Murali 's Nilgiri White

Simply put...

A delicate smooth, sweet and fresh handmade white tea from this small 5 acre family run garden

In more depth...

Tea Name : Nilgiri White

Tea Maker : Murali Subramanian

Origin : Nr Ooty, Tamil Nadu, Southern India

Size : 5 Acres

Harvest Time : July

Cultivar : ‘China Plant’ variety; no known cultivar name or number.

Plucking standard : Two young leaves & 1 unopened bud or one leaf and one bud 

Processing : A Chinese Shou Mei style white tea. After plucking the leaves are carefully sun dried for 72 hours. Final meticulous sorting is carried out to make sure each leaf has a silvery bud intact. Out of 6 kg of carefully plucked leaves, you will generallyget only 600 grams of finished white tea (10% yield).

Experience : Smooth, sweet and fresh

Last visited by Comins : January 2019, Rob & Michelle Comins

How to make Nilgiri White Tea

Amount of tea per gaiwan (200ml): 5g (one tea caddy spoon) or (2 tsp) of leaf

Temperature of water: Infuse at 80 C (176 F)

Infusion time: 2-3 minutes as desired

Number of infusions: Leaves can be re-infused up to 4 times

How to enjoy: No milk, no sugar 

How to prepare : Western Style

Amount of tea per bowl (200 ml): 2.5 g (1 tsp)

Water temperature: 100℃ / 212℉ 

Infusion / brewing time: 3 minutes

Number of infusions: 1

How to enjoy: No sugar, no milk.

Tales of the Tea Trade : Murali's Tea Farm

Michelle Extract from our our book Tales of the tea trade : Of the 1,200 million kilograms of tea produced in India annually, south India accounts for 20 percent of production [....]  Most of the tea farming here is geared towards CTC (cut-tear-curl) but the Indian Tea Board is encouraging small gardens to improve leaf quality and move towards orthodox or speciality tea [....]

Further insight from our time at Murali's 

The Panchagavya preparation : Reading the above you may be interested to know more about the Panchagavya preparation.  Here is the link to Tamilnadu Agriculture University link that provides all the Panchagavya ingredients (with photos), detailed preparation information and all the documented beneficial effects.  Certainly an interested read. 

An incredible partnership : This small garden is full of heart.  When Murali explained to us that ''we need to dance with nature to grow the best leaves :)" we knew that we were dealing with someone and somewhere very special.  The operation here is a partnership between old school friends, Murali, the two Ramakrishnan's and Muralis incredible wife Kameswari. an incredibly positive, strong, energetic woman &, in our opinion, creator of some of the most wonderful dishes we have ever eaten. We were lucky to visited the team in 2018 for a few days around Pongal - the harvest festival - and were treated to an unforgettable array of South Indian delicacies.  

What was clear here is how valued the small team are.  As described in Tales of the tea trade 'There are nine people employed at the garden: Gautham, who operates the tea machines, a native of West Bengal and now settled in the Nilgiris, whose family has been at the garden for two years; Sonali, Gautham’s wife, who helps in tea machine operation, sorting fresh leaves and also leaf picking; expert leaf pickers Lokamma, Gowri, Chitra, Navamani, Jyothimani and Jayalakshmi; and Sekar, an expert in managing tea bushes'

We were honoured to present the team with their Pongal gifts on our visit and also extremely honoured to be invited to plant 5 new tea bushes at the Tea garden - one for each of our family.  so in a few years you will be able to drink tea from these bushes - expertly cared for by the team here :)

Kameswari deserves further mention.  Sleeping only from 11pm - 4 or 4.30am she rises every day to chant & then prepare for the day ahead. All the food we enjoyed & savoured was fresh, prepared simply for that day (not to keep for the next) and offered with love. Kameswari taught us how to make Pongal and by the time you read this you will hopefully have had the chance to try our version at Tea House!