Nathmull's of Darjeeling

Nathmull's traces to 1931, when Nathmull Sarda, whose family had relocated from Rajasthan to Darjeeling a couple of years before, opened the business that would become one of the town's oldest tea houses. It is now run by his grandson Madhav Sarda, an experienced tea taster who has spent recent decades promoting Darjeeling tea internationally, from the same kind of shopfront the family has operated for close to a century: The Rink Mall on Laden La Road, opposite Darjeeling's general post office. The house doesn't grow its own leaf; instead it sources directly from named gardens across Darjeeling and beyond - Sikkim, Assam, the Nilgiris and other Himalayan estates - carrying first, second and autumn flush lots identified by garden rather than sold under a generic house blend. Black, white, green, oolong and chai teas round out the range. Nathmull's has operated as a direct-to-customer retailer since it opened, and today ships internationally, positioning speed from garden to customer as central to freshness. Three generations in, the business still runs on the same premise it started with: a merchant's eye for a good garden lot, sold under the family name rather than repackaged into an anonymous blend.