Nepal Tea Exchange.

Nepal Tea Exchange presents itself as an exporter, promoter and marketer of orthodox teas grown at altitude in Nepal, and its argument is blunt: for decades the country's best leaf has left for India at low prices and been sold on under another name. The company's answer is to sell the tea as Nepali, to wholesale buyers abroad and to drinkers at home. For the second part it opened an outlet in Chabahil, Kathmandu, which its site lists as open daily and where it says the full range of its export-grade orthodox teas is available.

The shelf is organised by numbers. 01° is an Organic Ilam Black Tea, 09° and 28° are golden tips, 27° is the oolong, 19° a white tea and 33° the Silver Tips, picked, the shop says, in gardens at 7,000 to 7,500 feet as the first spring buds appear. The greens include a jasmine, a pearl-rolled tea and blends with lemongrass, spearmint and hibiscus. Around them sit the flavoured blacks, cardamom, rose, lemongrass and an Earl Grey, and a row of single herbs and flowers: chamomile, hibiscus, lemongrass, moringa, lavender, jasmine and blue pea.

Loose tea comes in pouches of a fixed weight. The Organic Ilam Black is Rs 985 for 100 g, the Cardamom Ilam Black Rs 748, the oolong Rs 1,135 for 60 g and the Silver Tips Rs 2,265 for 50 g; the flowers come in small packs of 10 to 18 g. A Souvenir Collection packs Earl Grey, masala, jasmine green, spearmint, chamomile and hibiscus into boxes of 25 tea bags, from Rs 390. The outlet also takes reservations for tea tasting sessions, served either as quick steeps or in the gong-fu style, step by step.