Tea & Heritage · Travel · 11 min read

Kolukkumalai: Tea on the Roof of the Western Ghats

At more than 7,000 feet, on the border of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, a tea estate founded by a Scottish planter still makes tea in a wooden factory of the 1930s. The history, the Scottish connection, the tea, the climate and the famous sunrise of Kolukkumalai.

By GK Global, Adimali, Munnar · Trails & Tales by GK

The jeep leaves Suryanelli in the dark, grinding up a narrow, broken track between the tea bushes. For an hour or more it climbs, lurching over rocks and around hairpin bends, until the tea gives way to bare, windswept grassland and the track ends on a ridge high above the clouds. As the sky lightens, a sea of mist fills the valleys below, the peaks of the Western Ghats rise from it like islands, and the sun comes up over the plains of Tamil Nadu. This is Kolukkumalai, one of the highest tea estates in the world.

A Kerala landmark in Tamil Nadu

Although it is almost always visited from Munnar, Kolukkumalai lies just across the state border in Tamil Nadu, in the Kottagudi panchayat of Theni district. Its slopes fall away steeply to the east towards Bodinayakanur and the plains. There is no road from the Tamil Nadu side; the only motorable route is the rough estate track up from Suryanelli on the Kerala side. Before the jeep track, the estate was linked to the plains by a bridle path down the escarpment, along which workers carried chests of tea down to Bodinayakanur and brought supplies back up.

The Scottish connection

The tea industry of the High Range was largely the creation of British planters, and many of them were Scots. In the 1890s, the Glasgow firm of James Finlay & Co., through its Indian partners Finlay Muir & Co., took over the planting enterprise in the Kanan Devan Hills that became the Kanan Devan Hills Produce Company, and Scottish managers and assistants ran its estates for decades. The planters founded a Masonic lodge under the Grand Lodge of Scotland, Lodge Heather, in 1902. (Read our articles on the history of Munnar, the early European settlers and Munnar tea.)

Kolukkumalai belongs to this story. According to accounts of the estate, it was started in the early twentieth century by a Scottish planter, who saw the potential of these cold, misty uplands for growing fine tea. The name of its founder is not well recorded in published sources. The tea factory, a two-storey building with wooden floors, staircases, panelling and rafters, was built in about 1930, during the colonial period, and much of it remains as it was.

It is easy to see why the hills reminded the Scots of home: the high, rolling grasslands, the cold mists and frosts, the heather-like shrubs and the peat-dark streams of the high ranges have often been compared to the Scottish Highlands.

Tea the old way

Most tea in South India today is made by the CTC (crush, tear, curl) method, in which machines chop the leaf into small granules for strong, quick-brewing tea. Kolukkumalai makes orthodox tea, in which the leaf is rolled rather than cut, preserving more of its flavour and aroma. The process follows the traditional stages:

1. Plucking: by hand, taking "two leaves and a bud".
2. Withering: spreading the leaf to lose moisture and become soft.
3. Rolling: twisting the leaf to break its cells and release the juices.
4. Sieving to separate the rolled leaf.
5. Fermentation (oxidation): the leaf darkens and develops its flavour.
6. Drying in heated air, from a wood-fired furnace.
7. Fibre removal and grading into grades such as Flowery Orange Pekoe (FOP) and Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP).

Much of the machinery is old, with makers' labels and dates from the colonial era. Visitors to the factory can see the process and taste the tea. The estate's tea received the Golden Leaf award in 2005, and it is often described as grown without chemical fertilisers.

Is it really the world's highest?

Kolukkumalai is widely promoted as "the world's highest tea plantation". It is certainly one of the highest tea estates in India and in the world. However, the claim is difficult to verify: published altitudes for Kolukkumalai vary, and tea is grown at comparable heights elsewhere, for example in parts of Nepal, Darjeeling and southwest China. It is safest to say that Kolukkumalai is among the highest tea estates in the world, and certainly one of the most spectacular.

Climate

At over 2,000 m, Kolukkumalai is cold for most of the year. Temperatures fall close to freezing on winter nights, and frost is not unusual in December and January. The estate is often wrapped in cloud and mist, which keeps the tea bushes moist even in dry months. The southwest monsoon (June to September) brings heavy rain, strong winds and thick fog, and makes the jeep track dangerous. High altitude, cool temperatures and slow growth are often credited with giving Kolukkumalai tea its distinctive flavour.

The sunrise

Most visitors come for the sunrise. Jeeps leave Suryanelli before dawn, reaching the viewpoints on the ridge in time to watch the sun rise over the plains of Tamil Nadu. On clear mornings, the valleys below are filled with a "sea of clouds", with the peaks of the Western Ghats, including Meesapulimala nearby, standing above it.

How to visit

• Getting there: Kolukkumalai is reached only by jeep from Suryanelli, about 32 km from Munnar. More than 230 registered jeeps operate a regular service under a framework set by the district authorities, the motor vehicle department, the police and the panchayat, with tickets sold through the District Tourism Promotion Council counter. Drivers must be registered and experienced, and are breath-tested before each trip; each jeep carries up to six passengers.
• Timing: services start around 4 to 4:30 am for the sunrise. The ride up takes about an hour or more.
• Entry: a fee is charged to enter the estate and visit the factory.
• Ride, not trek: despite being widely advertised as a "trek", a visit to Kolukkumalai is a jeep ride with short walks at the top. (Read about the difference in our guide to trekking and hiking in Munnar and Idukki.) Walking routes on the hills around Kolukkumalai, including towards Meesapulimala and Kurangani, are restricted and require permission.

When to go

• October to February: the best time, with clear skies and the best chance of a sea of clouds at sunrise. Mornings are very cold.
• March to May: warmer and drier, with hazier views.
• June to September: heavy rain, fog and a slippery track; services may be suspended during weather alerts.