Our  journey started in 1989, when a chance meeting between Kiran Tawadey and Rajah Banerjee, two people who shared the same vision of cultivating Tea using natural and sustainable methods, started something special. Organic certification of the Makaibari Tea estate in Darjeeling followed two years later. 

Two years after that the Makaibari became the first Demeter, also known as Bio-Dynamic, certified Tea estate in the world. Bio-Dynamic farming simply ensures that you put more in than you take out, it requires totally natural inputs and ensures that the people, plants, animals and soil all work together to ensure to create a self-sustaining and living environment, forever.

Armed with five tea chests from the newly certified Tea estate, Kiran packed this Darjeeling Whole Leaf Tea into paper sachets in her kitchen, and “got on her bike” and sold them to Health Food Shops in and around North London. One year later Hampstead Tea was awarded best in category at the Organic Food Awards, for their Darjeeling Whole Leaf Loose Tea, it was presented by HRH Prince Charles.