theamru
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Our Story · Est. 2018

We started with one
grandmother’s kettle.

a small story, told in tea

Two siblings. Three estates. One stubborn belief that good tea shouldn’t be a luxury you import. This is how The Amru began.

1856First Darjeeling planting
2018The Amru founded
3 estatesDirect partnerships
Read the story
Chapter OneA letter from the kitchen
Founder at the Singell tea estate, Darjeeling
Anaya & Rohan RanaFounders · Photographed at the Singell estate, March 2025

Dear drinker,

The Amru began the way most good things do — over a small kitchen fire, in a hill house near Darjeeling, where our grandmother insisted that good tea was a kind of patience the world had stopped having time for.

She would brew her own each morning. One steel pot, three measured spoons, a four-minute wait that she filled by humming. She would tut at the supermarket cartons. “How do they sell this and call it tea?”

We started The Amru in 2018 because we kept wanting her tea — not the version of tea the world had been selling us. We started with one bag of leaves from a friend at Singell and a Google Sheets spreadsheet of customers.

Today we work with three estates, a small co-op of pickers, and a great many customers who’d rather wait four minutes than two seconds.

If you’re reading this — welcome to the kettle club. Brew slowly.

— Anaya & Rohan

Founders · The Amru, est. 2018
Chapter TwoWhere the leaves grow
— the himalayas —SingellMimPampore27.0410° N · 88.2663° E
Darjeeling Hills, West Bengal

Singell Estate

Est. 1959

Our primary Premium Tea garden — black tea, first and second flush.

Family-owned for three generations. Specialises in the AV2 China hybrid cultivar that gives Darjeeling its muscatel character.

Elevation1,920 m
Coordinates27.0410° N · 88.2663° E
Chapter ThreeThe long brew
  1. 1856
    01

    The First Darjeeling Gardens

    British planters establish the first tea gardens in the Darjeeling hills. The AV2 China hybrid cultivar — the one responsible for muscatel — is planted at high altitude.

  2. 1924
    02

    Mim Estate is Founded

    One of the highest tea gardens in the world, at 2,180m. Mim specialises in slow-growing autumn flush teas that carry the character of the altitude.

  3. 2009
    03

    Pampore Co-op Established

    Twenty-four women in the Kashmir Valley form the Pampore Co-operative to produce and sell Noon Chai directly, cutting out intermediaries.

  4. 2018
    04

    The Amru is Founded

    Anaya and Rohan Rana start The Amru from a rented kitchen in Bengaluru, with one supplier, a Google Sheet of customers, and a grandmother's recipe.

  5. 2019
    05

    First Direct-Estate Contract

    We sign a direct-supply agreement with Singell Estate. We pay above auction price and commit to buying the entire SFTGFOP1 grade for the season.

  6. 2021
    06

    Pampore Partnership

    We begin sourcing Kashmiri Noon Chai directly from the Pampore Co-op. Our first batch sells out in four days.

  7. 2022
    07

    The Kettle Club Launches

    We launch a subscription newsletter and early-access programme. 4,820 subscribers today.

  8. 2026
    08

    Spring Flush — Present

    Three estates. Two valleys. One belief: good tea is worth waiting for.

Chapter FourInside our gardens
Singell Estate
No. 01 of 0327.0410° N · 88.2663° E
SINGELL ESTATE · EST. 1959 · 01
Darjeeling Hills, West Bengal

Singell Estate

Est. 1959

Our primary Premium Tea garden — black tea, first and second flush.

Family-owned for three generations. Specialises in the AV2 China hybrid cultivar that gives Darjeeling its muscatel character.

Elevation1,920 m
PartnershipDirect, since 2018
Mim Estate
No. 02 of 0327.0623° N · 88.2842° E
MIM ESTATE · EST. 1924 · 02
Darjeeling Hills, West Bengal

Mim Estate

Est. 1924

One of the highest tea gardens in the world. Small-batch autumn flush.

Above the cloud line. Twenty hectares of slow-growing tea that takes its character from the mist.

Elevation2,180 m
PartnershipDirect, since 2018
Pampore Co-op
No. 03 of 0334.0153° N · 74.7706° E
PAMPORE CO-OP · EST. 2009 · 03
Kashmir Valley

Pampore Co-op

Est. 2009

Source of our Kashmiri Noon Chai. A women-led cooperative.

Built by 24 women weavers and tea-makers. They pick, process, and pack — the entire chain runs through their hands.

Elevation1,650 m
PartnershipDirect, since 2018
Chapter FiveHands that pick our tea
Anjali — Plucker · 18 years at SingellAnjali
“My grandmother plucked here. My mother plucked here. I pluck here. We know each bush by its leaves.”
AnjaliPlucker · 18 years at Singell
Tenzing — Tea-maker · Mim EstateTenzing
“Tea-making is mostly listening — to the smell of the leaf, to the sound of the dryer, to the silence in between.”
TenzingTea-maker · Mim Estate
Hafsa — Sorter · Pampore Co-opHafsa
“In Kashmir, Noon Chai is a thread. It's how we welcome a guest, end a winter, begin again.”
HafsaSorter · Pampore Co-op
Chapter SixWhat we believe

We’re a small business built on small waits.
Tea is patience the world stopped having time for.

01

We pick less.

Two leaves and a bud — only. The bottom leaves stay on the bush. The bush survives.

02

We pay more.

We settle invoices in seven days, not ninety. And above the public auction average.

03

We ship faster.

Within ten days of plucking. Tea is a fresh thing pretending to be a shelf thing.

04

We add nothing.

No flavourings, no colourings, no shortcuts. One ingredient on the label: tea.

Less, but better

We do fewer things, more carefully.

Our pouches are compostable. Our jute gift bags are hand-woven by a co-op in Bengal. We ship in carbon-balanced parcels, and we plant one tea bush for every kilo of tea we sell.

7 daysAverage estate-to-your-door time
3×Above public auction price paid to estates
100%Biodegradable packaging since 2021
24Women in the Pampore Co-op we work with