The Tea Studio tea ladies
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clare jones
The Tea Studio tea ladies
We are very pleased to be working with The Tea Studio in the Nilgiri Hills in south India. Unusually, for a tea factory, the work force is all women. We are delighted to introduce the ladies who are making our award winning teas including our GTA 3 star Mao Feng.
Muskan Khanna – (back row)
With a background in Media Studies from the University of Birmingham, Muskan ended up falling in love with tea thanks to her father Indi Khanna. With the help of Indi's guidance and expertise she runs the day to day operations at the studio. She spends her mornings being a tea maker on the factory floor and her afternoons doing the admin work at the studio. “I used to hear about people who loved their jobs and think, how is that possible, but here I am today, I cannot wait to get to the studio and start my day! Believe me there have been times I have come in with a fever just because it seemed worth it!”
From left to right:
Chitra Badran (white & orange sari) A mother of a 4 year old son. Her family also has small tea holdings nearby and her husband works as the night watchman for the Tea Studio. She lives in a nearby village.
Sharmila (white & beige sari) An 18 year old high school graduate who used to help pluck the leaves in her family’s small holding. She has been working in the studio for a few months now.
Kunju (red sari) wanted to work to help her family’s financial situation. And as our motto is to help the women around the area, we hired her in an instant.
Sandhya (green sari) a 19 year old, finished her high school and started working at the studio. She too lives in the neighbouring village.
Vaideghi Kannan - the tea maker in a black & gold sari. She has been married for 15 years and now has two grown up children, so Vaideghi decided to start working. In the one year that the tea studio has been operational, Vaideghi has become a very diligent and hardworking tea maker, working side by side with Muskan. She lives in the neighbouring village and she also supplies the studio with leaf regularly from her small holding. “Initially I didn’t have a clue about tea when I started working here, but today I love my job and love being able to make tea from scratch everyday!”
According to all these ladies they love coming here for the warm and friendly atmosphere, they enjoy being in a space with only women employees. ‘If given a choice we would love to come to work on Sundays too!”
Buy our Tea Studio teas here
Read this article by Jane Pettigrew for more information about Tea Studio
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