At 1,600 metres above sea level, Munnar sits at the meeting point of three mountain streams in the Western Ghats. The air is cool year-round, the hills are draped in a continuous carpet of tea bushes, and on clear mornings the sunrise turns the valley below into a sea of gold and white mist.
Munnar produces some of India's most distinctive tea — lighter, more fragrant, and considerably more delicate than the muscular CTC of Assam or the complex floral notes of Darjeeling. It is tea that rewards drinking without milk, slowly, in the mountain cool.
The Kanan Devan Hills
The estates that ring Munnar are largely operated by Tata Tea (now Tata Consumer Products) through its subsidiary Kanan Devan Hills Plantations — one of the oldest and most significant tea operations in South India, established in the 1870s by the Finlay Muir & Co Scottish trading house.
The KDHP Museum in Munnar town tells this history with unexpected depth — tracing the transformation of the region from dense shola forest to the organised geometry of tea gardens, including the colonial labour history that most promotional material prefers to skip over.
Tea Tasting at the Estates
Several estates offer guided factory tours and tastings, including Lockhart Tea and Tata Tea Museum. A proper tasting in Munnar means tasting three or four grades side by side — understanding how the same leaf produces vastly different results depending on altitude, flush timing, and processing method.
The orthodox (whole-leaf, hand-rolled) teas of Munnar are rarely found outside Kerala. They brew to a pale amber, smell of fresh grass and mild citrus, and have almost no astringency. This is not chai-making tea — it is tea that stands entirely alone.
The Experience Beyond the Cup
The most distinctive thing about Munnar is that the tea experience is inseparable from the landscape. You cannot separate the cup from the mountain air, the mist rolling over the estate, or the distant sound of plucking. The best tea experiences here are not in cafes but outdoors.
Tea Garden Cottages — several estate-owned guesthouses sit directly within the working gardens, a short walk from the plucking rows. Waking before sunrise and watching the day's first pluckers move through the mist while your morning pot steeps is worth the winding mountain drive to get here.
Eravikulam National Park and Tea
Adjacent to Munnar, Eravikulam National Park protects the Nilgiri tahr (a mountain goat endemic to the Western Ghats) and vast stretches of shola grassland. The walk through the park toward Rajamala peak passes through tea gardens on both sides — the contrast between the cultivated estate and the wild grassland is dramatic.
The chai served at the park entrance is basic but remarkably satisfying in the cold mountain air.
“📍 South IndiaIn Munnar, tea is not commerce and it is not tradition — it is topography. The tea is the mountain; the mountain is the tea.