With emerald hills sloping away in gentle curves, their contours softened by rolling mist that floats through the air like a quiet breath, Margaret’s Hope Tea Estate has become synonymous with Darjeeling over the 160 years since its founding in 1864.

A visit to the estate reveals layers of foliage blurring into one another as the sun peaks through clouds flashing on verdant tea bushes, dark pine, and moss-covered earth. The air feels cool and damp, carrying the scent of tea leaves and the feeling that thunder could clap at any time. The cottony mist thins and thickens as the light shifts, turning the hills into a living landscape – at times vivid and clear, sometimes hazy and dreamlike – but always peaceful yet full of life…