Tea has been grown in Nagaland for centuries by tribal communities. While large-scale commercial cultivation is recent, villagers traditionally plucked wild tea leaves for home use, preserving ancient practices that now shine in today’s artisanal Nagaland tea.

Most Nagaland teas come from small, terraced gardens or even wild shrubs hidden in forests. Unlike large estates, these gardens blend tea bushes with native trees and spices, creating a polyculture system that enhances flavor complexity and supports local biodiversity.

Village teas” refer to tea harvested in individual households rather than centralized estates. In many Nagaland districts, families tend their own tea plots, hand-plucking leaves that often bear distinctive local taste influenced by surrounding vegetation.

Several tribes, including the Ao, Angami, and Konyak, cultivate tea on terraced hill slopes using ancestral agroforestry methods. These smallholder gardens frequently interplant tea bushes under shade trees, preserving forest biodiversity and enhancing the tea’s nuanced flavors.

Nagaland’s tea gardens range from 1,200 to 1,800 meters. Higher plots experience cooler night temperatures and mist, slowing leaf growth. This altitude-driven stress concentrates flavor compounds, yielding teas with a gentle smoke hint and subtle forest-honey finish.

Yes. During monsoon months, some tribes employ natural fermentation by heaping plucked leaves under banana leaves for 6–8 hours. This controlled, small-batch process produces mild oxidation and unique earthy-sweet notes found only in select Naga teas.