Kanchanjangha Is the source of our Nepali teas.
At a staggering 1800 meters, young tea trees 40-50 years old grow in rocky soils, blanketed in mist. These stressful conditions make for teas with concentrated sugars, florals, and other compounds especially suitable for white tea production. Thus is explained NEPAL PRATHAMA, our inaugural Nepali tea with red plum and white flower fragrance.
Prathama—Sanskrit for "first"—is our farmer's designation for the first flush of growth after winter dormancy. Grown about one hour's drive up from the producing factory, leaves from the garden are shuttled down daily in spring, and transformed in the capable hands of one Nikesh Gurung.
"Tea reveals to me its truth."
Nikesh Gurung heads up the factory beneath the tea garden, managing the raw product, as well as its workers, machinery, plus each production phase—all at 22 years of age.
Nikesh works tea leaf like masters three times his age. Evident in our inaugural Nepali white, his talents are widely respected at Kanchanjangha; so much so that he hand-produces their most expensive tea.