Silver Tips Tea - Makaibari Tea Estate

Please visit our blog for stories of Makaibari's people,
its culture and anecdotes.
http://blog.silvertipstea.com/

or just click on this site's Home Page and click on BLOG.
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MAKAIBARI FACTS:
- Established in 1859, oldest garden in Darjeeling.
- Still farmed by the original founding family, now in its 4th generation.
- Elevation - 1500 metres.
- Harvest season: March - November.
- 100% Organic and Fair Trade.

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CYCLONE HITS MAKAIBARI & the Kurseong Valley - May 25, 2009
A fierce hurricane hit Makaibari and the surrounding region causing devastating damage. Already hit by a lingering drought earlier in the year, this region was dealt a double whammy from the cyclone. It ripped off the roofs of houses and the Makaibari tea factory just prior to the monsoons which bring heavy rain. A relief fund has been set up through JEEVIKA, the independent third-party organization which oversees Fair Trade funds. Makaibari's customers and fans throughout the world have been contributing funds. If you wish to contribute, we've set up a fund for you or you can contact us directly at tea@silvertipstea.com or info@ecoprimatea.com and we can provide further guidance.

Makaibari was not the only garden to be hit. The entire Kurseong Valley (of which Makaibari is a part) felt the impact. Castleton, another well-known garden suffered a serious landslide which even a month later continues to slide causing trauma to everyone in the vicinity. Above Singell estate, another landslide buried a family where all members died. At Longview (near the plains, at lower elevations), a massive tree trapped a young girl and eventually killed her since no one was able to extricate her. The famous Goethals school lost their entire sports campus. Happy Valley Estate lost a fair amount of tea as well as a village near the factory and 6 people died instantly. Unfortunately, the list goes on.   The aftermath is serious and your help and prayers are invaluable.

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"The Rajah of Darjeeling Organic Tea" - acclaimed book by Rajah Banerjee on Makaibari now available.

This beautifully produced book is a treasure for all fans of Makaibari. In addition to the coffee-table book with vivid pictures of the estate, its people and biodiversity in plants and species, it also includes the award-winning hour-long documentary "The Lord of Darjeeling" made by Xavier de Lauzanne, the renowned filmmaker from France. It captures the essence of Makaibari, the philosophy of its organic and biodynamic farming, the journey from Rajah's early days at Makaibari to his advocacy of sustainability. It chronicles the evolution of Makaibari.

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TIME MAGAZINE - BEST OF ASIA 2008
May 1, 2008
Makaibari Tea Estate

By Madhur Singh

Best Cup of Tea

West Bengal, India

A fresh cuppa:Your morning beverage comes straight from the bush

If Darjeeling is the champagne of teas, Makaibari is the Krug or Henri Giraud.   At the
677-hectare Makaibari Tea Estate nestled in the eastern Himalayas, you not only taste
the finest of its aromatic, amber brews, but experience tea as a way of life. Gurkha tea
workers host visitors  in chalets attached to their own homes, which dot the seven villages
of the estate, situated roughly 1,400 m above sea level.

After a day's induction — with tea-tasting sessions and a guided tour of the factory
to see how luscious, freshly plucked leaves are processed into green, white,
oolong and black teas — visitors get some hands-on experience. Those who prefer to be in
the tea gardens can choose between planting tea bushes, plucking tea
("two leaves and a bud" is what you need to break off each time) and tending the nursery.
Those who enjoy more vigorous challenges can try milking cows or cleaning cattle sheds.
And at the end of a hard day, you relax with a home-cooked meal made with
locally grown organic produce, then drive home with a cuppa brewed from
leaves you plucked the previous day.

There's no TV, so after a fireside chat with your hosts — who will happily share folk tales,
folk songs and plantation lore — you'll probably turn in early, and that has an added bonus.
If you rise when the first sun rays touch the valley, you stand a good chance of sighting
exotic Himalayan birds like the pied hornbill and the sultan tit.   If you're very lucky,
you may even spot a leopard or two before hiking back to your hosts for that tantalizing
first brew of the day. Not a tea lover?   You will be at Makaibari.

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Featured in THE SUNDAY NEW YORK TIMES, October 14, 2007:
"HIGH TEA, INDIA STYLE"
Enjoy all our Makaibari teas!
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Makaibari (“Corn Fields”) is the oldest garden in Darjeeling, in North East India.
Established in 1859, it extends over 1575 acres of hills, valleys and forests at the foothills
of the fabled Himalayan Mountains. Over 4500 feet in altitude, this tea garden is the jewel
in what is called the Golden Mile of the most famous tea growing region in the world.
It is still farmed by the original founding family. Rajah Banerjee, the current owner,
is the 4th generation scion of this tea dynasty.

Rajah inherited a tea estate that was conventionally grown. He painstakingly evolved it
to organic and then biodynamic agricultural standards. His was the first garden to be
certified Fair Trade in the world, the first to appoint women to supervisory positions
– unheard of in the traditional male dominant culture  - and the  first to market
Darjeelings Greens, Oolongs and Silver Tips. It was already renowned for its classic Muscatels.

Makaibari is an idealistic, inspiring plantation. Imagine a place surrounded by mountains
and valleys, where one thousand acres of forest thrive, where leopards and panthers live,
where the hornbill nests, where seven villages live in harmony, growing the finest tea in the
world. This is Makaibari. It is the proud caretaker of wild life and a diversity of fauna and flora.
It is the advocate of sustainable agriculture and a destination for students, sightseers,
tea devotees and all those seeking the pure air of the mountains and the simplicity of its life.
In tea annals, Makaibari commands a mystique, a higher sense of purpose, a deeper complexity
in its tea with no short cuts, an emphasis on quality and true authenticity.

Here's what Matt Gross wrote in The New York Times on October 14, 2007:

"....Makaibari remains a family operation, run by Banerjee's great-grandson Swaraj -
better known as Rajah.

Rajah is a Darjeeling legend: He's arguably done more for Darjeeling tea than
anyone else in the district. Back in 1988, he took the estate organic;
four years later, it was fully biodynamic, the first in the world.

Today, it produces the most expensive brew in Darjeeling, a "muscatel"
that sold for 50,000 rupees a kilogram (about $555 a pound, at recent exchange
rates of around 41 rupees to the dollar) at auction in Beijing last year.
You won't often spot his logo...on grocery store shelves....."

The estate champions progressive social policies and under the Fair Trade program,
it administers a successful micro-loan program, again supervised by a woman.
Loans have been used for the electrification of villages, increasing forestation,
improving sanitation facilities, purchase of farm animals and, recently, the development
of a computer centre for children.

It has received numerous awards and accolades for its many accomplishments: