The Neville Family Tea Story

Our Family Connection to Tea

Tea has been part of my family story for far longer than NevillesNaturally itself.

My grandfather, Russell George Neville, worked as a tea planter at Chalsa Tea Estate in the Dooars region of West Bengal, India. Set in the foothills of the Himalayas, the Dooars has long been known for its rich tea-growing heritage, producing distinctive teas in a landscape of gardens, forests and mountain air.

My mother, Suzanne Neville, was born there before later attending Dr Graham’s Homes School in Kalimpong. Although generations have passed and life has moved on, that family connection to tea has remained something deeply meaningful to me.

In many ways, NevillesNaturally is inspired by that heritage. While this is a modern family business based in the UK, the story behind it reaches back to the tea gardens of India and to a time when tea was not just a drink, but part of everyday life, work, place and memory.

Tea is more than a product to us. It carries tradition, comfort, ritual and connection. Every cup has a story behind it, and for our family, part of that story begins in the tea estates of North East India.

As NevillesNaturally grows, I’m proud to carry a small part of that history forward — sharing carefully chosen teas with others and remembering the family connection that helped inspire it

A personal note

This family story is one of the reasons tea has always felt special to me. NevillesNaturally is not only about offering enjoyable teas, but also about sharing something with genuine meaning behind it.

The tea gardens of the Dooars, lying between the plains of Bengal and the foothills of the Himalayas near Bhutan, remain one of India’s great tea-growing regions. Knowing that part of my family history began there makes sharing good tea through NevillesNaturally especially meaningful.