Nilgiri

The Nilgiri Hills — the Blue Mountains of South India — produce tea year-round, making them unique among India's tea regions. While Darjeeling and Assam dominate prestige, Nilgiri's best teas reveal a distinctive floral-fruity character, bright colour, and quick-brewing quality that makes them ideal for iced tea and flavoured blends. The frost tea phenomenon — a rare winter occurrence where overnight frost causes leaf cell damage, concentrating aromatic compounds — produces a small annual quantity of extraordinary Nilgiri tea with Darjeeling-like complexity. Nilgiri's year-round production also enables fair labour practices unachievable in seasonal-harvest regions.