Not all tea estates in India are a throwback to the colonial days. And in the Nilgiris, we found a rather interesting story at TANTEA or the Tamil Nadu Tea Plantation Corporation Limited.

We were en route to the Nilgiris and had stopped for breakfast at Channapatna, between Bangalore and Mysore, when Mr Sampath called. He is a visiting tea advisor with TANTEA and was calling to find out about our visit. On hearing we were already on our way, he invited us to their estate bungalow at Gudalur for the night.

Photograph by Deekshith Suvarna
Photograph by Deekshith Suvarna

I had assumed that Gudalur was lower in the hills and therefore expected it to be similar to the Dooars or Terai in the Darjeeling belt – flat lowlands. Instead I found myself headed uphill-Gudalur is at an altitude of 1000m. The views from here were stunning, as beautiful or more, I thought, than Darjeeling. And the bungalow, while not like the colonial-style bungalows seen in most tea gardens, was made of wood, a more typical guesthouse seen in government outposts.

TANTEA has an interesting back story. Back in the 1800s, there arrived a Scotsman, Gragham William McIvor, who was a gardener at London’s Kew Gardens. He was appointed Superintendent of the Ootacamund Botanical Gardens in 1848. [Ootacamund or Ooty is the main town in the Nilgiris.] McIvor is credited with successfully acclimatizing cinchona to India and ensuring a thriving production of it. This is of enormous significance because quinine used in the treatment of malaria is extracted from cinchona.

Now, McIvor needed labor for his cinchona plantation at Naduvattam and that was a challenge as there were not enough people available locally. So, he wrote to the British government and asked that 500 convicts be sent to work with him here. It took a year for the necessary sanctions but it led to the construction of the jail at Naduvattam.

Naduvattom jail
Photograph by Gopal Upadhayay

The idea met with approval for a couple of reasons-lack of space in the jails in Madras, and more interestingly, the lower likelihood of convicts escaping from the hills. In 1866, 566 convicts arrived, including many Chinese prisoners of war from the Second Opium War, and even the Straits settlements of Singapore, Malaya, and Penang.

Naduvattom jail 1
The jail museum at Naduvattam. Photograph by Mahesh Bhat.

In 1876, McIvor died in Ooty. His cinchona plants continue to grow wild around here.

The story moves ahead almost a whole century. In the late 1950s tensions between the Tamils and Sinhalese in neighboring Sri Lanka erupted and several Tamils had to flee the country. They arrived in Tamil Nadu where in 1968, the government implemented the Government Tea Project. Under this, the now exiled Tamils were rehabilitated with jobs and a living at the tea gardens.

the sundaram clone

Because TANTEA’s tea gardens were built much after the British, you don’t see colonial bungalows or factories built in the typical style of the old days. In Naduvattam, which is now part of TANTEA, the old jail has been converted to a museum, although this tea garden is often referred to as the “jail thottam” or jail garden.

Also, perhaps because of the reasons for its inception, I saw fewer migrant workers here compare to others like Glendale or Craigmore. Most of the workers seemed to be local Tamils, or I imagine, descendants of the Tamil refugees.

tea shears

The tea grown here is mostly CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl). The shears seen in the above photo is the kind used to harvest the crop for the non-specialty tea. Not the delicate hand plucking of two leaves and a bud. That’s reserved for their specialty silver needle teas. The standout feature of the silver needle is that they are not machine dried but allowed to dry in the sun even though it takes longer.

G-Silver-Needle
TANTEA’s famed silver needle tea. Photograph by Mahesh Bhat.

The estates follow multicrop farming which is quite evident as you walk around the estate. Pepper is quite common, and in estates like Glendale, even flowers like geranium used in their tea blends, are grown.

pepper amidst the tea
Pepper amidst tea bushes. Photograph by Mahesh Bhat.

On every visit to a plantation I try and gather information on different cultivars. So while here, I asked Mr. Sampath about the clones they use at TANTEA. And he told me about Dr. Venkataramani, a legend in the tea fraternity in these parts. Dr. Venkataramani was the Director of UPASI in 1960 and among his achievements is the unique triploid clone B/5/63, originally named Sundaram in memory of his father. This clone, rarely blossoms, but produces yield almost double that of any other variety.

My visit to TANTEA has changed some of my own perceptions and reaffirmed others. This is a government-owned estate and one tends to assume some disdain or doubt about the quality attributed to the produce. But TANTEA is run as well as any of the private estates. The staff here seemed passionate about what they do, interested in tea and interested too in understanding more about it. Most of the staff I interacted with at TANTEA were well into their 50s, and have worked here for a really long time. But any conversation about their teas quickly transformed them; they spoke with a genuine happiness and a lot of pride, like a parent showing off a newborn child, I thought.

 

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20 Comments

  1. Pradip Mookerji Reply

    Mr. Gopal Upadhayay
    ——————————-
    Could we communicate on procurement of Tea as I wish to share
    with you information on the same ?
    Thank you,
    Pradip
    Mobile : 9830563629

  2. kamarudeen Reply

    Thanks’ for writing many matters about Tea, Tantea and also about NADUVATTAM…

  3. K. Thangapandian Reply

    Dear Sir,
    Very nice article about Tea we will expect more from your side. It will improve Indian Tea Industry.

    K. Thangapandian,
    Development Officer,
    Tea Board of India,
    Regional Office,
    Kundah, The Nilgiris.

    • Gopal Upadhayay Reply

      We all have to work together to uplift the Indian tea industry. And with the help of technology, I’m sure we can.

  4. Very Nice and informative article on your visit to TANTEA. The history of TANTEA is really nice which attracts me.

    I used to have TANTEA, but this information is not known so far.

    Thanks you for sharing this.

    Kumaran N
    Manager – Works & IT
    MEL SYSTEMS AND SERVICES LTD
    Chennai – 600096

    • Gopal Upadhayay Reply

      Glad you liked it. We hope to publish more about the Nilgiris!

      • Ian Harrison Reply

        Just to advise my wife is a direct x, at least, 5 grand daughter of WG Mcivor! Really interested in the Nilgiris as there as three families involved – the Mcivors, Higgins and Pascoes. Woodlands being the prime one owned by my wife’s great grand father., James Pascoe. We hold water colours and photos of the estate and of James and his wife.

        We hope to travel to the area in the early Spring of 2021.

  5. shreethar.B divisional manager Coonoor Reply

    Thank you Mr. Gopal Upadhayay

    Nice article.

    Just an additional to your article we may also share that Tiger hill factory COONOOR had received golden leaf award of 2015 for orthodox tea manufacturer .
    Being at high altitude orthodox tea produced here is of good quality .
    CR6017 quality clonal plantation is also grown in our COONOOR tea division .
    TANTEA head office been located in COONOOR tea division .

    • Gopal Upadhayay Reply

      Dear Sir, thank you for sharing the information. Next time will definitely visit the head office in Coonoor to get more information.

  6. Very nice article on TANTEA.
    I have been fortunate to be associated with TANTEA for over 35 years in marketing their teas.
    I wish to place on record that the entire production is from Clonal leaf.
    The estates are spread over The Nilgiris, Nilgiri Wyanad and Anamallais, Valparai District.
    The total extent of land under Tea is around 4300 Hectares.
    Total production hovers around 9.5 million kg.
    They produce some of the finest Orthodox teas from the Nilgiris and CTC’s from Nilgiri Wyanad & Anamallais.
    TANTEA has ventured into manufacture of Specialty teas like Silver Tips, Green Tea and have developed a niche market.
    The Green Tea in particular has a golden colour with a mellow and soothing taste. One could easily get addicted to the taste due to its pleasing aroma.

    • Gopal Upadhayay Reply

      Dear sir, thank you for sharing this information. Their Silver Needle is definitely one of the best we get here, in India.

    • Pradip Mookerji Reply

      Nice write-up Mr. Sriram !!
      Wish to hear more from you on Speciality Teas !!!
      Regards,
      Pradip Mookerji

  7. Gopal Upadhayay Reply

    Thank you for your kind words. It’s just beginning of the journey.

  8. Dr.Shashikanth Reply

    Wow,super,nice article about TANTEA.
    very good information,i would like to know more about TANTEA & beautiful part of western ghat (world heritage site), more about weather, culture, people.
    Please do keep writing more about TAN TEA.
    thanks for the great info.

  9. Thank you so much for your support to TANTEA… I am daughter of Mr.N.Sampath really I am proud of my dad… Wishing a evergreen success to all of you… Hoping that the pleasant aroma of TANTEA will spread all over the world…

  10. Raghavendra Bhat Reply

    Articulate and a treat to read! Nilagiris and Wayanad tea are mouthful in characteristic, aromatic and have a sweet spicy finish. Tiger Hill and Kodanad teas are classic examples. I never had Tantea Kurinji/wholeleaf teas as their online sales mechanism has to improve. Tantea has to take special interest to serve the India tea conossieur by making all of its teas available online in sizes of 100 grams and 250 grams. Will they ever?

  11. Pingback: Prisoners’ tales from the Nilgiris – Tea Stories | Best Tea Blog | Still Steeping – The Teabox Blog

  12. Pingback: THAT NILGIRIS BUBBLE - Tea Stories | Best Tea Blog | Still Steeping - The Teabox Blog

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