June 2022

The first week of June has come with its rainbows in our lives. To begin on a personal and positive note, I am engaged and can finally call my girlfriend, fiancé!! Asmita reminds me every day about how much there is to look forward to in life and her support is what keeps me going every day. 

What's happening at Nepal Tea Collective? 

Speaking of things to look forward to, we received the first flush teas yesterday. Every time we see that little notification, I'm overjoyed with how connected the world is. These tea shipments from Nepal feel like a little piece of home. We will soon be doing a tea tasting session in July with our tea maker, Neekesh who has made some amazing first flush White Teas and Black Teas. 

For our tea tasting session on June 12, we invited Deepak Prakash Banskota who joined us and shared his personal story behind how he transformed villages and communities with tea. In the 60 minutes event, we started by opening up a packet of White Prakash, a tea dedicated to Mr. Banskota himself. He also happens to be my grandfather and he has been a great source of inspiration for both Nish and me. Please let me know if you would like to watch the recording of the session and I can send it out to you.

What's happening at the farm?

It's been too long since I went back to Nepal. Things keep coming up and I keep staying back to deal with them. That's why I can't help but be overjoyed, and only a tiny bit jealous, to see Nish back in Phidim for the month. He's there among other things to celebrate World Environment day and make good on the promise we made a few months ago.

He with my grandfather and the entire tea community in Phidim planted 1000 new tea saplings. I hear it was a day full of sweet labor and the photos make me feel proud. I can't believe we were able to do this so quickly and swiftly. People in the tea world make miracles happen every day.

For the first 10,000 Nepal tea customers, we still have 9000 more saplings to go! But the plan isn't to decrease that number. The plan is to never stop. For every purchase, we're planting a new sapling as long as we run!

Other than that, the dormant period on the farm has ended and the second flush production has started again. Neekesh along with our team has been making some amazing teas.