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I was turned off to Nilgiri tea earlier on due to having had too many uninteresting low-grown Nilgiris. I'd like to get back into this style of tea, but I am not sure where to look; are there any Nilgiri specialists online? Do you have any factory recommendations?

Todd & Holland carries a Nilgiri winter flush. It looks like it uses the new-Darjeeling style hard wither, leading to a much greener tea, but it's milder compared to the (admittedly non-premium) Darjeelings I've had recently. If someone offered me a Darjeeling or a Nilgiri "frost tea" blind, I'd probably pick the Nilgiri.

When did this start, I wonder... Did hard-wither winter Nilgiris come from copying Darjeeling, did Darjeeling copy Nilgiri, or did they develop independently? Most of the other season Nilgiris I've had tasted like Ceylon teas (or Java teas for the low-growns).

I have only tried a single Nilgiri tea. The leaves were CTC. They were slightly larger than fannings/dust, but were pretty small.

Are there any Nilgiri teas that use either whole or broken leaves? The Nilgiri tea reminded me of Ceylon tea, which I like, so I would like to try one with larger leaf size.