Coonoor Heritage Tea Bungalow High Tea

The Bungalow

Perched on a ridge above Coonoor, the heritage bungalow was built in 1882 for a Scottish tea planter. Its wide verandas, teak floors, and fireplaces have been painstakingly restored. The lawns overlook the Hulikal ravine, where wild elephants occasionally appear at the tree line. This is where you take your high tea.

Garden Walk

Before tea, your host — a retired planter who bought and restored the property — takes you on a leisurely walk through the estate's organic garden. Unlike the vast commercial estates, this is a small, hand-plucked garden producing limited-edition teas. You learn about organic cultivation, shade-grown versus sun-grown tea, and the role of wild pollinators.

The High Tea

Back on the veranda, a three-tier high tea is served: cucumber and cream-cheese sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and local rose-petal jam, Nilgiri honey cake, and cardamom shortbread. Three teas are paired: a delicate first flush, a robust breakfast blend, and the bungalow's own masala chai with cardamom, ginger and pepper from the garden.

History & Stories

Your host's storytelling brings colonial-era Coonoor to life: the first tea seeds smuggled from China, the rivalry between coffee and tea planters, the creation of the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, and the transition of estates from British to Indian ownership after Independence.