PD — Pekoe Dust — is the smallest particle size in standard CTC grading, the grade that extracts fastest, darkest, and most aggressively. A two-minute steep in boiling water gives a liquor so dark it is nearly opaque, and adding full-fat milk barely lightens it. This is the grade that South Indian tea stalls use when they want to stretch milk further while maintaining the intensity that regulars expect. Estate-quality PD dust is almost never available direct-to-consumer; it goes straight to commodity buyers.
We call ours Kadak — the Hindi-Tamil word for “strong” that anyone who has ordered tea in a dhaba or bus-stand stall will recognise. The name is not just branding: this dust brews at a strength that demands milk. Drunk plain, it is powerfully tannic and not pleasant for most palates. Brewed properly in a half-milk, half-water simmer for three minutes, it produces a cup that is thick, dark, deeply flavoured, and the colour of strong coffee.
At 500g for ₹160, this is our most cost-effective pack by cups-per-rupee. A 3g brew produces 200ml of finished chai, meaning a single 500g pack yields approximately 165 cups — under ₹1 per cup for estate-quality, finely milled Nilgiris dust. If you run a small canteen, office pantry, or simply make chai for a large family every morning, Kadak CTC is the most honest proposition we offer.
