'Sikkim', and buy at the garden shop.
Photo: Harsh Suthar / Pexels
Day 6 · evening
Every tea you have met in six days, set out again without labels. See whether you can now tell the Temi from the Glenburn. Go March to May or October to early November; from ₹1,55,000 per person. Anyone on a foreign passport needs Sikkim's permit for the last two nights.
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