The Andes, Colombia

High above Cali, in the Colombian Andes, Colombian Breakfast grows in the only tea garden the country has: a stretch of cloud forest at 1,800 to 2,050 metres, where mist rolls in most mornings and the cold slows the leaf down enough to actually taste of something.

Rich, malty, a little fruity, with a long, smooth finish. Roughly half the land around the garden is left as protected forest. The rest funds education and community programmes for the area.

Mount Kanchenjunga, Nepal

Himalayan Chiya and Nepali Breakfast both come from the same farm, high in the foothills of Mount Kanchenjunga in eastern Nepal. Forty years ago, over 100 local farmers pooled their land and built a tea garden they'd own together, rather than just work for someone else. It went on to become Nepal's first certified organic tea garden, and the same families still run it today.

Nepali Breakfast is that tea on its own: malty chocolate, dried fruit, a fudgy finish, and a golden sheen on top worth watching for. Himalayan Chiya is the same leaf blended with cinnamon, ginger, black cardamom and pepper, a family recipe passed down through generations.

In Nepal, offering someone a cup isn't small talk, it's basically hello. Chiya khayo? means "have you had tea?"

Sichuan, China (and a bit of Nepal)

Not a farm story this time, mostly a flavour one, though there's a thread back to Nepal here too. Sichuan Chilli Chai blends proper Sichuan pepper with Timur pepper, a citrusy, faintly numbing Himalayan cousin, sourced from the same growers as our Nepal teas, into a caffeine-free rooibos chai with cinnamon, cardamom, star anise and chilli. Chai that took a trip through Chengdu and came back different.