Where Indian Tea Estate Names Come From: Okayti, Jungpana, Dikom and More

Several gardens changed names as they changed hands. Castleton was once Kumseri, Margaret’s Hope was Bada Rington, Okayti was Rangdoo and Risheehat was first called Tshering Bagan.

Some names record who settled the hills. German missionary families, the Wernickes and the Stolkes, founded several Darjeeling gardens, and one of them, Steinthal, is still known informally as the “priest’s tea garden.” Others carry the name of a town or valley: Kurseong’s name is usually traced to the Lepcha for “land of the white orchid.”

Knowing the story behind a name will not change what is in your cup, but it does tell you something real about the garden: its altitude, its river, its first crop, or the people who made it.

The stories behind three of them

Okayti’s renaming is the one tasters love. The garden, in Mirik on the Mechi river at the Nepal border, was Rangdoo until London auctioneers judged its tea simply “OK,” and the name stuck; its factory dates from 1888.

Mim’s name comes from Mem ko Kaman, “the garden run by the British lady,” which locals shortened to Mim. Makaibari’s founder, Girish Chandra Banerjee, is said to have seen local people growing maize on the slope at about 4,800 ft in 1852 and planted tea in its place.

Castleton’s “castle” may be humbler than it sounds: our brief suggests it was probably just a building left behind by a long-ago money lender. The gardens themselves are described in Famous Darjeeling tea estates.

• Dikom takes its name from the Bodo-Kachari words di (water) and kom (sweet), after the Sessa river. It is also nicknamed the “Queen of Jokai.”
• Harmutty is said to be named after Queen Hiramati, wife of King Arimatta, and her burial mound lies near the estate’s middle bungalow.
• Koilamari is named after the coal (koila) once mined from its soil. “The name ‘Koilamari’ is from a local word ‘koyla’ for coal,” Khyati Shah, whose grandfather took over the garden, told us; its pluckers, mostly Karbi or Dafla, live across the border in Arunachal Pradesh.
• Chubwa claims Assam’s first successful plantation, in 1836; its name comes from the local words chah (tea) and bowa (planting).
• Chubwa, in our 2015 notes: the name comes from Chah Bowa, Assamese for “tea planting,” and Chubwa is probably the first tea plantation in Upper Assam.
• Majulighur is named for Maju Rani, wife of the 17th-century Ahom king Pratap Singh, and her bathing tank is still on the estate.
• Basmatia is named for the basmati rice once grown there, though today it is famous for golden, tippy tea.
• Banaspaty literally means “flora and fauna,” fitting for a garden that has worked since 1905 to conserve the plants and animals around it.

For the gardens themselves, see the Assam section of Famous tea estates of India and Assam tea estates.

• Lakyrsiew, Meghalaya. Its name means “awakening” in Khasi.
• Billimalai, Nilgiris. The name means “Goat Mountain”; the garden sits at about 2,000 m and its frost teas are hand-picked at dawn.
• Thiashola, Nilgiris. One of the first Nilgiri estates, opened in 1859; its name means “mother of the forests.”

• Castleton’s sections carry local names: Bhalu Khop (bear cave), Dhobitar (the washerman’s line), Baseri and Jim Basha (the manager’s domain).
• Margaret’s Hope has three divisions, Margaret’s Hope, Dilaram and Maharani. It also names special lots: “Delight” is given to teas treated with special handling.
• Namring’s divisions are Poomong, Jinglam and Namring, and most of its bushes are watered by springs from Tiger Hill.
• Badamtam’s Lamas division, section 9, gave our 2023 Moonlight white.
• Seeyok’s sections 9YT, 10YT and 11YT, with bushes about 100 years old, gave our June 2021 summer muscatel.
• Risheehat’s two divisions are Risheehat and Liza Hill.
• Jungpana’s Malderam division is full of old Chinary bushes.

On a pack, these names sit beside the invoice number of the lot. How to read the whole label is explained in Famous tea estates of India.