Nilgiri Frost Black Tea

Nilgiri frost tea is the black tea picked in January and February, when cold nights slow the bushes in the high gardens of Tamil Nadu. The cup is bright and fragrant, with citrus, flowers and a cool, minty finish. Brewed in a teapot at 90°C, hot or over ice.

Origin & Story

The Nilgiri hills, the Blue Mountains of the Western Ghats in southern India, grow tea between about 1,000 and 2,500 meters. Two monsoons water the slopes, so the bushes are plucked around the year, but the coldest weeks make a tea of their own. In January and February, cold nights slow the bushes down, and the tea made from that leaf is called frost tea.

Growers and tea writers say the cold concentrates the aroma, and frost tea is among the most prized teas of the Nilgiri year. The leaf is said to hold more of the aromatic compounds a plant makes in cold weather.

The cup is bright and fragrant. Tea writers link the cool, minty or wintergreen note of Nilgiri tea to the eucalyptus and blue gum trees that grow around the gardens, and in a frost tea you can expect citrus and flowers up front with that cooling finish behind them. Nilgiri tea also stays clear as it cools, which makes it a favorite for iced tea.

Tea came to these hills in the 1830s, when experimental plantings at Ketti used seed from China, and commercial estates such as Thiashola followed in 1859.

Use water at about 90°C and 3 g of leaf for 240 ml, and steep for about three minutes in a teapot. Cooler water keeps the flowers in front, and the same cup is good over ice.

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