Tata Tea Estate, Coorg

You know what? This is one place where I may even agree to work without remuneration.

A tea estate in Coorg.

That itself sounds slightly unusual. Coorg is so strongly associated with coffee that we almost expect every plantation-covered hill to be a coffee estate. But in South Coorg, not far from the Kutta side of the district, lies Glenlorna Tea Estate, popularly associated with Tata.

I came across this place while travelling through this part of Coorg, around the same circuit as Iruppu Falls. It was not one of those destinations appearing prominently on every tourist itinerary. Perhaps that was one reason I liked it so much.

The landscape is completely different from a typical coffee plantation.

Coffee in Coorg generally grows beneath tall shade trees, with pepper vines climbing their trunks and vegetation almost hiding the plants from view. At Glenlorna, rows of tea bushes roll across gentle slopes in neat green patterns. The open landscape allows us to see much farther, and the Western Ghats form the backdrop.

This was the kind of place that made me want to stop the vehicle every few minutes.

The estate lies in South Coorg at an elevation of around 800 metres. Abundant rainfall and the surrounding Western Ghats provide conditions suitable for tea, even though tea cultivation is relatively uncommon in a district famous for coffee.

Glenlorna is therefore something of an exception.

The estate grows tea along with crops such as pepper and areca nut. Tata's own records identify Glenlorna as the only tea estate in Kodagu with its own processing unit. Tea leaves harvested from the plantation are processed in the factory here into different grades before being sent to auction centres such as Kochi and Coimbatore.

During my visit, the tea factory was on the other side of the estate. We could also buy locally produced tea there.

And yes, I bought some.

Perhaps the surroundings influenced my judgement, but the Coorg tea tasted particularly good after seeing where it came from.

What stayed with me more than the factory or even the tea was the landscape itself. Green rows followed the slopes almost continuously, with hills beyond them and hardly any indication that we were close to some of Coorg's better-known tourist routes.

There were no grand monuments to photograph and no checklist of things to do.

Just tea bushes, hills and an enormous amount of green.

Sometimes that is enough.

If you are visiting Iruppu Falls or travelling through the Kutta and South Coorg region, Glenlorna is worth looking out for. It offers something that even frequent visitors to Coorg may not expect to find.

Coffee may define Coorg.

But there is a little corner here where tea quietly makes its case.

And yes, I still think I could work here without remuneration.

At least for a few days.

Happy travelling.

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