The Glenburn Tea Plantation sits high atop a hill above the banks of the River Rungeet, set against the backdrop of the mighty Himalaya. The plantation has a long history – founded in 1859 by a Scottish tea company, it was later bought by the India’s pioneering tea planting family, the Prakashes, known fondly today as the tea planters of India. The family has more than a century of tea knowledge running in their veins and Glenburn remain an active tea plantation until this day. Glenburn is a well-managed private tea estate that makes use of both traditional and modern techniques of tea harvesting and brewing.
Guided tours begin at the tea factory, where you will be given an overview of the entire process, from the moment the tea leaf is picked on the field to the moment it’s served to you in beautifully decorated porcelain crockery. You will be given a talk on the different processes, with a practical demonstration of the withering, rolling, fermenting, drying and sorting of tea leaves. The tea tour ends with a refreshing tea tasting session that includes a range of black, green, oolong and white teas. You will have the opportunity to score the various brews according to their fragrance, taste and, appearance, as well as what season they were harvested in and what mechanisms were employed to extract the final product.
Once you have finished with the tea tasting, you are welcome to explore the plantation on foot. Stroll across the vast fields and see how the herbs, spices and local organic produce that is used in the plantation’s mouth-watering authentic Indian cookery is grown. Should all this activity make you a little peckish, take some time to enjoy the samples of the local fare, perfectly paired with a steaming cup of freshly brewed tea and enjoyed in the middle of a field of tea leaves or along the banks of the river.
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