Makaibari, arguably the finest tea that the rolling greens and snow-capped mountains of Darjeeling have to offer, is checking into Taj Bengal, in a rare instance of the popular beverage finding a retail footprint inside a luxury hotel.

An area of over 1,500sq-ft, where Taj had its gift shop Khazana for decades, will now be christened “Makaibari Bungalow” — a concept store that aims to recreate the romance of life in tea gardens. The store opens on Saturday.

In the process, the brand Darjeeling which is often credited with producing the champagne of teas, may get the much-needed lift at a time when the tea industry in the hills is going through a rough patch unseen in history.

“If we have to set up a concept store around tea anywhere in the world, where else can it be but Calcutta? Much of the city, historically, has developed over the centuries around tea trade,” argued Rudra Chatterjee, managing director of Luxmi Tea, which owns Makaibari tea estate.

While Makaibari teas, the go-to cuppa for Bengal’s most adorable fictional super sleuth Feluda, needed little introduction in the city, the store will also retail teas from Luxmi Group’s estates in Assam and Rwanda, in their purest form and in myriad blends. Customers walking in will get to taste teas but they don’t have to pay for it, unless they want to buy the product.

Makaibari near Kurseong produces about 90,000kg of teas annually but not even a gram comes to the tea auction system which planters use to sell their produce in bulk to traders and packers. It manages to sell about 70,000kg teas by brand, a singular feat among tea estates which oftenstruggle to create their own identity, like vineyards of Bordeaux or distilleries of Highland, and go to market on that strength.

The retail outfit will, however, be anything but only tea. The dash of luxury which comes from being inside a 5-star property in the heart of the city, will allow the owners to display an array of items that the Chatterjees are known for, including Obeetee Carpets.

There will also be a spectrum of furniture available for sale which Luxmi Group manufactures under the brand Manor & Mews, based out of Jaipur. However, Chatterjee insists carpets or furniture, which are in consonance with the lifestyle of a tea bungalow, will only be on display.

Chatterjee, however, promises that the Makaibari Bungalow will just not be a store. Memorabilia associated with tea is expected to adorn the walls, including a letter from King Charles III whose fondness for Darjeeling tea in general and Makaibari, in particular, is no secret.

Tucked away so far on the wall of the corner office at Kishore Bhawan in central Calcutta where Chatterjee and his father Dipankar, a doyen of the tea industry, operate from, the letter written in 2017 by the then Prince of Wales appreciating Makaibari tea, will now move to the store.

“This store reflects our vision of creating a space where visitors can immerse themselves in the timeless elegance of handcrafted luxury, from tea to textiles and furniture,” Chatterjee explained.