The garden as a unit
Attested in the historical record, and sourced to it.
Indian tea is organised around named gardens or estates, each functioning as a production unit with its own factory, and lots are sold by garden, flush and grade through auction. This structure is what makes garden-level provenance available to buyers in a way most origins do not offer.
Geographical indication and its limits
Attested in the historical record, and sourced to it.
Darjeeling holds an Indian geographical indication, is administered by the Tea Board of India, and is registered in other jurisdictions including as a protected geographical indication in the European Union. Enforcement outside India has been markedly uneven: oppositions have failed on product-category grounds in one market and infringement claims have been dismissed on procedural grounds in another. It is widely repeated that substantially more tea is sold as Darjeeling than the district produces; TeaHQ reports that as a long-standing characterisation and has not retrieved a figure for it.
Labour, then and now
TeaHQ's own reading of well-attested general knowledge, with no single source behind it.
The gardens were established using recruited and indentured labour, and conditions in the sector have been the subject of continuing concern and reporting into the present. TeaHQ records this as part of the history of these teas rather than confining it to a separate ethics discussion. It is recorded here as a compiled outside account: no source in TeaHQ's register covers plantation labour, and `guide-plantation-labour-history` sets the subject out at the length it needs and under the same limitation.