Babingtons for Darjeeling Foundation Continues its Education Programme

 

Karha Chai is one of Babingtons most loved blends and it is the one we have dedicated to our Foundation in India. In fact all profit from this spicy, energizing tea go towards our project. A very Indian tea, created to celebrate a country which in our 128 years of serving teas, has given us so much.

Babingtons was opened in 1893, during the Victorian age, in Rome by two British ladies and has been serving teas to millions of people from all over the globe. Karha Chai is a tribute to India, from where most of Babingtons tea came from during those early days as much as today.

Karha is one of the names given to the mix of spices used to prepare this energizing and spicy blend. Whoever has been to India will know, it is served at every corner of every street or market in the country. Boiling hot, spicy and usually served with milk and sugar, it is with no doubt India's national drink.

Although tea was first discovered in China more than 5000 years ago, it was in the mid 1800's that a Scotsman, Robert Bruce, discovered the camelia assamica, a variety of the camelia sinensis (the chinese tea plant) growing wild in the Assam region, north east of India. By that time the English were consuming tons of black tea and having closed commercial activities with China following the Opium wars, were looking for new tea growing opportunities.

In 2018 Babingtons celebrated its 125th anniversary and one of the most important activities of that year was creating the Babingtons for Darjeeling Foundation, in order to be able to give back to a country that gave us so much. 

In July 2019, after nine months of professional courses in nursing and hospitality, we gave out the first 50 diplomas to 50 young girls and boys who didn’t otherwise have any future in that region. These students who graduated in nursing have been vital in the past two years during the pandemic. 

Finally, after an inevitable pause for Covid in 2020 and 2021, we are now starting to recruit this years' students for a new session of professional courses to be started in spring time.

Keep following us for more details on our activities in Darjeeling!