As a chef and the child of an Englishman, I am fascinated by tea. I drink several cups a day of ‘proper’ tea; black tea with milk and sugar. Darjeeling is of course famous the world over for tea production. The soil, altitude and climate are perfect for growing tea. So I booked a taxi and set off to visit Happy Valley Tea Estate on the south side of the mountain.
The entrance to the Happy Valley Tea Plantation processing plant.
Again I was told not to photograph so apologies for the poor quality, I took this on the sly. 😉 This chalk board keeps track of the daily yields according to which group collected them; contract workers (all female), male workers and day workers.
Tea leaves are sorted and dried in these long bins.
Several varieties are available to sample at the end of the tour. This charming lady is a tea picker and occasional hostess for tour groups.
The small store where we tourists shelled out the bucks for some delicious tea.
Shots of the plantation as well as some workers and the farm dog. (As far as I could tell he guarded the out house).
This is a video I shot out in the plantation. During the guided tour we learned a lot about which leaves are harvested and why. I wanted to give you all a little tour of the plantation and recite what I could remember from the lessons in tea making I had just learned. Obviously I am still learning about how to shoot and narrate a video for the web!
tyler christian brown 