Makaibari Tea Estate

There are seven villages on the Makaibari Tea Estate. The estate is further broken down into the upper and lower estate. The home of the family where I am staying is next to the tea factory in the upper portion of the estate.

The husband works on the estate. His wife used to but now works at the local hospital. They have two daughters aged 20 and 12. The older daughter is enrolled in college and the younger daughter goes to school - both in the town of Kurseong. Their grandmother, on their father's side, lives with them. Their grandfather died about ten years ago.

Many of their relatives live nearby so there is always some activity in the house - cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.

Just below the fifty or so homes in this village are the tea gardens. The paths to reach the gardens are well worn and very steep. Six days a week you see the tea pluckers working. They are all women. They carry large bamboo baskets on their backs. They are plucking two leaves and a bud from the tea plant. The women are very fast as I have watched them. They accumulate a bunch of leaves and throw them in the basket on their backs, never missing their target.

The gardens are beautifully manicured and each bush is about 2-3 feet high. The women are always plucking the new growth on the bushes. Some of the leaves towards the bottom of the bush can become very large. This is very hard work and the steepness of these slopes can be greater than 50%. So the next time you drink a cup of Darjeeling, keep some of these things in mind.

This time of the year is still the first flush. The taste of the tea is lighter and a little bit more astringent than the second flush. The second flush begins in May through June. The tea from this flush is more full bodied, a darker color, and you also get that muscatel flavor towards the finish. There is also an autumnal flush that begins after the monsoon rains are over. I have never had tea from this flush.

There are several others doing the home-stay program right now. My visit is definitely the shortest. There is Carol from the UK who is in her 60's, and here about three months. Dylan, also from the UK, is 19. He is halfway though his stay of two months. Then Allison and her two daughters, Sophie and Emma, are here from Scotland. The girls are two years apart in age and the oldest must be in her early teens. Allison's husband is in Germany and divides his time between Germany and India. I think they are here three months. I only briefly met Lizette and her boyfriend from the UK, as they were on the way to Darjeeling. And lastly, Bill is from Boulder, Colorado. We went for a walk and for tea one day. He quit his job after being with the same company for 14 years. He is in India for ten weeks. The last 2 1/2 weeks, his 13 year old son will join him and they will tour India together. The 16 year old son was not interested at all in coming and didn't want to leave his friends. Bill is in the same boat that I am as neither one of us know what we will do when we get back to the US.

I will be visiting the tea factory on Tuesday as the owner was out of town when I arrived. Sunday the factory is closed. Then Monday was election day and the factory was again closed for voting.

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