Tata Tea Museum

Activity Charges / Entry Fee: INR 75 for adults, INR 35 for children.
Time Required
About two hours
Timings
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Difficulty Level
Easy
Best Suited For
People who want to do some sightseeing.

Quick Info

Tata Tea Museum is a popular tourist spot situated in Munnar of Kerala. It is situated at a distance of about 12 kms from Munnar town at the Nallathanni Estate of Tata Tea. Munnar Tea Museum is a good place to know how your daily cup of morning tea is prepared in the factory. It enriches you with the interesting history of tea plantations. The history of Munnar is connected to tea plantations for over a century. Munnar is home to a few of the World’s best tea estates. Most of the people in Munnar are employed at tea plantations.

Tata Group's Kannan Devan Tea Estate own majority of tea plantations at Munnar. Paying a visit to the famous Munnar Tea Museum completes the visit to this hill station. The museum showcases and highlights some of the finest and enthralling aspects of tea production. The Museum has photographs and machineries each depicting a turning point that contributed to a flourishing tea industry, as seen today in the region.

 

Rankings & Ratings



A museum where you come to know the interesting and Informative history of tea.
Editor's Rankings

#5 in 21 Things to Do in Munnar
#1 in 1 Museums & Historical Places in Munnar
#1 in 3 Shopping & Souvenirs in Munnar
#5 in 15 Sightseeing Spots in Munnar

TripAdvisor Ratings

Editor's Review

The Tata Museum showcases the history of tea in Munnar in a very informative way. They also show a video based on the same subject which should not be missed. The best part is that you can taste different special flavours of tea at the museum.


PROS

  • Gives interesting information about the history of tea.
  • You can buy various types of authentic good quality tea at a very reasonable price from the tea factory.
  • An interesting 30-minute video about the history of Munnar and the tea plantations.

CONS

  • The video presentation area needs to be upgraded.
  • Might be crowded during the peak season.

Detailed Info

Tata Tea Museum is a popular tourist spot situated in Munnar of Kerala. It is situated at a distance of about 12 km from Munnar town at the Nallathanni Estate of Tata Tea. Munnar Tea Museum is a good place to know how your daily cup of morning tea is prepared in factory. It enriches you with the interesting history of tea plantations. The history of Munnar is connected to tea plantations for over a century. Munnar is home to a few of the World’s best tea estates. Most of the people in Munnar are employed at tea plantations.

Tata Group's Kannan Devan Tea Estate own majority of tea plantations at Munnar. Tata Tea holds the place of World’s second manufacturer and distributor of tea. Paying a visit to the famous Munnar Tea Museum completes the visit to this hill station. The museum showcases and highlights some of the finest and enthralling aspects of tea production. The Museum houses curious, photographs and machineries, each of which depicts a turning point that contributed to a flourishing tea industry, as seen today in the region.

The tea museum at Munnar carefully outlines the development of Munnar tea estates, which is veritably conveyed through some of the displays that include the elementary tea roller to the modern fully automated tea factory. These machineries invariably pull a contrast and hence display various stages of tea processing which can be learnt from here. Visitors to the museum can satiate their curiosity on various stages of tea processing, and also learn a thing or two about the production of black tea.

It also displays the gradual advancement that took place during the slow evolution and growth of tea plantations in this part of Kerala. Munnar Tea Museum stands as an effort to acknowledge the hard labour of the futurists who showed great willpower to transform Munnar into a major tea plantation centre of Kerala.

A sundial placed on a granite block is an odd artefact, which sits in the tranquilities of the museum compound and welcomes every guest in the museum. This artefact has a historical relevance attached to it. The sundial placed at the entrance was built by Art Industrial School at Nazareth in the year 1913 and marks the development in tea production in Munnar over time.

The museum stores an array of exotic artefacts, which cannot be found at any other museum, anywhere in the world. Some of these exclusive items on display at the museum are the original tea roller, the 'Rotorvane,' dating back to 1905, used for CTC type tea processing, the 'Pelton Wheel' used in the power generation plant in the 1920s, the original tea roller (used in 1905), and a rail engine wheel of the Kundale Valley Light Railway that shuttled men and material between Munnar. A section of the tea museum also houses classic bungalow furniture, iron oven, wooden bathtub, magneto phone, typewriters, EPABX of the 1909 telephone system, and manual calculators etc. which are the legacies of the yester years.

Tea tasting is done at the demonstration room, which is every tea lover's delight. One can taste the exotic flavours from all across the world. Those who want to get into the nitty-gritty of Tea production can learn a lot at the CTC and orthodox tea manufacturing unit at the museum.

On an average, a traveller would not take more than 1.5 to 2 hours to roam around and learn at the museum. The museum authorities are also contemplating on the idea of allowing tourists to pluck tea leaves themselves and have them processed in their presence.

This lovely museum captures the yester years of Munnar, how Tea developed in Munnar, History of Munnar and the people of Munnar. As you get in you are directed by the security to the spot where free cardamom flavoured tea is served to everyone who comes in. After this you are taken to a small factory’s processing unit where you are given a guided tour to the processing of tea, right from the time it comes into the factory till the time it is converted into the lovely tea that we drink at our home. At this point you also get to buy a variety of tea from the TATA tea sales outlet. You can also learn how to make a proper tea. Post this you are taken to the documentary room where you are shown a 30 minute movie on how Tea evolved in Munnar, the various companies which were instrumental in bring it to this level today, besides the community development and advancement in technonlogy vis-a-vis Tea.

Visiting Charges:

Adults: INR 75; Children: INR 35

Camera Charges: INR 20

Tea Tasting Charges: INR 100