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 350 stories
Every story from Still Steeping, newest first. Pick a topic above to narrow it down.
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.
Chai: the way India drinks tea
Meeta Sharma on growing up making chai with her mother, what makes an authentic cup, and how chai became India’s everyday tea.
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.
Anik Basu on the origins of English afternoon tea, the tea cozy, and chota hazri, the early-morning tea meal of colonial India.
A tea merchant on the ancient wild tea trees of Yunnan and Southeast Asia, from cha miang and Puer to how wild tea differs from plantation tea.
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.
The Planter and the Tee – A Dooars Tale
An old letter about a golfing tea manager led Rydak planter Chirinjiv Bedi to build his own golf course in the Dooars, and to start the Corner Cup.
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.
The Future of Darjeeling’s Tea
Darjeeling tea faces fragile soil, politics and a short profitable season. A resident and two planters explain why the industry keeps reinventing itself.
Tea in Taiwan with Uncle Wang and Grandpa Hu
Zac O’Yeah drinks cup after cup of baozhong tea in a Pinglin village shop near Taipei, then haggles with Uncle Wang for a bag to carry home.
How Ruskin Bond helped me find my way back home
Prachi Sibal grew up in Doon ignoring Ruskin Bond. Years later his books brought her childhood rushing back, and sent her home to meet him.
Why Tea Is a Religion and Coffee Isn’t
Tea has its saints, scriptures and sacred teapots; coffee has none. An essay on how tea became a kind of religion while coffee became a science.
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.
How to judge the quality of tea
Tea quality starts in the leaf and is brought out in the factory. Here is how professional tasters judge it, and which descriptions and grades to trust.
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.
Our Pick of the Best Tea Blogs
Five tea blogs we love, from the stories of India’s chaiwallahs and tea travels in Morocco to tea reviews, tea science and Christmas tea crafts.
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?
The story of Earl Grey, the bergamot-scented blend made for Howick Hall’s water, and our tea expert’s advice on choosing the right Earl Grey for you.
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.
Flavored teas and tisanes are nothing new, argues David Lyons, tracing them from ancient China to masala chai and the young drinkers of the Sydney Tea Festival.
How Teabox ensures its teas are fresh
Teabox’s founder explains how a shorter supply chain, moisture limits, vacuum packing and cold storage protect tea from its four enemies.
A shop around the corner in Darjeeling
A shack in the middle of nowhere at Namring sets off a look at the shops, takeaways and taxi services Darjeeling tea garden workers build for themselves.
What’s selling at the Sydney Tea Festival?
At the Sydney Tea Festival, green tea and flower tisanes dominated and Indian black tea was nearly absent. Here is why that shift happened, and why it worries black tea.
When Gandhi and Lord Mountbatten met over a cup of tea
Marking Indian Independence Day with a 1947 photograph of Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Mountbatten sharing a cup of tea.
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.
What’s it like to be a poet on a tea estate?
Poet-painter Tanya Mendonsa on leaving Goa for a stone house on the Chamraj tea estate in the Nilgiris, and the solitude, wildlife and writing it brought her.
“Some English Breakfast for me, my dear!”
The story of English Breakfast tea, from its disputed origins and Queen Victoria’s endorsement to the toasty blend that takes milk so well.
A Tell-All with Legendary Spy Mata Hari
An imaginary chat over masala chai with Mata Hari, the femme fatale and World War I spy, who finally sets the record straight. Or does she?
Your Quest for the Perfect Tea Ends Here!
Khilan Haria, Teabox’s Head of Product, on building a machine learning prediction engine to help each tea drinker find their perfect tea.
On a tour of Darjeeling’s tea gardens, Anik Basu finds a temple at every plantation, and a little faith on a foggy road to Mim.
‘Attaining Tea Nirvana’ for the Lazy
Does a perfect cup need a table full of tea ware? Notes from Aaron Fisher’s The Way of Tea and a wish list of easy tools for brewing loose leaf tea.
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.
On a Comeback Trail in Orange Country
A visit to Darjeeling’s Avongrove tea estate, which lay abandoned for 28 years, and the manager working to bring it back with handcrafted teas.
What Became of the Small Leaf Tea?
Tea author Ian Bersten on how small leaf black tea was pushed aside by teabags and large leaf tea, and the brewing and packaging myths behind it.
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.
A Secret Tea Garden in the Clouds
How a forgotten East India Company report and a Khasi family legacy led to LaKyrsiew, a small organic tea garden in the hills of Shillong, Meghalaya.
A Teatime Lesson in Writing Crime Fiction
Over ginger-spiced tea in an old Bangalore café, crime writer Zac O’Yeah shares how a Delhi tout inspired his novel, and five lessons in writing crime fiction.
Listening to the Wind of Change
A week in Darjeeling’s tea gardens reveals a quiet cultural change: plantation workers determined to give their children a good education.
Choice and Happiness in Modern Times
From Chaplin’s assembly line to Howard Moskowitz’s ‘perfect Diet Pepsis’, a look at how choice became our route to happiness, and what it means for 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.
How winter frost in the Nilgiris slows the tea plant and gives frost teas their heady floral, spicy aroma, while northern gardens rest until spring.
Creating Flavor in Mystical Isolation
A visit to Darjeeling’s remote Jungpana tea estate, where everything is carried up 600 steps and the teas win championships.
On the road to Avongrove in Darjeeling, two young brothers from the tea garden tell us what they want to be when they grow up.
Behind the Scenes: Making of Our Iced Tea
How a stray office remark led Teabox to create iced tea blends inspired by Indian summer coolers, from tasting sprees to launch day.
Seoul Searching for Darjeeling Tea
A chance meeting at Goomtee’s bungalow with a young Korean tea buyer who honeymooned in Darjeeling and now sells its teas in her Seoul tea room.
Pests welcome, say garden owners
A week of garden-hopping in Darjeeling reveals planters who fret over missing ladybirds, ban hunting and grow tea without pesticides.
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.
Tea or coffee? I swing both ways!
Outspoken Australian tea and coffee trader Ian Bersten on loving both drinks equally, brewing with fannings and why particle size matters more than time.
Notes from a buying trip to Assam’s tea estates during the summer flush, from Chubwa’s history and Halmari’s spotless factory to Basmatia’s golden tippy tea.
Is Tea-Tasting Only for Experts?
A veteran tea buyer shows how anyone can learn to taste tea like a pro: the standard setup, how to slurp and sniff, and a tea-taster’s vocabulary.
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.
Why the second flush is the season tea lovers wait for, from the elusive muscatel flavor of Darjeeling to the dark, malty summer teas of Assam.
Writing Novels, Drinking Assam Tea
Novelist Shona Patel on her tea garden childhood in Assam, writing Teatime for the Firefly and its prequel, and the strong Assam tea she writes with.
From Zoetrope’s writing workshops to the Galle Literary Festival, why Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is so relevant, and why Americanah is a riveting read.
Forgive Me Chai, It’s Summer (Iced Chai Recipe)
A homemade iced tea flops, then a cup of masala chai left to cool sparks an idea. Here is the easy iced chai recipe that came out of it.
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.
Rising from the embers – Kangra’s tea gardens
Frank Miller traces Kangra tea from its 19th-century beginnings through the 1905 earthquake to its slow revival, and explains why the tea is special.
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.
The Top Tea Growing Regions of India
A quick guide to Darjeeling, Assam, Kangra and the Nilgiris, India’s best-known tea regions, and what makes each one’s tea distinctive.
How Not To Make A Bitter Cup Of Tea
A materials scientist tests nine teas for bitterness, flavor and re-brewing to find the ones that forgive clumsy steeping.
Cross Country in Search of the Chai Wallah
Two former Fulbright scholars met over 1,000 chai wallahs across India. Resham Gellatly and Zach Marks on the people behind the cup and their own chai.
At Goomtee tea estate in Darjeeling, Manju didi weighs every plucker’s bag twice a day, and has risen from clerk to supervisor.
Who’s Drinking Tea in America?
Why more Americans are drinking tea, who is driving the boom, and why most of the tea the US imports comes from Argentina.
Of Vivien Leigh, Peter Sarstedt & Toy Trains
Anik Basu recalls growing up in the Darjeeling hills in the 1970s: toy trains, boarding school, cricket on mats and a first snowfall.
Walking Through Goomtee Tea Garden
At dawn on Goomtee tea estate in Darjeeling, we walked with Amar Subba, a sprayer taking his daughters to school, who once dreamed of playing football.
How the April 2015 Nepal earthquake touched the Teabox team, and the UNICEF relief fundraiser we set up to help Nepal rebuild.
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.
A photo postcard from Rohini tea estate in Darjeeling, where women sorting tea samples wear the laal pola, the red bangle of married women.
Sip on a spring tea, soak in humor
Six funny books for spring, from Nick Hornby to Sydney Padua, each paired with a spring Darjeeling, an oolong or a herbal tisane.
From a family of Siliguri entrepreneurs to Darjeeling Tea Xpress and then Teabox: the founder’s story of selling fresh teas direct from the estates using tech.
A short postcard from Aravinda on joining a band of tea folks at Teabox: so much tea, so much choice, so many stories.
Sick days, comic books and Mom’s special masala chai with ginger, pepper, fennel and cardamom: a warm childhood memory, and the grown-up version brewed today.
Moving from Bombay to Bangalore for a job at Teabox, the writer finds comfort in a tea mug from her friends, until the day it breaks.
Raised on Madras filter coffee and hating every sip, the writer finds her zen in a cup of spiced chai shared with a friend on a terrace at 14.
An ode to afternoon tea: how the ritual began, the etiquette of the right tea, food and table setting, and how it lives on in teahouses and at home.
A tea lover’s case in the age-old tea vs coffee debate: five reasons tea wins, from food pairings to a new tea for every mood and season.
5 lies you’ve been told about tea
From green tea for weight loss to tea bags being as good as loose leaf, five popular tea myths and what is actually true about each.
First flush teas: A refreshing class of tea
What first flush teas are, when they are plucked, how they taste and why Darjeeling’s spring harvest is among the most prized and expensive teas in the world.
Tea flushes – Your guide to tea harvest
First, second, monsoon, autumn and winter: a short guide to the tea flushes of India and how each harvest season shapes the flavor of the tea.
A Handbook to Gifting Tea: The Perfect Teabox Gift for Every Occasion
A guide to choosing a tea gift, with a Teabox gift box matched to every kind of tea lover, from Darjeeling devotees and chai fans to first-time tea drinkers.
The Song Dynasty legend behind the ‘black dragon tea’, how semi-oxidized oolong is made, and what to look for when you buy one.
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.
Black tea – All you need to know
The legend of black tea’s birth in Fujian, why the Chinese call it red tea, how orthodox black tea is made, and why it suits breakfast and afternoon cups.
White tea – A quick and dirty guide
A quick guide to white tea: where its name comes from, why it is the least processed of all teas, and what to look for when buying it.
4 easy, must-try cocktail recipes with tea
Can’t choose between tea and alcohol? These easy tea cocktails pair whisky, rum and absinthe with Darjeeling, Assam and Nepal teas.
How tea really became popular across the world
From Garraway’s 1657 ad and the Hanway–Johnson feud to cheap sugar and India’s chai boom, a look at what really made tea the world’s favorite drink.
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.