Dooars tea: CTC grades,
types and the North Bengal belt.

Most people who drink tea from North Bengal do not know they are drinking it. The Dooars does not carry the name recognition of Darjeeling or Assam in retail markets, but it supplies the leaf that goes into a large share of what India brews every morning. It is a working tea region — high volume, consistent quality, and a range of grades that most buyers have not fully explored.

Where the Dooars is

The Dooars is the strip of terai flatland that runs along the base of the eastern Himalayan foothills, from the Teesta river in the west to the Bhutan and Assam borders in the east. Administratively it covers Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts of West Bengal. The name comes from the Bengali and Assamese word for "door" or "gateway" — the Dooars was the corridor through the Himalayan foothills into Bhutan, and the terrain still reflects that geography: flat land, heavy monsoon, dense former forest, and rivers running south off the hills.

The region has over 150 active tea gardens. Some are large estates with their own processing factories and direct export relationships. Many are smaller gardens that sell their leaf to bought-leaf factories or through the Siliguri Tea Auction Centre, which handles the largest volume of Dooars and Terai tea in India.

CTC: what it means and how the grades work

CTC stands for Crush, Tear, Curl. It describes the processing method, not the variety of tea plant. Fresh tea leaves are passed through a series of cylindrical rollers with sharp teeth that crush, tear, and curl the leaf into small uniform pellets. The result is a grade that brews quickly, releases a lot of colour and strength, and works well with milk — which is why CTC dominates everyday tea consumption across the Indian subcontinent and in most markets that cook tea with milk and sugar.

Within CTC, there are several distinct grades based on the size and character of the pellet:

Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP) — The coarser end of the CTC grades. Larger pellets, slightly slower to brew, produces a strong cup with good body. Used by blenders who want backbone in a blend.

Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings (BOPF) — Smaller and more uniform than BOP. This is one of the most widely traded CTC grades globally. Brews quickly, produces a bright, brisk liquor. The grade that most mass-market tea bags use.

Pekoe Dust (PD) — Finer than BOPF. Very fast extraction, very high colour. Common in institutional supply — canteens, large-scale catering — where brew speed matters and the tea will be diluted into large volumes.

Dust No.1 — The finest grade. Extremely fast brew, maximum colour extraction. Used in bulk blending and tea bag manufacture where colour and speed are the primary criteria.

Dooars CTC across all these grades tends toward strength and maltiness rather than the lighter, more astringent character of some Assam CTC. It holds well with full-cream milk and is well-suited to masala chai preparation. Most large Indian tea brands use Dooars CTC as part of their core blend.

Orthodox tea from the Dooars

Orthodox tea is made by a different process — the leaves are withered, rolled, fermented, and dried in a way that preserves the leaf structure rather than shredding it. The result is a whole-leaf or large-leaf product with a more complex, nuanced flavour profile than CTC.

Dooars orthodox does not carry the Darjeeling premium, but that is partly a marketing gap rather than a quality gap. Orthodox leaf from Jalpaiguri estates — particularly from gardens with altitude on the southern Himalayan slopes — has a full, rounded character with less of the muscatel note that defines Darjeeling and less of the heavy pungency of the strongest Assam orthodox. It occupies a useful middle position for buyers who want an orthodox character without the price of a Darjeeling estate label.

Orthodox from the Dooars is sold through the Siliguri auction and directly from gardens with their own export licences. Volume is lower than CTC, and specific grade availability depends on the estate and the flush.

Green tea from North Bengal

A smaller but growing category. Green tea from the Dooars belt skips the oxidation step entirely — the leaves are fixed (usually by steaming or pan-firing) immediately after withering to prevent the enzymatic browning that produces black tea. The result is a lighter, greener product with different flavour compounds and lower caffeine than fully oxidised black tea.

Dooars green tea is not in the same tier as Japanese sencha or Chinese Longjing in terms of name recognition, but the raw material — young leaf from gardens with good soil and humidity — is capable of producing a clean, drinkable green tea at a price point well below the imported alternatives. It is currently underproduced relative to demand.

The four flushes

Tea from the Dooars, like all Indian tea, is harvested in seasonal flushes. Each flush has a distinct character.

First flush (March to April) — The first growth after the winter dormancy. Light, fresh, more delicate than later flushes. Lower volume but often higher quality per kilogram. First flush Dooars can be sold as a specialty product.

Second flush (May to June) — The main quality flush. The leaf is more developed, the liquor stronger and more characteristic. This is when the Dooars produces its best typical CTC and the bulk of its orthodox.

Monsoon flush (July to September) — High volume, lower quality. Heavy rainfall accelerates growth but dilutes the tea compounds. Monsoon flush Dooars goes mostly into bulk blends and institutional supply. It is cheap but not complex.

Autumn flush (October to November) — Growth slows as temperatures drop. Autumn flush Dooars can produce a pleasant, mellow cup — less brisk than second flush but with a different warmth. Not widely marketed separately but available from gardens that harvest late into the season.

Where we come in

We are based in Hasimara, Alipurduar — inside the Dooars belt. We source CTC, orthodox and green tea from gardens in Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri and through the Siliguri Tea Auction Centre. If you are looking to procure Dooars tea in bulk, see our tea supply page or send us a WhatsApp with the grade and quantity.