Nurbong: A Tea Garden Close to Home

There are places that remain close to us, no matter how far away life takes us. For me, one such place is a beautiful valley in the foothills of Darjeeling, home to Nurbong Tea Estate.

During my recent visit to India, I made a short trip to Nurbong. The garden is only about a 30-minute uphill drive from my parents' home. It is an area I have known since my younger days, when I would occasionally drive up into these hills simply to escape the oppressive heat of the plains.

The air grows cooler as the road climbs, and the landscape changes into a world of green hills, forests, and mountain streams.

But this valley holds something more personal for me.

Rising above Nurbong to the north are the hills of Kurseong subdivision. A winding road makes its way up the distant hillside toward my grandparents' village. Looking up at those hills, I was reminded of the many journeys, memories, and family connections that bind me to this landscape.

This time, however, I had come to learn more about the tea garden itself.

A Valley of Rivers, Forests, and Tea

The Nurbong valley is blessed with extraordinary natural beauty. Here, the Mahananda and Shivkhola rivers meet, their clear mountain waters tumbling over boulders beneath densely forested hillsides.

The surrounding forests attract birdwatchers, and during our visit, we encountered a remarkable abundance of butterflies. It is a landscape I have known since childhood, yet one that never fails to captivate me.

Tea cultivation exists here within a larger landscape of forests, rivers, villages, and wildlife. The garden is part of that landscape, and its story is inseparable from the land and communities around it.

A Garden with More Than 150 Years of History

Nurbong Tea Estate traces its origins to around 1870, placing it among the historic gardens established during the early expansion of tea cultivation in the Darjeeling hills.

Like many Darjeeling estates, Nurbong has experienced changes in ownership over the decades.

It was once part of the Goodricke Group, one of India's major tea companies. In 2003, Goodricke announced the sale of Nurbong and several other Darjeeling estates to interests associated with Sanjay Bansal of the Ambootia Tea Company.

Nurbong subsequently became part of the larger Ambootia-associated tea business, known for its emphasis on organic tea cultivation.

Today, according to the estate office, Nurbong is operated by a local company called Fine Tea Pluck.

These changes reflect a broader history of the Darjeeling tea industry, where ownership transitions, rising production costs, and the challenge of maintaining historic plantations have shaped the fortunes of many gardens.

A Visit to the Garden

At Nurbong, we met Pranay Dewan, the head clerk at the estate office, who generously shared information about the garden and its operations.

According to Dewan, Nurbong covers approximately 496 acres, of which 271 acres are planted with tea. The remaining land includes forested areas, workers' residential quarters, and other estate facilities.

The garden is divided into three sections: Simring, Gitange, and Nurbong.

He also told us that the estate maintains organic certification, an important consideration for tea production in an environmentally sensitive region.

We also had the opportunity to walk through the tea fields with factory manager Puran Lama, who showed us around the garden. It was an opportunity to see Nurbong's tea cultivation firsthand and appreciate the landscape in which the tea grows.

Our visit included a stop at the factory, where green tea was being processed.

Although Darjeeling is internationally celebrated for its distinctive black teas, gardens in the region also manufacture green, white, and other styles of tea. At Nurbong, we learned that much of the green tea production was intended for the domestic Indian market.

It was an interesting glimpse into how Darjeeling's tea industry is adapting to different markets and changing consumer preferences.

The Challenges Behind the Beauty

For all its natural beauty and historic significance, Nurbong faces some of the same difficult challenges confronting the wider Darjeeling tea industry.

One issue Dewan spoke about was worker absenteeism.

He told us that although the garden has approximately 500 workers on its rolls, only around 120 typically report for work.

The figure was striking.

Tea cultivation is highly labor-intensive. The careful plucking of leaves, particularly for fine-quality Darjeeling teas, requires considerable skill and experience. Much of this work takes place on steep slopes, often under difficult weather conditions.

Yet the economic realities of plantation work are changing.

Wages in the tea industry have struggled to compete with opportunities elsewhere. Younger generations increasingly seek different livelihoods, whether in nearby towns or India's larger cities. The physically demanding nature of plantation work, coupled with the prospect of better earnings and greater opportunities outside the gardens, makes retaining workers increasingly difficult.

For estate owners and managers, a shrinking workforce adds to the challenge of running a financially sustainable operation. For workers and their families, the desire for better incomes and opportunities is entirely understandable.

There are no simple answers.

The difficulties extend beyond labor shortages. Rising production costs, aging tea bushes, changing weather patterns, and intense competition have placed considerable pressure on Darjeeling's tea industry.

Behind the celebrated name of Darjeeling tea is an industry struggling to secure its future.

More Than a Cup of Tea

As someone who grew up in this region and has spent many years working with tea, I find these developments deeply concerning.

Darjeeling tea is rightly celebrated around the world for its remarkable character. Its delicate floral aromas, distinctive muscatel notes, and extraordinary seasonal variations are the result of a unique combination of geography, climate, tea plants, and generations of accumulated skill.

But the story of Darjeeling tea is not simply about an exceptional beverage.

It is also about the communities that have lived and worked in these hills for generations, the families whose livelihoods depend on the gardens, and the cultural landscape that has developed around tea cultivation.

For this heritage to survive, the industry must find ways to remain economically viable while offering meaningful and sustainable livelihoods to the people who make tea production possible.

That is a challenge worth paying attention to, particularly for those of us who appreciate and enjoy Darjeeling tea.

Returning to Familiar Hills

As I left Nurbong, I looked again toward the hills rising above the valley.

Somewhere up that winding road lies my grandparents' village. Below are the rivers, forests, and tea gardens that have been part of this landscape for more than a century.

The valley seemed as beautiful and peaceful as I remembered it.

Yet my visit had given me a different perspective on a place I thought I knew so well.

Nurbong is no longer simply a familiar landscape from my younger days. It is also a reminder of the remarkable heritage of Darjeeling tea—and of how much is at stake in preserving its future.

For me, that makes every cup of Darjeeling tea a little more meaningful.

Explore our collection of Darjeeling teas at Happy Earth Tea.