Rishi Saria and his son Dasrsh
This family plantation, run by the Saria family since 1955, is part of the historical gardens of the Darjeeling appellation. It was planted in 1881 on a land originally covered with rice fields interspersed with streams. Its name comes from the name of the former owner of the rice fields Gopal and the Nepalese name given to the water courses: dhara. Spread over 173 hectares of cultivated tea trees, this garden is among the highest in altitude, with plots ranging from 1,700m to 2,100m, located in the Mirik district southeast of the city of Darjeeling. It produces 70T of tea annually and employs 424 people. It still includes a beautiful proporition of old tea bushes of Chinese origin dating from 1881 alongside younger tea bushes giving rise to tasty blends skilfully orchestrated by the tea estate manager. Currently Shiv Saria and his son, Rishi Saria, run the tea estate as well as the Rohini Tea Estate.
Darjeeling is a city located in the Himalayan foothills of northeast India. By extension it is also the name of the mountainous region surrounding this city where tea growing was developed in the 1850s. Currently, there are 87 plantations, called gardens (or tea estate in English) which are concentrated in a geographically defined area. Darjeeling was recognized as a PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) by the European Union in 2011. It is the first tea appellation to be recognized as a PGI. The logo with the plucker showing the fineness of the plucking 1 bud + 2 leaves was created by the Tea Board of India as a guarantee of authenticity of the Darjeeling appellation.
