Mazandaran
The eastern half of Iran’s Caspian tea strip, and a good illustration of how a growing area ends. Rainfall on this coast falls steadily as you move east from Gilan, so the gardens concentrate in the western districts around Ramsar, Tonekabon and Chalus and thin out toward Sari and beyond — not because of a boundary or a policy but because the rain runs out. The plots are small, terraced and hand-picked as in Gilan, and the output is orthodox black tea for a domestic market that imports far more than the country grows.
Elevation
Recorded at 0–800 metres.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
Climate
Humid Caspian littoral with a west-to-east rainfall gradient. The western districts nearest Gilan are the wettest and hold most of the planting.
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
The Caspian pattern of a spring quality pick and later volume picks, in the drier and less productive of Iran's two tea provinces.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
How the name is written
Also transliterated as mazandaran, mazanderan, tonekabon. Romanisations of a district name vary by system and by vendor, and a packet spelling one way is not describing a different place.
Other growing regions in Iran
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.