Makaibari Tea Estate

Greetings from Darjeeling! Well, technically, we're in Kurseong. Actually, we're in a village called Makaibari, which is a bit south of Kurseong, which is 29 Km south of the town of Darjeeling. But it's all in the Darjeeling district, so who's keeping track? And it's India so do you really expect anything to be straightforward (insert head wobble)!

After a hair-riaising taxi ride - our first of many - up here from the train station, we arrived at the Makaibari Tea Estate (www.makaibari.com), our home for the next month or so.


maggie arriving at the estate

Seth used to serve and enjoy Makaibari tea many years ago when he worked at Tealuxe, and we both had been planning for this moment a long time, so it was an incredible experience to actually show up at the place where it's all grown an processed.


a bird's eye view of the factory and surrounding village

The people here are wonderful - everyone is extremely nice and welcoming, and all of the village children are eager to practice their English on a couple of fair-skinned folks passing by. It is weird to think that we are still in India - the people here are an ethnic mix of Indian, Tibetan, and, especially, Nepali. Most people here are fluent in Nepali, Hindi, and Bengali, and a lot are pretty good at English. We're doing our best to learn a few basics of Nepali.

Shortly after we arrived, we were introduced to Pasan, whose house we are staying at while we are here. It's a wonderful slice of Makaibari life. We share the house with Pasan, his wife Sonju, their 5-year old son Sonam, his two parents, his cousin-brother (male cousin) Rupak, 4 goats, about 8 chickens, a dog, a cat, and an 11' x 12' cherry tomato plant.


seth in front of the house where we're staying. it's the green one.


the giant tomato plant coming in through the kitchen window

In our first week we had a quick crash course in the whole operation, and got to spend an entire day plucking tea, learning the proper "two leaves and a bud" technique. There's definitely more of that to come. By the end of the week, we were sat down at a meeting with all of the field managers and grilled by them as to our future plans with tea. At the end of the meeting, all of the managers, as well as the owner of Makaibari (more on him soon) applauded us and our plans. Incredible.


typical sight.


even more typical sight.


tea!


our new friend lila showing us the proper pluck.


maggie plucking properly.