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For some of us, tea is caffeinated fuel for the daily grind. But in the Indian state of Sikkim, Nikhil Pradhan considers it an economic lifeline. Once an independent Himalayan kingdom bordering Bhutan, Tibet, and West Bengal, then annexed by India in 1975, Sikkim is remote. Really remote. An agricultural region networked by rugged mountain roads that are prone to seasonal floods, India\u2019s least populous state doesn\u2019t have many opportunities for stable, consistent work. \u201cRural folk have become dependent on government handouts and infrastructure projects where they find work as porters or drivers,\u201d Pradhan says. \u201cFew are choosing to stay in agriculture and livestock. Most young people are moving to urban centers for better job prospects.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pradhan and his wife, Dolka Densapa, are owners of Bermiok Tea Estate, a 40-acre garden producing some of India\u2019s finest and most interesting teas. The estate\u2019s airy first flushes and woodsy oolongs can go toe to toe with pedigreed productions from Darjeeling, the country\u2019s most celebrated tea region, less than 100 miles away. Just as important, Bermiok affords 20 locals an opportunity to earn a sustainable income close to home, without compromising Sikkim\u2019s natural landscape.<\/p>\n
\nAs demand for specialty tea grows by leaps and bounds, drinkers all over have the chance to try new and delicious varieties from often unexpected regions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Thirteen million people worldwide make their living from growing and processing tea. More than 60 percent of them are independent farmers with plots of land even smaller than Bermiok\u2019s, and most don\u2019t live where you think. Tea is produced in more than 30 countries, increasingly in small, premium batches made to stand out from the global market rather than blend in. As demand for specialty tea grows by leaps and bounds, drinkers all over have the chance to try new and delicious varieties from often unexpected regions.<\/p>\n
The story of global tea cultivation is one of trade and conquest. Buddhist monks from Japan studied the leaf in China before cultivating it back home; British imperial might planted tea through India and Sri Lanka; Chinese immigrants carried seeds in their pockets to grow on new shores in Taiwan. Kenya, the world\u2019s largest tea producer after China and India, first developed its tea industry through European colonial projects. In places like Turkey and Colombia, though, tea farming emerged and was sustained by homegrown economic initiatives.<\/p>\n
Because fresh leaves have to be withered, rolled, and dried within hours of plucking, tea is considered a value-added product with higher returns than subsistence farming or cash crops like corn and soybeans. The Tea & Coffee Trade Journal<\/em>\u2019s 2023 Global Tea Report calls it a \u201cpoverty relief crop\u201d that is \u201cinstrumental in keeping populations \u2026 in remote rural areas.\u201d This value proposition has made tea a priority for agricultural authorities, even in places with little cultural connection to the drink.<\/p>\n
Claudio Guti\u00e9rrez, the tea specialist for Bitaco Tea in Colombia\u2019s Cuaca Valley, explains that the region\u2019s secretary of agriculture first received live tea plants from Sri Lanka in 1946, and asked a local coffee-farming family to try growing the plants as part of a crop diversification policy. Bitaco\u2019s fields soar 6,000 feet above sea level on hilly terrain with a humid climate\u2014ideal conditions for tea cultivation. When the initial trials proved successful, farmer Joaqu\u00edn Llano Gonz\u00e1lez cleared more land for planting and studied production at tea plantations abroad. He spent the next decade buying equipment, planting more fields, and training workers to process fresh leaves into finished tea. Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s T\u00e9 Hind\u00fa company became Colombia\u2019s leading tea brand by the 1960s.<\/p>\n
\nMost of the world\u2019s tea farms are single-family, smallholder operations, where growers pluck green leaves to sell to nearby factories. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Gardens like Bermiok in Sikkim and Bitaco in Colombia represent one model of tea cultivation, in which centrally owned farms process their own leaf for sale. But most of the world\u2019s tea farms are single-family, smallholder operations, where growers pluck green leaves to sell to nearby factories. This is especially true in East Africa, and in most cases, it\u2019s a raw deal. Farmers are usually stuck selling to the only buyer in the region at whatever price that factory sets. It\u2019s less \u201cpoverty relief crop\u201d and more colonial plantation infrastructure by another name. Typically, the tea is grown with an eye toward yield over quality, and processed into low-grade, anonymous commodity leaf that\u2019s bought and blended by multinational giants like Lipton and Twinings.<\/p>\n
However, thanks to the growth of the specialty teamarket\u2014and easier access to affordable tea-making equipment\u2014enterprising smallholders in East Africa and elsewhere are increasingly rejecting this model in favor of farmer-owned cooperatives. Farmers pool their leaves at factories of their own design, then skilled workers process them into higher-quality specialty grades inspired by Indian, Chinese, and Japanese styles. These factories can only produce a fraction of the tea made by the conglomerates, but it\u2019s distinctive tea with terroir that can be sold at a premium.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s most exciting is how good the tea tastes already. China still produces about half of the world\u2019s tea, and that makes sense\u2014farmers there have had a few thousand years to figure it out. Specialty tea production in regions like Colombia and East Africa is only a few decades old. In 20 or 30 years, curious growers from tea juggernaut nations might be visiting Tanzania and Colombia to see how indie producers do their own thing. It\u2019s a deliciously diverse landscape to explore.<\/p>\n