Kangra Tea

Himachal orthodox & green — GI-protected in India and the EU

Kangra is India's smallest classic tea origin and its most northerly, grown at roughly 1,250 to 1,525 metres below the Dhauladhar range around Palampur and Dharamshala from China-variety bushes first planted in the 1850s. The cup sits between Darjeeling and a Chinese green: the orthodox black is light-bodied, floral and fruity with a sweet lingering finish and low astringency; the green has a delicate woody aroma. The valley won gold and silver medals in London and Amsterdam in 1886 and 1895, the 1905 earthquake destroyed the factories, and for most of a century Kangra green tea went north by road through Amritsar to Kabul, Central Asia, Iran and Iraq rather than to the auction rooms. That trade is gone; today about 90 per cent of output is orthodox black, the remainder green, oolong and white, and the origin is protected by a Geographical Indication registered in India in 2005 and recognised by the European Union in 2023. The year has three flushes — the April flush from March to mid-June, the rainy or monsoon flush, and the autumn flush — and they price as three different products: first flush whole leaf commands several times the rainy-season figure.

The commercial fact that governs everything is scale. The whole valley produces about 900,000 to 1,100,000 kilograms a year against a potential of two million, from around 2,300 hectares, fifteen estates, one surviving cooperative factory, some 1,500 small growers and eleven bought-leaf factories. A single estate's export lot is typically 200 kg to a few tonnes, not a container, which makes Kangra a specialty, private-label and boutique-importer origin moved by air freight or LCL groupage rather than a bulk tea. Most of it has historically been trucked 2,000 kilometres to the Kolkata auction; the estates that export directly sell into Germany, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Buy Kangra for a single-origin loose-leaf line, a Himalayan or Indian-origins range beside Darjeeling and Nilgiri, or an organic programme — several estates hold NPOP certification, which the EU and Switzerland treat as equivalent for processed plant products. Do not buy it for blending or milk tea, where its delicacy is wasted. CBIL brokers Kangra direct from estate factories against Tea Board of India registration, GI authorised-user certificate, grade, flush, moisture and a taster's assessment, with samples going from the estate to the buyer, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms and air or LCL routing.