How climate change is threatening the flavour and future of India's prized Darjeeling tea
An unusually dry winter followed by heavy rain is damaging Darjeeling's premium first flush and putting more pressure on one of India's best-known tea regions.
Climate disruption is increasingly visible in India's Darjeeling tea belt, where weather swings are affecting both yield and quality in one of the world's most prized tea regions. CBC reports that plucking for the first flush begins in late February and early March, and this early harvest can fetch as much as $2,200 per kilogram. That is the crop that gives Darjeeling its global reputation as the champagne of teas.
This season began after months of extreme winter dryness, only to be followed by heavy rainfall in March. Satish Mitruka, owner of the organic Nurbong Tea Garden, said tea is a rain-fed crop and needs rainfall to arrive at the right time. If the soil is starved of moisture, the bushes across Darjeeling's 87 geographically certified tea estates cannot produce the leaf quality required for a premium first flush.
The damage is not only about tonnage; it is also about taste. Producers say prolonged dry spells weaken the floral and fruity character that buyers expect from the first flush. Darjeeling has four seasonal flushes, but the first is the lightest and most delicate. When that harvest repeatedly loses quality, the premium business model comes under strain because buyers will not pay top prices for tea that turns flatter and more leathery in cup.
Climate pressure in the Himalayas is intensifying faster than the global average. Research cited by CBC and published in Nature Reviews Earth and Environment says the mountain range is warming nearly 50% faster than the world as a whole. Ecologist Eklabya Sharma said winter rainfall and snow, which once helped keep soils moist, have become rare, and that directly hurts first flush output. On top of that, torrential rain last October triggered landslides that killed more than 20 people, destroyed homes and wiped out about 5% of the region's tea gardens.
The economic consequences are already clear. India is the world's second-largest tea producer after China, and roughly half of all Darjeeling tea is exported. But Tea Board of India data show output from Darjeeling's 87 estates has fallen from a peak of 14 million kilograms a year to just 5.25 million kilograms last year, while prices continue to weaken. Rishi Saria, whose family runs the Gopaldhara and Rohini estates, said last year's first flush suffered losses of 70% to 80%. For the sector, that means climate volatility is no longer a distant risk; it is now an immediate production and market problem.