| |
Our Featured Tea Estates |
 |
|
|
|
ARYA Tea Estate - Darjeeling’s shining jewel
Arya - ‘respectable’ and ‘best’ as defined in the Indian language. The estate’s teas reflect the best qualities of first and second flush teas as well as green and rare teas. Arya tea estate is located close to Darjeeling town. Previously known as ‘Sidrabong’ in its early days, it was christened by a Buddhist monk in early 18th century and meant ‘Water Holy Fish’. The company ‘Arya Tea Company’ was formally registered with the Indian registrar of companies in 1885.
The plantation starts at an altitude of 1820 metres spreading down to 900 metres with an average of around 1500 metres. It has just over 300 acres under tea and used to produce about 90 MT till its conversion to ‘ORGANIC’. The estate is now fully certified as ‘ORGANIC’ by IMO Switzerland for the EU and USDA but this has resulted in the crop falling to 65 MT. The conversion to organic is in keeping with the management’s philosophy for safeguarding consumer health while offering a premium product. This also gives us an opportunity to show our regard for the environment and soil from which we derive our tea. The estate has always paid special emphasis on labour relations and consider our work force to be the back bone of the estate’s existence. We pride ourselves on the excellent co-operation that has existed between the labour and management of the estate.
Arya tea estate has the distinction of having the first hydel power generation in Asia. According to historical records at the garden, this garden was established by a team of Buddhist monks who developed and cultured different varieties of Chinese seeds at the time. Since ancient times these monks practised Ayurveda medical science and the garden till today preserves the house where they used to live.
Some of the rare teas produced here at very high production costs are the hand made pearl white tea, pouchong teas, oolongs, emerald gykoru type and other specialties. The new clonal plantations of the estate produces high quality clonal teas which are also marketed as Arya ‘Ruby’ - a rare jewel !
The roads leading to the estate are extremely cumbersome, often with a gradient of upto 60 degrees, and it is a challenge to even drive a 4 wheel vehicle here. A phased programme for new cultivation is under implementation, and almost USD 120,000 was spent for factory modernisation in 1997 and 1998. Unfortunately, the factory was destroyed by fire in May 1999, and a new modern factory was immediately constructed at a further cost of USD 350,000.
We invite you to unravel the mystique of Arya teas and savour the pleasure.
|
|
|
|
|
