Nestled in the lush arboreal hills around Kurseong in Darjeeling District, India, Makaibari Tea Estate has evolved from plantation to legacy. Founded in the 19th century, the estate is one of the oldest and most iconic in the region, admired not only for the quality of its fine teas, but also for its commitment to sustainability, community, and innovation.
Particularly since the 1980s, Makaibari has grown from a traditional estate into a globally recognized brand, with its packaged teas symbolizing biodynamic farming, organic cultivation, and ethical labor practices.
Established by one Captain Samler of the British Indian Army in 1852, the garden came into the hands of the Banerjee family beginning with Girish Chandra Banerjee, Samler’s friend, who acted as the garden’s stewards up until the directorship of Swaraj (Rajah) Banerjee who, after converting the garden to certified organic and biodynamic (the first of its kind) and instituting fair trade practices, sold a majority stake in the estate to Luxmi Tea Company Private Limited (also known as Luxmi Estates) in 2014. Within three years. he divested completely.
In the process, Makaibari broke records for prices. The story of the garden regaled with passion by Banerjee was credited for the record-breaking prices garnered by the garden’s top teas. Indeed, the fact that honorary Oscar recipient and legendary filmmaker, Satyajit Ray, had incorporated Makaibari tea into the storyline of a set of popular detective films, was probably the first instance of product placement in the Indian subcontinent. The protagonist, a sophisticated Sherlock Holmes-type character, only drank Makaibari tea. It became a habit to be emulated by Ray’s adoring fans.
However, the Makaibari tea that was available to them was not of the same quality as that sold for premium prices abroad. Most insiders in the tea industry will explain that like any garden, Makaibari has its higher quality and lower quality sections. Previously, the top-quality Makaibari teas were sold at record-breaking prices to foreign buyers, and famously presented to Queen Elizabeth by Prime Minister Modi on an official visit to the UK in 2015; she said it was her favorite tea. On domestic shelves, the Makaibari shine had dimmed mainly because of the price sensitivity of the domestic market; the high-quality offerings could not be made to those who could not afford the price tag.
The same is true of prestige gardens, such as those owned by the Goodricke Group, Castleton, Thurbo, and Badamtam, which are sold in supermarkets in tins. According to a former garden manager at Goodricke, one of his Japanese buyers was aghast at the quality of Castleton acquired off the shelf in India—and this too was not obtained cheaply.
It appeared to be a universal practice for Darjeeling tea companies to establish their reputations with their best teas sold abroad, and offer far lower quality tea to domestic consumers.
The Emergence of the New Makaibari Labels
Times are changing, and Indians want to be able, even in smaller quantities, to buy the same tea sourced from within Indian borders that is kept on the shelf in foreign boutiques. Previously, export quality tea was unavailable to the retail customer in India. The shift in demand is one of the motivating factors behind Luxmi Estates, which owns Makaibari Tea Estate, to launch a quality enhancement and consistency drive for its new packaged teas, which the company has named, Makaibari Tea Treasures.
Consequently, in 2023, Luxmi hired tea industry veteran, Shivaji Sen, as Vice President, Quality Assurance to oversee the process of creating Makaibari packaged tea of various types—meaning not only first and second flush (Muscatel) Darjeeling black tea, but also oolong, green, chamomile, mint, valerian, Bai Mu Dan Peony White Tea, and others—in an effort to provide a sweeping product line that is Darjeeling tea bearing the Makaibari label.
Sen explains that as a brand, Makaibari is not limited to the garden itself because the plantation alone is not scalable in terms of both quality and quantity. It is for this reason that in the past, the best teas were only available abroad.
The new labels are tasted by a panel of tasting experts that includes Managing Director Rudra Chatterjee and his father, Dipankar Chatterjee, the group Chairman. It’s a profound indication of the priority placed on ensuring that the new Makaibari label conforms to the highest standards, consistently, regardless of where it is sold.
“The main thing is the maintenance of a consistently high quality—and that comes from your product knowledge,” says Sen. “I’ve been in this business [the tea industry] for many years now—almost fifty years—so I have a keen sense of what I want and when it is available.”
Sen adds that after being hired, he had to basically taste through an entire season from first flush to second to monsoon to autumnal. “So, I was hired only in October during 2023, and the season was over. Hence, first I had to see through the season in 2024 to be able to source the right quality because it is extremely seasonal—and Darjeeling more so," he says. "I had to have my first flush and my second flush and my rain and autumn and all these harvests in my stock to be able to formulate packaged tea of a particular quality. And this too, in a way that each package shouldn’t differ from one another in terms of the flavor of the tea.”
Also, Sen mentions that the portfolio of teas is quite wide at Makaibari. “We have to cater to all those niches,” he says.
He walked me through the process of creating what he deems to be a good Darjeeling blend—built up over years of experience at another company. He determines what percentage of first flush, second flush, rain, and autumn should be in the blend, as well as what the color should be. "Along the way, I start picking up the stock and adding to it and manipulating it. And then once I've got the mix right—that’s maybe by the months of August to September—that’s when I’ve completed the blend.”
Of course, the Springtime Bloom, which is a pure first flush, is completed in April, and the Summer Solstice, their second flush (Muscatel) is completed by July. “I have to make enough of the Springtime Bloom and Summer Solstice, which are very good first and second flush teas, respectively, in order to last until the next season. And, one has to bear in mind that organic teas have a lower shelf life than conventional ones,” Sen says.
Sen says the amounts produced are generally in line with sales projections, so there is no excess tea lying around as the next season starts. “It’s better to runout than to have inventory on hand because when the following year’s teas come out, you can’t sell the prior ones,” Sen explains. “And then you adjust the following year, and hopefully, you need to make more.”
Once the combinations are formulated after taking in the different varieties cultivated during a full growing season, Sen says it becomes almost like applying a formula. That said, the challenge lies in acquiring the best teas at the desired price point from the garden when they’re available and not sold off. (Although Sen is procuring the tea for the new Makaibari labels, he is treated like another buyer, though the tea is sold to him at an internal transfer price rather than to make profit for the garden.)
“Makaibari also exports directly to Japan and other countries,” says Sen. “So, I buy some of those teas as well [for the Makaibari Tea Treasures product line].”
Whenever a gap occurs in the quantity of the desired level of quality leaf, he must procure organic leaf from another Darjeeling source and supplement the Makaibari leaf. In doing so, the uniformity of the quality level is protected.
Sen says comparison to other packaged labels is another component. He compares his blend to what's on shelves at supermarkets and main competitors. "I have it in my mind that ours has to be better than what’s available off the shelf," he says. "In whatever category I’m making, whether it’s Green Valley or Summer Solstice, Makaibari packaged tea should be the best in its category. Our label must be better than the competition.”
Sen also says he has to work backwards from a basic bottom line that’s given to him by the accountants in order to make the tea within a reasonable budget in order to turn some kind of profit. “This is where we have the dialectic of art and commerce,” he says. “We can’t forget that it’s a commercial enterprise.”
Once the desired tea blend is developed and the appropriate combinations are achieved in each category, the process is far from over. Next comes the tasting panel.
“Makaibari has developed a very stringent tasting process ensuring that customers know that each tea, after being produced in Makaibari, is tasted by Mr [Shivaji] Sen and also by Dipankar and Rudra Chatterjee,” the company has stated.
On a scale of one to ten, if the taste of the sampled teas do not score 9/10 at minimum, the batch is rejected.
“If you are acquiring Tea Treasures, we want consumers to know that they’re buying the world’s best Darjeeling teas,” says Rudra Chatterjee. “These are mainly marketed through Makaibari stores in airports and online and sold through high-end gourmet stores.
Makaibari still maintains a ‘downmarket’ version of their teas, consisting of monsoon flush and autumnal flush. This too does not escape the tasting panel."
“Even our teas like Green Valley that include our rains and autumnal are the best teas available in the modern trade market,” Chatterjee adds.
Sen says that the industry in general has focused intemperately on commercial interests, making it a commodity business, and in so doing, has lost the art of making fine tea on a mass scale and packaging it for consumers. He admires the passion with which Rudra Chatterjee helms Luxmi, with his sights focused sharply on quality.
“I was actually involved in this for most of my career,” Sen says. “When you think that there is a whole world of teas out there, when I get the chance to do what I’m doing for Luxmi, which is more artistic and driven by taste, I love it! At this stage in life, I think it’s appropriate that I end my career with that instead of churning out inferior labels.”
While other tea companies have focused their attention on bulk exports, in the same way that fine wines and champagnes are bottled at the vineyards themselves, Chatterjee is intent on creating a fine label of Makaibari tea that will be regarded in the same way as these luxury products.
Sen acknowledges the difference in approach. “Rudra has ideas,” he says. “They are quite visionary when compared with what the other companies are doing.”
It is an opinion not only held within the company but also in the industry. Anshuman Kanoria, the Chairman of the Indian Tea Exporters Association (ITEA) and owner of Goomtee Estate as well as former owner of several other quality Darjeeling gardens, concurs. “Rudra has a strong sense of what he wants to accomplish and is really doing things differently than others—and that is to be recognized,” he says.
When Makaibari was bought by Luxmi, it was seen by the industry as a large company buying a prestige garden for the name. It would have, therefore, been easy for management of the company to rest on its laurels. Based on the name, Makaibari would certainly sell. Instead of relying on the inertia provided by the famous name, Luxmi is actually leveraging its resources behind the label to ensure that Makaibari does not simply live on its past glory or on the high-priced teas that make the news as, arguably, may have been the case in the final days of the prior owner’s tenure.
As one retired garden manager told this writer, “It’s one thing to make tea at an acclaimed garden—it’s another to make an excellent tea at any garden”. Luxmi appears to be bent upon making Makaibari label tea the very best it can be in each category.
In that sense, while management may not be physically present at the garden all the time, their taste buds are in constant contact with the tea. That’s how quality is maintained. Moreover, as Sen mentioned, it takes both passion and vision, which he and others in the industry believe his boss has in ample measure.
In this way, Luxmi is preserving the Makaibari legacy—and it’s the same legacy whether one is buying packaged tea in London, England, or Kolkata, India, for having a thriving international private label is perhaps the most visionary goal that can be achieved by a Darjeeling tea garden.
So far, other Darjeeling gardens haven’t achieved this aim. In fact, it’s not even on their radars, consumed as they are by the amounts they are getting at auction or from the export market. By contrast, if Makaibari achieves success in the standardization and maintenance of a high-quality retail label, it may well become a key element of Rudra Chatterjee’s long-term legacy at the company and in the industry as a whole.
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