Bermiok: Sikkim’s Boutique Tea Garden and the People Behind It

Bermiok was started by Tashi Densapa, a Buddhist reincarnate known as the Bermiok Rinpoche. In the family’s own account, written for us in 2020, the aim was “the first professionally managed private tea estate in Sikkim.”

It was slow work. The family writes that it took two years just to make the land fit for planting, and that “in 2002-03 we planted 100% high variety Darjeeling clonal teas.” Clonal bushes are grown from cuttings of chosen parent plants, so every bush in a section behaves alike. Young bushes need years before they can be plucked for fine tea, and Bermiok made its first commercial tea only in 2008, in its own micro factory. We have called it one of the youngest estates in the country.

Bermiok is run by Nikhil Pradhan, who co-owns the garden with his wife, Dolka. Dolka is Tashi Densapa’s daughter, and Nikhil, his son-in-law, is “a veteran tea planter’s son” who left a career in global consulting for the garden. In June 2020 Nikhil joined our founder for a live “Meet the Growers” session as owner of Bermiok.

To see how Bermiok fits beside Temi, the state’s older and far larger garden, read The Temi tea garden.

It sits at 2,500 to 3,200 feet in the highlands of Sikkim, much lower than Temi, and its climate gives teas “rich in aroma and woody in taste.” It is known for its care for the environment and for the women who work there.

It is spread over 15 acres. Our 2019 supplier records put its crop at about 1,500 kg of tea a year, made by around 40 workers. Temi, by comparison, makes about 100,000 kg.

How the family makes its tea

The family describes a garden run with outside experience and local hands.

• Advisers: retired planters with more than 100 years of experience between them guide the estate.
• Small batches: the tea is made in small lots and sorted by hand, so each batch can be judged on its own.
• The workforce: local women are, in the family’s word, “the backbone” of the garden.
• Organic standing: the garden says it is certified by the Sikkim Organic Mission and recognized by the Tea Board.
• Buyers: it sells direct, “working closely with innovative tea traders like Teabox.”

One of those women is Kalpana Subba, who started at Bermiok as a plucker and rose to lead the team in its tea factory. When we met her in 2021 she had worked in the garden for eight years, eight hours a day. “Everything that you see, as far as your eyes travel, I know them well,” she told us. “I wanted to know more, about how tea is made, and what is done. And I got the opportunity.”

Her story is told in full in A Day in the Life: Kalpana from Bermiok, written by our team on a rainy morning in the garden during the 2021 lockdown. A few details from it:

• Her start: she studied until class 5, and her parents spent their working lives as day laborers in the bastee, the local word for village.
• Her day: she wakes at 6, makes breakfast, works eight hours in the garden, and ends her day around 8:30 or 9 at night.
• Her family: she was 33 in 2021, married at 18, and a mother of two.
• Her work: her team made Bermiok’s first pickings of white tea, and she said, “I can handle the factory on my own and that brings me pleasure.”

“I wanted to learn how to make good tea, which I am learning and wish to continue,” she told us. Her hopes beyond that were for her children’s education.

We have offered Bermiok teas in several seasons: Bermiok Classic Autumn Black in 2017 (“immensely smooth, brisk and exceptionally well rounded,” with intense floral notes and a pronounced fruity sweetness), a spring oolong in 2019 and, in 2021, a spring black from mid-elevation clonal bushes, made with a mix of Western and traditional methods to bring out “the woody aromas of the virgin Himalayan forests.”

The 2021 spring black was exclusive to Teabox and came from the first plucking of the season. Those clonal bushes are the high-variety Darjeeling clonals the family planted in 2002 and 2003.

Our visits to Bermiok

Our film crew was at Bermiok on 5 November 2017, in the autumn season. In November 2021 our founder, procurement heads and master tasters spent two days traveling across Darjeeling and Sikkim to sample fresh autumn teas, and Bermiok was one of the gardens on the route, with Goomtee, Jungpana, Giddapahar, Singbulli and Oaks.

Bermiok Tea EstateFrom The Source · 2:51

For more on how oolong differs from black tea, see What is oolong tea? For Sikkim teas you can buy now, see Which Sikkim tea should you try first?