Chai Chun Tea

We are located right on Mall Road in Darjeeling, basically opposite the Governor House. It’s a busy spot, especially when the tourists are in town. Chauk Bazaar is just a short walk away, so there is always something going on outside our windows. Chai Chun Tea is our little operation here. We spend our days surrounded by bags and boxes of tea. Since we are in Darjeeling, everyone expects us to know everything about it, and we do our best. It’s a bit of a cramped space sometimes, but we make it work. We aren't a big fancy shop with matching uniforms. We are just people who like tea and know how to sell it. The mist comes up from the valley and hits the windows, which is quite a sight during the monsoon. We have a few regulars who drop by just to chat about the weather or the price of leaves. We don’t use any of those big marketing words. We just tell people what we have in stock. Some days the road outside is so crowded you can barely move, but that’s just Mall Road for you. We keep the kettle going and stay busy with the orders. It’s a lot of manual work, lifting crates and weighing out portions. We’ve been here long enough that we feel like part of the furniture. It’s a simple life, focused on the tea and the town. We just keep moving forward one day at a time.