A Daring Cup of Tea in Darjeeling

Travel Blog • Joanna Kakissis • 10.19.07 | 10:47 AM ET

How far would you go for a cup of tea? Matt Gross, the Frugal Traveler for The New York Times, went deep into West Bengal and the Himalayas to explore the tea estates of Darjeeling country and sample varieties of the coveted teas. The hours-long journey to Darjeeling is like “a teetotaler’s version of a Napa Valley tour but without the crowds,” Gross writes. Getting to this remote corner of India is also apparently spine-chilling: the steep drive up and down decrepit roads has caused more than a few fatal plunges and Gross anxiously notes rough trips between estates.

But once he arrives, he finds fragrant tea tastings and a cocky cast of tea barons who are into Rudolf Steiner’s biodynamic farming (memo to gardeners: ground quart crystal absorbs cosmic energy). Wes Anderson’s movie The Darjeeling Limited may also add the requisite pop culture appeal (at least for now), but Gross’s description of a dangerous and flavorful fantasyland is cinematic enough for me.

Makes the chai I’m sipping right now seem kind of weenie.

Photo by Spilt Milk, via Flickr (Creative Commons).