Lama Tea Garden is situated in the Teesta Valley in Darjeeling, at elevations between 1,300 and 1,850 metres, with views of Kanchenjunga. Sonam Paljor Lama manages the garden, which has been in the family for nearly a century. He works without chemical pesticides and pays the 22 pickers from the surrounding villages double the statutory minimum wage.

Sonam learned tea processing in the Chinese provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian, an approach that differs from the standardised Darjeeling style. The processing facility runs entirely on locally generated hydropower, without fossil fuels.

Read more about Lama Tea Garden.