About Mist Valley Tea Estate

Mist Valley Tea Estate is located in the Ilam region in the eastern part of Nepal. It is also close to Darjeeling. TEAPOND has a continuous relationship with Mist Valley Tea Estate, and our buyers visit the site regularly.

[History of Nepalese tea]

It all began in 1989, when the national policy known as the Tea & Coffee Project launched full-scale tea plantation development. Subsidies were provided to four areas, mainly in the eastern part of Nepal, to encourage tea production.

Eastern 4 Areas - JHAPA
・PHIDIM
・Ilam
・Dhankuta

Currently, tea production is expanding to the following tea producing areas.
・Taplejung
・Sankhuwasabha
・Pokhara

[About Mist Valley Tea Estate]

Inspired by the aforementioned Nepal Tea & Coffee Project, Mist Valley Tea Estate was started in 1989 by tea plantation owner Suresh Molohan Limbu using land owned by his father in Jitpur, Ilam region. At the beginning of his farming career, he was given agricultural guidance by government officials and planted tea trees.
At that time, the name was not Mist Valley but "Morohan Tea Estate." (Morohan is the caste name of Suresh's tribe, the Limbu.)
Later, with the support of the Agricultural Bank, the current factory was established on April 27, 2004. At that time, the name was changed to "Mist Valley Tea Estate." There were other first-choice candidates for the name, but due to trademark reasons, the name was inspired by the name of a popular Nepalese song, "Misty Mountain," and the misty location and terrain of this place.
Currently, the company is run by Mr. Suresh, his two sons, 35 factory staff, three field staff, and 20 to 30 tea pickers in the company's tea fields. The company also purchases tea leaves from 450 farmers within an 8 km radius of the factory.

At Mist Valley Tea Estate's own gardens, tea leaves are picked between 9am and 5pm, and the tea leaves are brought to the factory from each tea field around 5pm. The tea leaves picked that day are weighed, and the number of kilos picked and the quality of the leaves picked are evaluated using three quality levels, A, B, and C, and recorded in an account book. After 5pm, people start to gather one after another and line up to record the information. (Sometimes even dogs line up well.) Apparently, in the tea fields, managers sometimes walk around with their dogs to give instructions on picking.

What is particularly impressive about Mist Valley Tea Plantation is their thorough commitment to "cleanliness." They also produce a small number of simple types of tea. The simplicity of the products they produce and their thorough streamlining, as well as the attitude of the staff while they work and their gentle atmosphere, are also impressive. All of the work rooms in the Mist Valley Estate are very clean, and everyone works briskly, balancing production rules with the autonomy of the staff. At first glance, this may seem like a given, but when you try it, it turns out that continuing something that is taken for granted is surprisingly difficult. The buyer feels that something unique may be born from the accumulation of hard work.
Based on the idea that all of these elements combine to produce a product that meets a certain standard of quality, Suresh's management policy is based on a simple yet difficult philosophy of not doing anything extraneous, concentrating fully on the task at hand, and producing high-quality products. This philosophy is reflected in the finished tea, the people who work there, and the atmosphere that permeates the organization.
Also, every time I visit Mist Valley Tea Estate, I see improvements being made to the facilities, and the fact that they are always making improvements that are appropriate to their capabilities and thereby improving efficiency makes me feel that this may be because the organization is still run by its founder.

[Mist Valley Tea Farm's Seasonal Tea]
・First flush (harvested in spring)
・Second flush (picked in summer) *Second flush is the main season.
・Autumnal (Autumn Picked)

The main export destinations are as follows:
First flush: Japan, France, India Second flush: Japan, India, Germany, Taiwan
Autumnal: Japan, India

We asked the locals how to drink tea!

It is often drunk straight and does not contain much milk. Previously, when a buyer visited Mist Valley, he had the opportunity to be treated to tea by a local, and the tea he was given contained plenty of black pepper. There was no milk or sugar, and it was spring-picked tea, with just plenty of black pepper. The buyer's impression was that it was delicious... Why don't you give it a try?
In Nepal, tea is called "CHIYA", which is a similar term to the Japanese way of saying it.