Ooty Tea Factory Visit Guide 2026 — Tours, Tasting, How Tea Is Made & Where to Buy Nilgiris Tea

Written from Ooty, by OotyMade — sourcing single-estate Nilgiris tea from named Nilgiris factories since 2016.

If you are visiting Ooty, the tea factory on Doddabetta Road is one of those stops that most itineraries include — and most visitors leave feeling they only scratched the surface of what they were seeing.

The conveyor belts, the drying machines, the rising steam, the overwhelming green-vegetable-turning-to-bronze smell of fermenting tea leaf — it is all genuinely fascinating. But without context, it is machinery. With context, it is one of the most remarkable food transformation processes in the world: a fresh green leaf, plucked from a bush on a misty Nilgiris hillside at dawn, converted through four precise steps into the tea that 90% of South India drinks with breakfast every morning.

This guide gives you that context. Written by someone who sources Nilgiris tea directly from named Nilgiris estates — Kannavarai, Homewood, Darmona, Homedale, Silver Oak — this is the guide the factory tour itself does not always provide.

It covers: which factory to visit, the exact timings and entry fee, what you will see at each stage of the production process and what it actually means, how to taste Nilgiris tea properly, what to buy at the factory shop and what to avoid, and how to order genuine single-estate Nilgiris tea online if you cannot visit in person or want to keep drinking it after you go home.

The Ooty Tea Factory — Essential Visitor Information

Which Factory Are We Talking About?

The term "Ooty Tea Factory" most commonly refers to the Doddabetta Tea Factory and Tea Museum on Doddabetta Road — the working factory with an attached museum that forms part of almost every Ooty tourist circuit. It is established by the Department of Horticulture and Plantation Crops and sits at approximately 1,839 metres on the road toward Doddabetta Peak, about 5 km from Ooty Bus Stand and 4 km from Doddabetta Peak itself.

This is the factory covered in this guide. There are other working factories in the Nilgiris — Homedale, Highfield, Glendale, Brooklane, Rallia — but most are private estates not open to casual tourist visits. The Doddabetta factory is the one specifically set up to receive visitors while production is running.

Timings, Entry Fee and Getting There

Opening Hours: 9:00 AM to 6:30 PM, all days including weekends and most public holidays

Entry Fee: ₹20 per person (adults) | ₹15 per person (children) Camera fee: ₹25 if carrying a dedicated camera Parking: ₹25 per vehicle

Recommended visit duration: 45 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on how much time you spend in the museum

How to reach: By auto-rickshaw from Charring Cross or Ooty Bus Stand (common — ask for "Tea Factory Doddabetta Road"). By taxi (most Ooty sightseeing packages include it with Doddabetta Peak). By local bus toward Doddabetta. Walking from Doddabetta Peak: approximately 4 km downhill.

Best time to visit: Weekday mornings (before 11 AM) for smaller crowds. The factory machinery is running during production hours — machines are typically active from morning into afternoon. Visiting too late in the day means quieter machines and less to observe. Weekend afternoons can get crowded, particularly during school holidays and summer peak season (April–June).

Insider tip: Combine with Doddabetta Peak in one trip — most taxis will do Tea Factory + Doddabetta + Tea Park as a half-day circuit for ₹400–600. The Tea Factory makes more sense visited before Doddabetta Peak, not after — that way you arrive at the factory fresh, not after a crowded peak experience.

What You Will See Inside — The Factory Tour Explained

The Doddabetta factory is a working facility, not a replica. When machines are running, you see the actual production of Nilgiris CTC tea — the same tea that goes into branded packs and the South Indian breakfast cup. Here is what each section means:

The Viewing Gallery — Your Vantage Point

The factory is set up with a visitor gallery running along one side of the production floor. You look down or across at the machinery in operation. There are information boards at each section, but they are often brief — which is why this guide exists.

The Production Process — What Each Machine Is Doing

Stage 1 — Plucking (not in the factory, but the starting point)

Everything begins on the hillside. Tea pluckers — primarily women from the Nilgiris communities, most belonging to the Badaga community — move through the plantation rows with practiced speed, snapping the "two leaves and a bud" from the tip of each branch. This is the premium standard pluck. The two newest leaves and the unopened terminal bud contain the highest concentration of flavour compounds, catechins (antioxidants), and the aromatic oils that give Nilgiris tea its characteristic briskness.

Coarser plucking — three or four leaves — produces higher volume but lower quality tea. What you buy matters: estate teas sourced from the bud and two leaves produce a cup dramatically different from generic bought-leaf CTC made from machine-harvested coarser material.

Fresh plucked green leaf is brought to the factory within hours — temperature and time between plucking and processing affect the final flavour significantly.

Stage 2 — Withering (what you see first)

Freshly arrived green leaf is spread in thin layers on long withering troughs — essentially large flat-bed ventilated racks. Warm or ambient air is blown through the leaf for 9–18 hours depending on humidity and the factory's target.

Withering has two distinct functions. Physical withering reduces moisture content in the leaf from around 75–80% down to approximately 60–70%, making it flexible and pliable so it will not shatter when rolled. Chemical withering is equally important — during these hours, the leaf's internal chemistry changes, precursor compounds develop, and the leaf becomes ready for the enzymatic reactions of fermentation. A properly withered leaf smells grassy, slightly fruity, and has a characteristic pliability when folded — it bends without cracking.

Under-withered leaf produces harsh, raw tea. Over-withered produces flat, dull tea. Experienced factory managers assess wither by feel and smell — a skill that takes years.

Stage 3 — Rolling/CTC Processing (the loudest part)

For CTC tea — which dominates Nilgiris production and is what most of the Doddabetta factory produces — the withered leaf moves into the CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) machine. This is typically the most dramatic visual in the factory.

The CTC machine consists of two cylindrical metal rollers rotating in opposite directions at different speeds — one fast, one slow — covered with serrated teeth. The withered leaf passes between these rollers at high speed. The rollers crush, tear, and curl the leaf completely, macerate the cells entirely, and reduce it to small, even granular pieces.

This total maceration has two effects: it exposes all the leaf's internal compounds (enzymes and substrates) to each other and to oxygen simultaneously, dramatically accelerating the fermentation process. And it produces the small, uniform granule that makes CTC tea ideal for the strong, milk-compatible, quick-brewing cup of South Indian chai — the tea that goes into every filter coffee shop, every home kitchen, and most branded tea bags across India.

The UPASI (United Planters Association of South India) research on which Nilgiris processing standards are based documents the optimal CTC roller speed as approximately 700–750 RPM for the high-speed roller and 70–75 RPM for the low-speed roller — a 10:1 ratio that creates the shearing force needed for complete maceration.

For orthodox tea — which Homedale, Glendale, and some other Nilgiris estates produce in smaller quantities — the leaf is rolled by a gentler machine that twists and compresses without fully shredding, preserving the leaf's integrity and producing the whole-leaf loose tea that connoisseurs prize. The Doddabetta factory focuses on CTC.

Stage 4 — Fermentation/Oxidation (the colour transformation)

The CTC'd leaf — now small granules called "dhool" — enters the fermentation stage. In most South Indian factories, this happens in large rotating drums through which conditioned air is passed. The dhool spends 60–90 minutes in these drums.

What happens during this time is a cascade of enzymatic reactions. The polyphenol oxidase enzyme (activated when the leaf cell walls were broken in Stage 3) converts the colourless catechins (the same antioxidants that make tea healthy) into theaflavins and thearubigins — the orange-red and dark-brown pigments that give black tea its colour and its characteristic astringency.

Watch the colour as this happens: green dhool entering the drum emerges as dark copper-bronze. The smell shifts from fresh and grassy to something richer, more complex — the beginnings of the deep tea aroma you associate with a strong brewed cup.

Ideal fermentation conditions: temperature below 30°C, moisture approximately 55%, relative humidity above 90%. The factory manager judges when fermentation is sufficient by both colour and smell — the "nose" of properly fermented dhool has a very specific character. Too little fermentation produces raw, green-tasting tea. Too much produces flat, dark tea with poor aroma and harsh astringency.

Stage 5 — Drying (fixing the tea)

The fermented dhool enters the drier — typically an endless-chain pressure drier — where hot air at 95–105°C passes through the moving bed of dhool. This step does several things simultaneously: it stops the enzymatic fermentation by destroying the active enzymes, it reduces moisture content to below 3% (essential for shelf stability), and it develops the final dry fragrance of made tea.

The tea that emerges from the drier is what you recognise as black tea — small dark granules with the characteristic smell of tea. It is technically finished tea at this point, though still hot and in need of cooling before the next stage.

Stage 6 — Grading and Sorting

Dried tea passes through a series of vibratory sieves and sorting machines that separate the granules by size. Different sizes have different names (known as grades): BP (Broken Pekoe), BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe), BOPF (Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings), Dust. Fannings and dust are the smallest particles — they brew fastest and strongest, which is why they go into commercial tea bags. Larger broken grades are sold as loose tea with a more complex flavour. The grading process is what you may see at the end of the viewing gallery — the sorting machines have a distinctive rhythmic movement and the separated grades accumulate in different collection points.

Stage 7 — Packing

Sorted and graded tea is packed in bulk bags (typically paper-lined jute sacks) for auction or direct sale, or packed in retail packets in the factory's own brand. The factory shop at Doddabetta sells retail packets of factory-fresh Nilgiris CTC tea — this is some of the freshest tea you can buy, packed almost immediately after production.

The Tea Museum — History of Nilgiris Tea

Adjacent to the production facility, the museum section tells the story of Nilgiris tea from its beginning. Key things to look for:

1835 — The Introduction of Camellia sinensis

British botanist and administrator John Sullivan introduced seeds of Camellia sinensis var. sinensis (the Chinese tea variety) to the Nilgiris in 1835. He also introduced potatoes, carrots, and English vegetables to the hills. The tea plants took well to the climate — the cool temperatures, the alternating monsoon mist and direct sunlight, and the well-drained lateritic loam soils of the Western Ghats created conditions very similar to the plant's native Chinese highland habitat.

1859–1862 — Commercial Cultivation Begins

The Thiashola Estate, established in 1859, was among the first tea estates in the Nilgiris. Commercial production began properly in 1862. By 1904, over 3,200 hectares were under tea cultivation — remarkable growth driven by British planters, Chinese tea-makers brought in to assist with production, and labour from the local tribal communities. Most early plantations were run by retired British military and civil servants who knew little about tea production — many failed, but those that survived built the foundation of today's Nilgiris tea industry.

The GI Certification

Nilgiri Orthodox Tea became India's 100th GI-registered product — a milestone in the country's intellectual property history. The certification specifically covers the whole-leaf orthodox processed tea from the Nilgiris District, protecting its origin and quality standard.

Today's Scale

The Nilgiris produces approximately 136 million kilograms of tea annually (2022 figures), contributing around 13% of India's total tea output. Of this, around 90% is CTC — the granular tea of South Indian kitchens and chai — with the remaining 10% being the orthodox whole-leaf tea increasingly sought by premium buyers.

How to Taste Nilgiris Tea Like a Professional

The tea tasting counter at the Doddabetta factory offers a cup of fresh Nilgiris tea as part of your entry — many visitors drink it quickly and move on. Here is how to taste it properly:

What to Observe Before Drinking

Colour of the liquor: Well-made Nilgiris CTC tea brews to a bright, clear amber-orange — what professionals call "bright" liquor. A dull, cloudy, or very dark liquor indicates over-fermentation, poor quality leaf, or stale tea. Nilgiris tea is specifically prized for its brightness — it is one of the most popular teas for iced tea globally because it stays clear when chilled (unlike Assam, which clouds when cold due to higher tannin content).

Aroma: Fresh Nilgiris tea has a distinctly brisk, aromatic quality — clean, slightly floral, without the heavy malt of Assam or the muscatel complexity of Darjeeling. The aroma should be immediate and vibrant when you hold the cup beneath your nose.

The Tasting Process

Take a small sip — not a full mouthful. Let the tea contact the sides and back of your tongue, not just the tip. The sides of the tongue are most sensitive to astringency (the dry puckering sensation from tannins). The back is most sensitive to bitterness. The tip detects sweetness.

What to notice in Nilgiris tea:

• Briskness: A lively, almost effervescent quality on the palate — the defining characteristic of Nilgiris tea, attributed to the altitude, climate, and the specific growing conditions of the Western Ghats
• Body: Medium to full — satisfying without being heavy
• Astringency: Present but clean — not the harsh astringency of over-extracted tea
• Finish: Short to medium, reasonably clean

Nilgiris vs Darjeeling vs Assam — the three GI Indian teas

What Makes Single-Estate Nilgiris Tea Different from Generic Blends

The tea at the factory tasting counter is blended — a consistent mix of CTC grades from various leaf suppliers and the estate's own production. It is good, fresh tea. But it is not what a named-estate single-origin tea tastes like.

OotyMade sources from five named estates: Kannavarai, Homewood, Darmona, Homedale, and Silver Oak. Each has a distinct character shaped by its specific altitude, aspect (which direction the slope faces), soil type, and the particular clone of Camellia sinensis that predominates in its gardens.

Homedale, for example, cultivates at elevations as high as 6,000 feet (approximately 1,800 metres) — among the highest-grown tea in South India. Founded in November 1949 by Shri V. K. Aravindaksha Menon, the son of the Maharaja of Cochin, Homedale has a 75-year tradition of producing hand-picked, two-leaves-and-bud premium tea. The liquor from Homedale is notably more aromatic and complex than generic Nilgiris blends — a quality that serious tea drinkers recognise immediately.

When you visit the factory, taste the included cup. Then, if you want to understand what Nilgiris tea becomes when origin and craft are taken seriously, try a single-estate cup alongside.

The Nilgiris Tea Calendar — When to Visit for What

Not all months produce equal tea. If your Nilgiris visit is partly motivated by tea tourism, knowing the quality calendar changes everything:

January – February: Frost Tea Season (Peak Quality)

This is the Nilgiris specialty that serious tea buyers around the world pursue. Extremely cold winter nights (temperatures can drop to 0–5°C on the upper slopes) followed by warmer days create a specific low-humidity stress on the tea plant. The plant's metabolic response — concentrating sugars and aromatic compounds to cope with the temperature swing — produces tea with exceptional complexity and natural sweetness. Plucking happens in early morning when it is still very cold; withering uses the cold, dry winter air; and oxidation at low temperatures produces unusually aromatic, nuanced tea.

Frost tea is produced in small quantities and sells out quickly. If you are in the Nilgiris in January or February, ask specifically for frost tea or "winter flush" at any factory shop — it is significantly different from the year-round production.

March – May: Second Flush / Quality Season

Good quality, consistent production. The estates that supply OotyMade deliver their strongest volumes in this period.

June – September: Monsoon Season

The Southwest Monsoon brings heavy rain to the Nilgiris from June through September. Tea growth accelerates (the plant loves moisture), but quality is lower — the rapid growth dilutes the flavour compounds. Factories are busy, production volumes are high, but connoisseurs do not prize monsoon flush tea the way they value winter or second flush.

The tea gardens are at their most visually spectacular during monsoon — emerald green in every direction, mist rolling between the rows, the air saturated with that clean mountain smell. If you are visiting for the visual experience of the tea estates, monsoon is remarkable. If you are visiting to buy the best tea, wait for October onwards.

October – December: North-East Monsoon and Recovery

The Northeast Monsoon brings its own rains. As it clears, the quality season restarts. The gardens are recovering toward the winter flush period.

What to Buy at the Factory Shop (and What to Watch Out For)

Every Ooty tea factory visitor ends up at the shop. Here is how to buy well:

Recommended Purchases

Fresh-packed factory CTC tea: The most economical and reliable purchase. Packed almost immediately from production, this is as fresh as Nilgiris CTC gets. Buy in quantity if you drink chai daily.

Nilgiris Orthodox Tea (if available): Less common in the Doddabetta factory shop but worth asking for. Orthodox whole-leaf tea from the Nilgiris is the GI-registered variety — whole leaves, complex cup, not suitable for milk chai but exceptional brewed plain.

Green Tea: The Nilgiris produces very good green tea — the Silver Oak green tea from the named estate is particularly notable. Factory shops sometimes carry green tea; if available, it is worth buying fresh at source.

Masala Tea Blends: Factory-blended masala chai using Nilgiris CTC tea as the base. Good quality, significantly cheaper than branded masala teas.

What to Be Cautious About

Unnamed blends sold as "premium" at high prices: Some factory shops lean into the tourist pricing opportunity. Generic CTC in premium packaging is still generic CTC. The price premium should reflect either the grade (orthodox whole-leaf vs CTC fannings) or the estate origin — not the packaging.

Very old stock: Tea loses freshness. Ask when the batch was packed if you can. The factory's own production is typically fresh; older stock that has been sitting tends to look dull and smell flat.

Flavoured tea bags at high prices: These are usually low-grade fannings with added flavouring. If you want cardamom tea, buy good CTC and add fresh cardamom — the result is dramatically better.

Other Tea Experiences in the Nilgiris

The Doddabetta Tea Factory is the most accessible starting point, but it is not the only tea experience worth having in the Nilgiris:

Tea Park (near Doddabetta): A tea-themed garden developed by the Horticulture Department. Neatly manicured tea slopes with paved walking paths, gazebos, information boards, and valley viewpoints. Entry approximately ₹20–50. Good for families and photography. Often combined with Doddabetta Peak and the Tea Factory in one half-day.

Highfield Tea Estate (Coonoor/Emerald Lake area): A private estate about 25 km from Ooty that offers a more intimate factory tour experience. Known for producing Nilgiri tea varieties and fresh masala chai. The drive through the Emerald Lake area to reach Highfield is itself worth it.

Glendale Estate (Coonoor area): One of the Nilgiris' oldest working estates, dating to 1835. Produces high-quality orthodox teas. Less commercial than the Doddabetta factory, more for serious tea enthusiasts.

Tranquilitea (Coonoor): Offers a gourmet tea tasting experience — "Cups that Cheer" — within their tea estate. Curated tasting of specialty and gourmet Nilgiri teas with a proper guided format. For those who want the structured tasting session that the Doddabetta factory tour does not always provide.

Tea Estate Viewpoints (Ooty–Coonoor Road): No entry fee. The roads between Ooty and Coonoor pass through estate after estate — you can stop roadside for photographs without entering any facility. Best in the morning when the mist is still on the rows and pickers are working.

The OotyMade Difference — Single-Estate Nilgiris Tea Delivered to Your Door

Visiting the factory gives you context. Ordering from OotyMade gives you the tea itself — fresh, from named estates, with full traceability, delivered pan-India.

What separates OotyMade's tea range from what you find in supermarkets, generic online stores, or even most Ooty tourist shops:

Named estate sourcing. Every OotyMade tea is from a specific, named Nilgiris estate — Kannavarai, Homewood, Darmona, Homedale, or Silver Oak. You know exactly which garden it came from. No anonymous blends. No imported tea mixed in and labelled "Nilgiris."

Fresh packing. Tea is packed fresh at source and dispatched within 48 hours of your order. The difference between fresh-packed estate tea and six-month-old supermarket stock is dramatic — it is the difference between a vivid, bright, aromatic cup and a flat, dull one.

The full range. Black CTC, whole-leaf orthodox, green tea, white tea, masala chai, ginger tea, cardamom tea — all using Nilgiris tea as the base, not the anonymous blends that commercial flavoured teas use.

Same-day dispatch before 1 PM. Order before 1 PM and your tea leaves Ooty the same day. Most Bangalore orders arrive next day. Chennai orders arrive next day. The tea on your table tomorrow morning was in the Nilgiris today.

→ Shop Single-Estate Nilgiris Tea — All Five Estates →

Our Named Estate Teas — What Each Tastes Like

Kannavarai Estate Tea: Brisk, full-bodied Nilgiris CTC from the Kannavarai estate. The everyday South Indian cup at its finest — strong enough for milk and sugar, bright and clean drunk plain. Perfect for morning chai.

Homewood Estate Tea: Medium-bodied, bright, aromatic. The Homewood estate produces a tea with a particularly clean finish — excellent for afternoons.

Darmona Estate Tea: Deeper colour, stronger body. Darmona's CTC has the character that works best in filter-coffee style strong brewing — for those who want a robust cup.

Homedale Estate Tea: Founded 1949, sourced from elevations up to 6,000 feet. Among the most complex and aromatic in the OotyMade range. Hand-picked, two leaves and bud. The premium Nilgiris cup.

→ Shop Homedale Estate Tea →

Silver Oak Green Tea: Nilgiris green tea from the Silver Oak estate. Brisk and clean, dramatically lighter than black tea, excellent drunk plain. The Nilgiris altitude produces a green tea with more brightness and less grassy flatness than lowland Indian green teas.

→ Shop Silver Oak Green Tea →

Planning Your Ooty Trip — The Tea Lover's Half-Day Itinerary

8:30 AM: Start at the Tea Estate Viewpoint on the Ooty–Coonoor Road. Morning light, mist still on the rows, possibly pickers working. 30 minutes for photography and the view.

9:15 AM: Drive to the Doddabetta Tea Factory on Doddabetta Road (approximately 20 minutes from Ooty town). Arrive early before crowds build. Spend 45 minutes to 1 hour on the factory tour and museum. Use this guide to understand what each machine is doing. Save the tasting cup for last.

10:30 AM: Drive up to Doddabetta Peak (4 km). Clear days offer views of three states — Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala. 30–45 minutes.

11:30 AM: Tea Park (if you want more garden walking time and photography). 20–30 minutes.

12:15 PM: Return to Ooty town. Lunch.

Afternoon optional: Drive the Ooty–Coonoor Road (36 km, under an hour each way) for the estates of Coonoor — Highfield, Glendale, or a Tranquilitea tasting session if booked in advance.

Related Reading from OotyMade

• Nilgiris Tea Complete Guide — Estates, Types, Health Benefits, Brewing →
• What to Buy in Ooty — The Insider Guide →
• Ooty Travel Guide 2026 →
• Ooty Weather — Month by Month Guide →
• GI Tagged Products India — Including Nilgiri Orthodox Tea →
• Ooty Products Delivery Bangalore — Next Day →
• Ooty Products Delivery Chennai — Next Day →

Frequently Asked Questions — Ooty Tea Factory

What is the entry fee for the Ooty Tea Factory? The Doddabetta Tea Factory and Tea Museum on Doddabetta Road charges ₹20 per adult and ₹15 per child. Camera fee is an additional ₹25. Car parking is ₹25. The entry includes access to both the factory viewing gallery and the attached Tea Museum, plus a cup of Nilgiris tea at the end of the tour.

What are the timings for the Ooty Tea Factory? The factory is open daily from 9:00 AM to 6:30 PM, including weekends and most public holidays. Best visiting time is weekday mornings before 11 AM when crowds are smaller and machinery is running at full production pace. Avoid weekend afternoons during peak tourist season.

What can I see at the Ooty Tea Factory? The Doddabetta factory is a working CTC tea processing unit. You can see the complete six-stage process from withered green leaf to finished black tea: withering troughs, CTC rollers (the most dramatic step — watch the leaf transform), fermentation drums, driers, grading machines, and packing. The attached museum covers the history of Nilgiris tea from 1835, the GI certification, and the evolution of tea processing techniques.

What is the difference between CTC and orthodox Nilgiris tea? CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) is the dominant Nilgiris processing method — the leaf is completely macerated into small granules producing a strong, bright, milk-compatible tea. This is what the Doddabetta factory produces and what goes into 90% of Indian chai. Orthodox tea is whole-leaf tea processed using traditional rolling methods — complex, nuanced, for drinking plain. Nilgiri Orthodox Tea is a GI-registered product — India's 100th GI product.

What is the best Nilgiris tea to buy in Ooty? For everyday chai: fresh-packed Nilgiris CTC from a named estate — Homedale, Kannavarai, Homewood, Darmona, or Silver Oak (available online from OotyMade). For serious tea drinking: Nilgiris orthodox whole-leaf, or ask at the factory for any winter flush/frost tea stock if visiting January–February. For green tea: Silver Oak green tea is particularly notable in the Nilgiris range.

Where can I buy authentic Nilgiris tea online? OotyMade (ootymade.com) sources and ships single-estate Nilgiris tea from five named estates — Kannavarai, Homewood, Darmona, Homedale, Silver Oak. All teas are packed fresh at source and dispatched within 48 hours. Same-day dispatch for orders placed before 1 PM. Next-day delivery to Bangalore and Chennai. Free shipping above ₹2,000.

What is frost tea / winter flush Nilgiris tea? Frost tea is the Nilgiris specialty produced in January–February when cold nights (0–5°C on upper slopes) and warmer days create a unique stress on the tea plant. The plant concentrates sugars and aromatic compounds in response, producing tea with exceptional complexity and natural sweetness. Produced in small quantities, highly sought by connoisseurs, and sold out quickly. If visiting in January–February, ask specifically for frost tea at any Nilgiris factory shop.