Clear when iced
Nilgiri tea is known for staying clear when iced, while many black teas go cloudy. For iced-tea makers that is not a detail, it is the product. Bushes in the hills are plucked about 32 times a year, and the Nilgiris grow about half of south India’s tea.
For iced-tea makers that is not a detail. It is the product.
The winter pluck
After the winter rest, the first pluck between January and March gives the prized “frost tea”. Estates and growers began making orthodox rolled teas, white teas and single-estate teas, sold by name to buyers in the West rather than by the kilo at auction.
A name the law protects
In 2008 Nilgiri tea was registered as a geographical indication. Tea grown elsewhere cannot use the name. For a hill district that once sold bulk tea to one bloc of countries, a protected name buyers ask for is the start of a different business.
Points for a finance reader
- Find the one thing you do better. Clear when iced is a small fact that defines a market.
- Sell the season. Frost tea turns a limited winter pluck into a premium, the way vintages do for wine.
- Protect the name, then build on it. A GI is a foundation; growers still have to make tea worth the name.