Dooars
The flat, heavy-soiled plain east of the Teesta at the foot of the Bhutan hills, planted from the 1870s and now one of India’s larger producing districts. Gardens here are large, level and mostly CTC, and the tea is bright and full-bodied without the aromatic lift of the hill districts a few miles north. Its commercial role is to give body and colour to blends, which is why the name rarely appears on a packet.
History on this page: TeaHQ synthesis
TeaHQ's own reading of well-attested general knowledge, with no single source behind it.
This district’s description dates something — a founding, a first planting, a period of expansion. The label above says on what basis, and it applies to the historical statements rather than to the elevation, climate or soil claims below, which carry their own confidence separately.
Elevation
Recorded at 50–300 metres.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
Soil
Alluvial clay-loam laid down by rivers descending from Bhutan, heavier and less free-draining than the sandier Terai to the west.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
When it is picked
A long plucking season on the plain with no premium pick in it. Growth begins as the cold breaks and continues heavily through the monsoon, and because the crop is CTC for blending the calendar is managed for total yield rather than for a quality window. Nothing here corresponds to a first flush in the sense the hills a few miles north use the word.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
How production is organised
Large, level, mechanisable estates with their own factories, plus a substantial small-grower sector on the plain. The gardens are big enough and flat enough for machine harvesting in a way the hill districts never will be, and that is most of why Dooars tea is cheap.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
Production data
| Measure | Year | Value | Basis | Published by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Production | 2024 | 209,430 t provisional | Tea Board of India's own state- and region-wise return, published in million kilograms of MADE TEA and converted here to tonnes by an exact factor of one thousand. The Board collects these figures from registered manufacturers, so they count tea that left a factory, not leaf that left a field. The Tea Board marks this table '*Provisional, subject to revision from April 24 onwards'. Read the 2024 figures as liable to revision. | Tea Board of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Kolkata |
| Production (estate) | 2024 | 98,650 t provisional | Tea Board of India's own state- and region-wise return, published in million kilograms of MADE TEA and converted here to tonnes by an exact factor of one thousand. The Board collects these figures from registered manufacturers, so they count tea that left a factory, not leaf that left a field. The Board splits every row into Big Growers — estates with their own factories — and Small Growers, who sell green leaf to a bought-leaf factory. The split is by grower, not by factory: small-grower tonnage is finished tea attributed to the leaf's origin. The Tea Board marks this table '*Provisional, subject to revision from April 24 onwards'. Read the 2024 figures as liable to revision. | Tea Board of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Kolkata |
| Production (smallholder) | 2024 | 110,780 t provisional | Tea Board of India's own state- and region-wise return, published in million kilograms of MADE TEA and converted here to tonnes by an exact factor of one thousand. The Board collects these figures from registered manufacturers, so they count tea that left a factory, not leaf that left a field. The Board splits every row into Big Growers — estates with their own factories — and Small Growers, who sell green leaf to a bought-leaf factory. The split is by grower, not by factory: small-grower tonnage is finished tea attributed to the leaf's origin. The Tea Board marks this table '*Provisional, subject to revision from April 24 onwards'. Read the 2024 figures as liable to revision. | Tea Board of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Kolkata |
| Production | 2023 | 237,710 t | Tea Board of India's own state- and region-wise return, published in million kilograms of MADE TEA and converted here to tonnes by an exact factor of one thousand. The Board collects these figures from registered manufacturers, so they count tea that left a factory, not leaf that left a field. The Tea Board's provisional marking applies from April 2024 onwards; the 2023 calendar-year columns carry no such mark. | Tea Board of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Kolkata |
| Production (estate) | 2023 | 115,960 t | Tea Board of India's own state- and region-wise return, published in million kilograms of MADE TEA and converted here to tonnes by an exact factor of one thousand. The Board collects these figures from registered manufacturers, so they count tea that left a factory, not leaf that left a field. The Board splits every row into Big Growers — estates with their own factories — and Small Growers, who sell green leaf to a bought-leaf factory. The split is by grower, not by factory: small-grower tonnage is finished tea attributed to the leaf's origin. The Tea Board's provisional marking applies from April 2024 onwards; the 2023 calendar-year columns carry no such mark. | Tea Board of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Kolkata |
| Production (smallholder) | 2023 | 121,750 t | Tea Board of India's own state- and region-wise return, published in million kilograms of MADE TEA and converted here to tonnes by an exact factor of one thousand. The Board collects these figures from registered manufacturers, so they count tea that left a factory, not leaf that left a field. The Board splits every row into Big Growers — estates with their own factories — and Small Growers, who sell green leaf to a bought-leaf factory. The split is by grower, not by factory: small-grower tonnage is finished tea attributed to the leaf's origin. The Tea Board's provisional marking applies from April 2024 onwards; the 2023 calendar-year columns carry no such mark. | Tea Board of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Kolkata |
Figures are reproduced as their publisher stated them and are not converted, averaged or ranked. Where two publishers disagree, both rows appear — this comes from Tea Board of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Kolkata. The largest single trap in tea statistics is that FAO’s series counts green leaf as plucked while national tea boards count finished made tea, and the two differ by roughly a factor of four and a half. The basis column says which each row is, and a figure without it is not comparable to one with it.
How the name is written
Also transliterated as dooars, duars. Romanisations of a district name vary by system and by vendor, and a packet spelling one way is not describing a different place.
Teas this region is known for
- Dooars and Terai — Straightforward, brisk and unremarkable on its own, which is exactly what a blend component is for. Worth a record because so much tea sold without an origin is this.
Other growing regions in India
The neighbouring districts are the useful comparison: they share a country, a grading convention and often a cultivar, so what differs between them is closer to terroir than anything a cross-border comparison can isolate.
Sources
- TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ
This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No external document stands behind the elevation band, the climate note or the character described above, which is why each carries its confidence in the open.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this region against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.
- Terai vs Dooars — The two plains districts beneath the Darjeeling hills, separated by the Teesta and constantly folded into each other in trade descriptions. They differ in soil, in what the gardens look like and in the character the trade expects from each.