Launching 2026 · Direct trade · Small batch

Single-origin, small-batch tea from the Indian hills.

Whites, greens, and oolongs from Kangra and Darjeeling. Hand-plucked, named by garden, priced fairly, told plainly.

No spam. Just a note when the first tins are ready and the occasional letter from the hills.

The Idea

Chai is a beautiful thing. So is this.

The British brought tea cultivation to the northern hills in the 1840s and built it as an export industry: black, industrial, bound for somewhere else. That's the tea most of the world still associates with India.

Another India to be proud of.

Tea bushes and shade trees in a Darjeeling-region tea garden.

But in the cool hills of Kangra and Darjeeling, small growers have quietly made another kind of tea: whites, greens, and oolongs that have been on short lists of the world's finest since the late 1800s. Kangra's greens won medals in London in the 1880s, prized above much of what Darjeeling was shipping at the time. Then the 1905 earthquake levelled the valley and broke its industry. A century on, growers are still rebuilding what was lost, and the tea they're making now is as good as any that's come out of India. It just hasn't found its audience.

Hill Station Co. exists to carry those teas outward. To the diaspora first. To travelers and the tea-curious after. Tea's commercial history is tangled, so we'd rather be straightforward about ours: fair prices up the whole chain, open books on every tin, and growers named on the label when we've earned the direct relationship.

The Opening Catalog

Three teas to start. No chai. No CTC. No blends.

Two from Kangra, the valley still rebuilding what the 1905 earthquake took. One from Darjeeling. Every tin names the region, the flush, and the year. Tap any tea to see the grower, the elevation, how to brew it, and what each tin actually costs to make.

What We Stand For

Pay the whole chain
Growers, packers, freight forwarders, couriers. Fair rates for every hand on the tin. Agreed up-front, paid promptly, never squeezed after the fact. It's how we'd want to be treated, and how we think the people who make our tea should be too.
Open books
Every tin publishes where your money went: grower, processing, shipping, us. No margin hidden behind a story. You can see exactly what the leaf cost, and exactly what we made.
Name the grower
Terroir and flush, never anonymized. When we've earned the direct relationship, the grower's name, not ours, goes on the label. A curator at first; a partner by the second or third harvest.
Small and slow
A tea house built to last, not a scale company chasing acquisition. Seasonal drops, limited releases, and the time to do it right.

Direct Trade, Plainly

What that actually means.

Most tea brands use "direct trade" loosely. We'd rather be specific. Here's what the phrase commits us to, in plain terms, for growers and for you.

A real price floor
Growers paid 30–40% above reference market prices for the lot, before any volume discussion. Pricing is agreed up-front, not squeezed after tasting. Fair beats cheap, every time.
Prompt, honest payment
We pay on the short, clear terms we agree in writing. No consignment. No "we'll pay when it sells." Once we've bought a lot, moving it is our problem, not the grower's.
Named on the tin
When we've earned the relationship, the grower's name, garden, and elevation go on the label. Anonymity is a convenience for importers, not for the people who made the tea.
A curator first, a partner second
Year one is curation: small lot buys, honest attribution, no claim of a supply chain we haven't built yet. Year two is direct, where both sides want it. We'd rather earn that than pretend we have it.

Questions about pricing, lots, or anything else we've said here? hello@hillstation.co goes straight to us.

Open Books

Where your money goes.

Most tea brands keep their cost structure private. We'd like to show ours, on the website, not just on the tin.

Every tea has its own breakdown inside its card above. Here's a sample: roughly how the numbers look on a 2oz tin of Hima, our Kangra white, priced at $28.

A $28 tin · Hima, Kangra white
$6.50
The grower
Paid 30–40% above reference market prices. Direct, where we've earned it.
$6.10
To your kitchen
Processing, export duty, freight, tin, label, shipping.
$7.40
Running the house
Storage, platform, contractors, compliance, taxes.
$8.00
Our margin
Kept lean on purpose. Reinvested into the next harvest, better wages, a fairer chain.

Round numbers while we're still sourcing. Final breakdowns are inside each tea above.

Early Access

First tins, first stories, first look.

We're still tasting, still meeting growers, still doing the math out loud. Leave your email and we'll write when the opening catalog is ready, plus the first published price breakdown. No noise. Just letters from the hills.