Still Steeping
Stories from India’s tea gardens, kitchens and cups: the people who grow and make tea, the places it comes from, and how to brew it well.
New to tea? Start here
Five stories, in reading order, that cover the basics.
From the gardens
Darjeeling, Assam and the Nilgiris, seen up close.
A walk through Darjeeling’s tea gardens
A spring walk through Darjeeling’s tea gardens, in photographs: the pluckers, the neighbors, the kids and the landscape.
Assam Diaries: A tour of Halmari
A day with the manager of Assam’s famed Halmari tea estate, from the morning plucking charts and the fields to the factory and the afternoon tasting.
The Happy Monks of Darjeeling
On the road between Darjeeling tea estates, Anik Basu meets monks who count cash, play ludo and coach football, and visits a monastery built above a shop.
The Changing Face of Tea Gardens in the Nilgiris
Workers from eastern India now fill the lines on Nilgiri tea estates, as the educated children of Tamil estate workers move on to professions in the cities.
People of tea
Blenders, buyers, brokers and writers on a life in tea.
A Blender of Teas
From blending tea at Starbucks in Seattle to the Teabox office in Siliguri: Shruti on tasting days, fussy palates and whether blending is art or science.
Meet the team: Ravi Kothari, Tea Buyer
Teabox tea buyer Ravi Kothari on his years in tea broking, switching to the buyer’s side of the table, and what Teabox’s quality checks taught him about tea.
Remembering the days of manual tea auction
A Siliguri tea buyer looks back on the noise, rivalry and friendships of the manual tea auction, which went online in 2011.
From Europe and food to Asia and tea
Food writer Jeff Koehler on moving from Spanish and Moroccan cookbooks to Darjeeling, his book on the region’s tea, and the teas he drinks.
Music to steep by
Pianist Preetam Koilpillai plays short pieces by Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann and Gershwin.
All episodes →Tea and food
Recipes and pairings for the table and the tea break.
Tea through history
Samurai, clippers and emperors, and the tea they drank.
All 131 stories
Every story from Still Steeping, newest first. Pick a topic above to narrow it down.
The Element of Water: Get Your Tea Right
Water makes up 99% of your cup. Five simple rules on temperature, pH, minerals and spring water to brew better tea.
The Sweet Palate, a Cup of Joy
In unhurried Kolkata, chai is sweet, saffron-scented and served in clay cups, usually at the end of a street food binge or an adda.
Bombay’s Lifeline – Cutting Chai
Before the first local train leaves, the chaiwallah is already brewing. The story of cutting chai, Mumbai’s half-glass lifeline.
From the first Silver Tips at Thurbo to record auction prices at Castleton: how Arun Kumar Gomden came to name Darjeeling muscatel.
A light-hearted Mother’s Day poem from a daughter to her tea-loving mother, and a tribute to all moms who carried us through tough times.
Teabox had reached 117 countries, so we asked tea lovers around the world to share photos and stories of their favorite tea, with a little poem of our own.
Designer Julie Kagti remembers learning to spin yarn beside her grandmother’s loom, and how Assam’s weaving traditions still shape her work.
A Mother’s Day tribute to the mothers of the Nilgiris, who raise children in a small hill town and gather over tea to hold each other up.
The Glenburn Boutique Hotel, Darjeeling
How a tea planter’s bungalow on Glenburn estate became one of Darjeeling’s most loved boutique hotels, told by Husna-Tara Prakash.
Adam’s Peak: Higher and higher, better and better
Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka makes one of the rarest white teas in the world. How much is made, what makes it special, what it costs and whether it is worth it.
Memories of tea and conversation
Three decades of friendship, dogs, stories and cups of Nilgiri tea with Shireen Sethna in her old colonial bungalow in Coonoor.
A tribute to the ultimate tea explorer
Remembering Drew Bednasek of the Teaxplorer blog: his humble, friendly tea writing, his love of travel and the optimism he brought to every cup.
A 99-day South American adventure
Three days after her 59th birthday, Aditi set off alone on a 99-day journey through seven South American countries. Over tea, she tells the story.
Meet three women who changed tea: the Portuguese princess who made it fashionable in England, the duchess behind afternoon tea, and the woman who opened chado to girls.
A walk through Darjeeling’s tea gardens
A spring walk through Darjeeling’s tea gardens, in photographs: the pluckers, the neighbors, the kids and the landscape.
Bringing the world home – at the Kochi Muziris Biennale
Over a cup of tea at Aspinwall House, Bose Krishnamachari tells the story of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and how it turned Kochi into an art route.
Sangeetha Shinde remembers The Ritz Hotel in Coonoor, its creeper-covered walls, its sugary cups of tea and the kind woman who ran it.
A day on tour with guitarist Daniel Kenneth Rego, told through the cups of tea that bookend his flights, sound checks and shows.
Teatime, Talktime (feat. Anjum Hasan and Zac O’Yeah)
Every afternoon, authors Anjum Hasan and Zac O’Yeah stop for tea. Here is a playful “transcript” of one such break, from Temi tea to Orwell’s golden rules.
The Beginner’s Guide to Winter Flush Teas from the Nilgiris
Plucked between late December and January, Nilgiri winter flush teas are aromatic, intense and easy to love. Our illustrated guide helps you navigate them.
An essay on reclaiming peace from the rush of modern life, and how a solitary cup of tea can open the door to stillness.
When King Coffee Bowed Out to Tea
A Nilgiris ghost story leads into the history of how blight, pests, falling prices and a gold rush made the hills switch from coffee to tea.
Everything you needed to know about the kettle
A checklist for choosing your next kettle, from stovetop versus electric to safety, pouring, build quality and temperature settings for different teas.
Remembering the days of manual tea auction
A Siliguri tea buyer looks back on the noise, rivalry and friendships of the manual tea auction, which went online in 2011.
A Nilgiris native on the people who left, the people who came and the people who stayed in her small, vast tea district in South India.
Sounds of Music in the Nilgiris
Sangeetha Shinde on Coonoor, the Nilgiris tea town where fifties tunes play at Cedric’s, the Enos family teaches music and the choir sings on.
Madam Superintendent and Durga Puja in a Tea Garden
Romita Ray joins a Durga Puja run by the women of Mathura Tea Estate, the Dooars garden her great-grandfather planted, from mahashtami to immersion.
When Samurai Went to War And Drank Green Tea
Japan’s most feared warriors were also its great tea masters. How the samurai and Hideyoshi’s court shaped the tea ceremony, and the matcha at its heart.
Assam Diaries: A tour of Halmari
A day with the manager of Assam’s famed Halmari tea estate, from the morning plucking charts and the fields to the factory and the afternoon tasting.
Travel writer Zac O’Yeah tries suja, Bhutan’s salty, churned yak butter tea, at a Thimphu eatery and finds it goes down well as a broth after a meal.
A tour of the Tocklai Tea Research Institute
A visit to Jorhat’s Tocklai Tea Research Institute, which advises over 1,000 tea estates, from its tasting room and labs to the mother plant of the first clone.
Napoleon: Looking for battle, empire, love – and tea
Napoleon loved tea and all its accoutrements as much as he loved Josephine, and his lavish porcelain tea sets remain one of his enduring legacies.
Assam Diaries: The Jalans at Chota Tingrai
At Chota Tingrai in Assam, siblings Avantika and Mrityunjay Jalan are taking the estate organic, making green tea and hiring young talent over seniority.
Nepal: Innovation in the high Himalayas
Nepal’s smallholder tea industry offers some of the best bargains in tea, from organic Guranse to Ilam, Kanyam and Antu Valley.
Almost every great tea comes from a mountain. Here is why mountain regions are tea’s megabrands, and how to use them to explore new teas.
Purists beware: from ancient Chinese remedies to the tea blenders of Europe and Japan, tea has always been blended.
A clay cup of tea from National Award-winning potter Ismail Siddiq of Kutch begins a bond with his family that lasts for decades.
Tea in France: Not What You Might Expect
A Brit admits the best tea shops are French, then traces France’s early love of tea and what its designer blends teach us about finding good flavored tea.
For a century Europe sipped tea from handleless bowls. Then an alchemist’s lucky accident with kaolin gave us hard-paste porcelain and the teacup handle.
The Changing Face of Tea Gardens in the Nilgiris
Workers from eastern India now fill the lines on Nilgiri tea estates, as the educated children of Tamil estate workers move on to professions in the cities.
Perfumer Jahnvi Dameron Nandan bottles memories as scent. We meet her at the launch of the Memory Pod Project and learn why each of her perfumes carries a tea note.
A Himalayan trekker on why good tea is so hard to find on the trail, and the simple two-mug trick she uses to brew fresh leaf tea in the mountains.
Corn Pakodas with Avocado Chutney
Crispy, spicy corn pakodas with a cool avocado chutney: a not-so-traditional take on the monsoon fritters every Indian family craves with chai.
Preetam Koilpillai talks about train tracks and performs extracts from George Gershwin’s iconic piece, “Rhapsody in Blue.”
Single-serving jars layered with granola, mango puree and vanilla Greek yogurt: the simplest dessert or breakfast from our summer picnic series.
Strawberry Loaf – A Simple Recipe for a Summer Picnic
A moist, light strawberry loaf inspired by a mother’s recipe, the third in our summer picnic series and a reliable teatime bake.
Designer and potter Archana Srinivas photographed her daily cup of chai for years, then turned the pictures into a book. She shares her chai memories.
Preetam Koilpillai talks about and performs Schubert’s Impromptu No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 90. Play it while your tea steeps.
Fiber artist Maya Sara Matthew on trading city life for a slow, unscheduled one on a tea holding in Coonoor, in the Nilgiris.
The Sulaimani Tea (Recipe Included)
Aysha Tanya on the Malabari Eid feast and sulaimani, the lime-and-spice black tea that ends every meal, with her recipe.
Smetannik, a Russian tea tradition steeped in time
A Teabox intern from Russia shares her country’s tea rituals, from the samovar to zavarka, and her recipe for smetannik, a layered sour cream cake.
Preetam Koilpillai plays Chopin’s Prelude No. 4, Op. 28, from the Preludes written on the island of Majorca.
Tea Loaf Capers (Recipe Included)
Aditi De’s long hunt for a cake with real tea flavor ends in a Kashmiri recipe notebook, and her fat-free Tell-a-tale Tea Loaf.
Aysha Tanya on her mother’s restless passion for cooking and what four years of food blogging together have taught her.
The Tale of a City and Two Chroniclers
Mita Kapur meets photographers Dayanita Singh and Mayank Austen Soofi to ask what keeps them chronicling Delhi.
A simple summer cocktail of chilled green tea, sweet mango juice, mint, lime and white rum.
Preetam Koilpillai performs Mozart’s ever-popular ‘Rondo alla Turca’ on the piano.
Seeking Silence in the Salt Desert of Kutch
Zahra Amiruddin escapes ‘Bombay claustrophobia’ for Bhuj and the white salt desert of the Rann of Kutch, in a four-day photo journey.
A coarse, aromatic barbecue rub of Darjeeling black tea, warm spices and dried chilies that goes best with red meats and keeps for a month.
From Song Dynasty tea fighting in Fujian to today’s international brewing championships, a look at tea’s long history as a competitive sport.
Over chai in McLeod Ganj, Prachi Sibal meets Lhasang Tsering, the outspoken Tibetan activist who runs the Bookworm bookstore.
Aditi De joins a young couple for once, Chile’s evening tea meal, and explores why Chileans love tea, with Pablo Neruda’s ode to a box of tea.
Preetam Koilpillai plays the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on the Still Steeping podcast.
This week’s Still Steeping podcast features Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1.
Travels in the literary landscape of India
Zac O’Yeah takes us through a winter of Indian litfests, from the Kolkata Book Fair’s food stalls to chai and author encounters at the Jaipur Literature Festival.
This week’s Still Steeping podcast features Träumerei, one of Schumann’s best-known compositions.
Missives from Gunehar: Leaving the city
Prachi Sibal leaves Bangalore for an arts retreat in Gunehar, a Himalayan village near Bir, and settles into a slower life of verandas, goats and constant invitations to tea.
Where can we find the earliest reference to tea?
A stubborn servant, a mischievous poet and a contract from 59 BC: the story behind the earliest known written reference to tea.
[Podcast] Dead man walking (or trying to)
Preetam talks about a dead man and performs Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp minor in this episode of the Still Steeping podcast.
![[Podcast] Beaten by the choir](http://www.teabox.com/cdn/shop/articles/Podcast.jpg?v=1792143157&width=1200)
Beaten by the choir, an episode of the Still Steeping podcast, featuring Christian Sinding’s “Rustle of Spring.”
![[Podcast] The redemption of Elise](http://www.teabox.com/cdn/shop/articles/Podcast_for_elise-1.jpg?v=1792143135&width=1200)
[Podcast] The redemption of Elise
Pianist Preetam Koilpillai plays Beethoven’s Für Elise and looks at the mystery and infamy of one of the most famous piano pieces ever written.
![[Podcast] Love…and a little Chopin](http://www.teabox.com/cdn/shop/articles/rsz_teabox_day_30400.jpg?v=1792143132&width=1200)
[Podcast] Love…and a little Chopin
Our first Still Steeping podcast: pianist Preetam Koilpillai plays Chopin’s Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op. 64, No. 2 for Valentine’s Day.
Castleton and the mystery musk
The story and the truth behind the famous muscatel tea, and the Darjeeling estate that first produced it.
The artist, an interruption, and a conversation
An evening over chai with graphic novelist George Mathen, aka Appupen, on his imaginary world Halahala, 12-hour drawing days and the value of solitude.
Sudeshna Shome Ghosh opens her diary to three moments when a cup of tea changed the day, from exam nights in 1993 to her son’s first pot of tea.
From queues at loose tea shops to two-foot tea and endless adda, a Kolkata writer on why Bengalis cannot imagine tea without conversation.
What I Learned at My First Ever Tea Tasting
A two-day sensory analysis workshop with perfumer-turned-tea expert Carine Baudry, and what it taught one writer about tasting tea.
Musings at the End of the Year
The blog’s editor looks back on a year of tea stories and why a cup of tea is the best way to slow down and connect.
The Science Behind My Ginger Chai
Why did Srinath Perur’s ginger chai curdle whenever he made more than one cup? The answer lay in ginger enzymes, milk temperature and a Cantonese dessert.
Does the water you use really change the taste of tea? From Lu Yu’s mountain streams to filtered tap and bottled water, here is what to brew with.
Artist Bakula Nayak on how her mother-in-law’s exacting 4 pm tea ritual turned a new relationship into a deep bond, one perfect cup at a time.
On long Himalayan treks, every day starts and ends with a mug of chai. Sriparna Ghosh remembers the tent-teas and the cook who made her 120 cups.
Chinese Marbled Tea Eggs by Angel Wong
Angel Wong of Angel Wong’s Kitchen uses a Margaret’s Hope spring Darjeeling tea to make Chinese marbled tea eggs, a pretty snack for holiday menus.
Reminiscences of life on the tea estate
Over two hours and two cups, Pakhi Bagai shares vivid memories of growing up on the tea estates of Assam, from bow and arrows to elephants at the gate.
Hope and aspiration in Darjeeling’s tea gardens
Nirvan Subba, a schoolboy on Darjeeling’s Mim tea estate, wants to become a doctor so his community no longer has to travel 20 km to see one.
A five-minute winter hot toddy made with spring Darjeeling black tea, brandy and honey, served warm with a slice of lemon.
Bonnie Eng of Thirsty for Tea made holiday Spice Drawer Tea Sachets from our teas, and told us how she chooses teas for crafts, recipes and her daily cup.
Teh tarik milk tea: Pulling depth and sweetness from tea
Adeline Teoh traces her love of teh tarik, Malaysia’s sweet, frothy pulled tea made with strong black tea and condensed milk, back to her parents’ homeland.
Raised on filter coffee, Aravinda Anantharaman found tea on her own terms: strong Assam, big mugs, friends over for tea, and calm moments as a new mother.
From plucking and withering to oxidation, fixation, rolling and drying: the basic steps that turn fresh tea leaves into the tea in your cup.
A quick recipe for lemongrass chai made with fresh lemongrass, ginger, CTC tea and milk, perfect to start the day or cuddle into in the evening.
Meet Joy-da, the Siliguri chaiwallah whose stall on the ground floor of the Teabox office pours the team’s daily cup of Assam CTC chai.
Darye, the Korean tea ceremony
How Darye, the Korean tea ceremony, was revived in the 1970s, the simple teaware it uses, and the step-by-step ritual of brewing and sipping green tea.
Why we can’t resist dunking biscuits in tea
From Dr. Len Fisher’s dunking science to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a defense of dunking biscuits in tea against the fuss of tea sommeliers.
Chai and snacks: The Indian tea time
From Dehradun rusks and Tuticorin cashew macaroons to Gujarati nasto and Bangalore nippattu, a writer recalls the snacks that went with chai in every town she lived in.
The Story Behind Teabox’s New Brand Identity
Teabox and Pentagram partner Natasha Jen on the 2015 rebrand: finding the brand’s personality, a stencil typeface from old tea crates, packaging and lessons learned.
Ian Bersten traces why some cultures drink tea with milk and others without, from Mongolia and Victorian London dairies to the milk-first debate.
Tea in the Life of a Life Coach
Pip Stoneham visits life coach Katrena Friel and discovers why making and serving a cup of tea is a quiet but central part of every coaching session.
Meet the team: Ravi Kothari, Tea Buyer
Teabox tea buyer Ravi Kothari on his years in tea broking, switching to the buyer’s side of the table, and what Teabox’s quality checks taught him about tea.
Of Kings and Queens: The St. Helen’s Story
Old girls of St Helen’s, Kurseong, gather for its 125th year, with memories of classmates who became queens of Bhutan and Nepal, beef stew and Goethals socials.
From a witch in a Robert Burns poem to the China tea races and a dry dock in Greenwich: the story of the Cutty Sark, one of the last tea clippers.
A playful imagined tea with Jane Austen in an Istanbul café, on time travel, Regency cads, nights out and dating in the 21st century.
The Unusual Pairing of Green Tea with Cheese
Move over, wine. Why green tea works with cheese, from sencha with cheesecake to longjing with Fromage de Meaux, and how to try pairings at home.
In the wow zone at the Goomtee cottage
A stay at the visitors’ bungalow of Goomtee tea estate in Darjeeling, its books and pinewood floors, and the staff who make it memorable.
The First Thing: Mornings, Tea, and Meditation
An excerpt from Dana Velden’s Finding Yourself in the Kitchen on her daily teacup meditation: ten quiet minutes of just being.
Jerry Pinto on growing up in a family of tea drinkers in Mumbai, the many teas of the city, and how tea is made at Casa Pinto.
Tea Blends That Didn’t Quite Make It
Smoked rose tea, pumpkin spice tea and a saffron vanilla chai: three blending experiments that sounded perfect and went badly wrong.
On the road between Darjeeling tea estates, Anik Basu meets monks who count cash, play ludo and coach football, and visits a monastery built above a shop.
Novelist Dinah Jefferies on a childhood in Malaya, falling into writing, and researching The Tea Planter’s Wife, set on a 1920s Ceylon tea plantation.
Julie Brett spent a year training in Bujinkan martial arts in Japan. The surprise was the green tea breaks, and what they taught her about the way of tea.
Meet the man who created the Darjeeling oolong
Sumon Majumder nearly ended up selling gin. Instead he joined tea, made the first Darjeeling oolong at Namring, and returned years later to help rebuild the estate.
A teatime friendship prompts a bigger question: is real conversation becoming obsolete in our smartphone age, and can a cup of tea help bring it back?
A balancing act in the Darjeeling tea gardens
In Darjeeling’s tea gardens, an old 25-paisa coin is still the weight for tasting samples, and one estate uses a Pakistani quarter. Nobody quite knows why.
Our Man Booker shortlist for you
Our pick of six novels from the 2015 Man Booker longlist, with a cup of oolong to soothe your nerves through some heavy reading.
How a wounded Chindit soldier fell for a Lepcha nurse, became a planter at Lopchu, and raised a family in the tea gardens of Darjeeling and Assam.
From Europe and food to Asia and tea
Food writer Jeff Koehler on moving from Spanish and Moroccan cookbooks to Darjeeling, his book on the region’s tea, and the teas he drinks.
8 Tips for Creating Your Own Tea Blends
Eight practical tips for blending your own tea at home with spices, herbs, flowers and fruit, from ingredient ratios to blending for iced tea.
Three heirloom tea sets sit carefully stored away, but the writer’s real treasure is a chipped polka-dotted mug that holds a generous cup.
The autumn flush, India’s third harvest: woody, understated Darjeeling autumnals for quiet evenings, and spicy Nilgiri teas as the season turns.
What a Progressive Tea Industry Needs
Manisha Singh grew up on Assam’s tea estates and now manages 400 pluckers as a field assistant, one of the few women in the ranks of the tea gardens.
Postcard from a Teabox customer
Longtime tea lover Marion Ware writes about growing up on tea in Vienna, drinking it from a clear glass, and discovering muscatel teas with Teabox.
Conversations from a tea garden
A break-time conversation with tea pluckers at Jungpana in Darjeeling, about bad rains, good harvests and weather that offers no guarantees.
From Zoetrope’s writing workshops to the Galle Literary Festival, why Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is so relevant, and why Americanah is a riveting read.
What a Perfect Breakfast Must Include
A customer’s picture-perfect morning: a cup of tea, a big breakfast and his dog, plus the teas that carry him from Assam at breakfast to chai at night.
What’s the fuss about the first flush?
Why Darjeeling’s first flush is so eagerly awaited: when the spring harvest runs, how lightly the teas are processed, and why they fetch top prices.
A Postcard from Darjeeling: Thinking Spring
A spring snapshot from Darjeeling: a little shop near Goomtee used by tea garden workers, and the flower gardens that mark the season in the hills.
Living the Life of a Tea Explorer
Drew Bednasek of the Teaxplorer blog on falling for tea, drinking chai in Kenya, his teaware habits and the five teas he could not do without.
From blending tea at Starbucks in Seattle to the Teabox office in Siliguri: Shruti on tasting days, fussy palates and whether blending is art or science.
Famous Shakespeare lines, each followed by what the Bard might say today if he swung by a tea shop.
The ins & outs of tea diplomacy
Modi’s gift of Indian teas to US CEOs, Mandela’s tea with a general plotting war, and why a cup of tea has long been a quiet tool of diplomacy.
4 common myths on organic farming
A former skeptic asks an agriculture expert about four common beliefs on organic farming, from chemicals and soil health to yield and the taste of organic tea.