Nilgiri Tea

Nilgiri tea is the tea of the Blue Mountains of southern Tamil Nadu, grown on high slopes around Coonoor, Kotagiri and Ooty. Tea planting in the hills belongs to the nineteenth century and the British plantation economy, and the gardens are still worked by plantation communities who pluck by hand through a year with no single dormant winter. The tea is the southern counterpart of Darjeeling and Assam in the beverage tradition, and in South India it is drunk both as a plain leaf tea and as the base of the milky chai of the tea stall.

The leaf is Camellia sinensis, plucked as two leaves and a bud and, for most Nilgiri tea, made by the orthodox method of withering, rolling, oxidation and firing. The result is a bright, clear, medium-bodied black tea, amber to copper in the cup, with a fragrant, slightly floral and brisk character and little of the astringency found in Assam. Much of the crop is also made by the cut-tear-curl method for strong, quick-brewing tea for the chai trade, while the finer orthodox grades are sold in whole and broken leaf. The tea is also made into green, white and oolong styles in small quantities, and iced tea is a natural use for the clean-tasting black.

Nilgiri tea is taken with the fried snacks of the South, with bondas, vadas and banana fritters, and with plain biscuits and buttered bread at the hour of the afternoon break. Its clean, only lightly astringent character cuts through fried batter and oil without overpowering a delicate sweet. It is also the tea to drink without milk, where the floral aroma can be heard.