Known for its malty flavor and strength, this Assam Black Tea is robust, full-bodied and serves as a base tea for some of the most popular tea blends. In a good bloom, its blackish leaves provide bright and brisk liquor that is of first flush quality and results in a bright coppery infusion. Meleng Tea Estate is one of the oldest plantations in Assam, having begun in 1852. Early in the estate's history, it was a wild land, populated with tigers, leopards, and elephant. As such, it was a dangerous landscape in which to establish a tea garden. To this day, one side of the estate leads to the World Heritage Gibbon Sanctuary; there gibbons spend their entire lives in the habitat, never putting their feet on earth during their lives. The estate is surrounded by local villages which developed around the tea estate and its business.