Rebuilding is rarely a single moment; it's a series of quiet decisions made when everything familiar is suddenly gone... What followed, however, became a powerful reminder that tea is never made alone, and that resilience, like good tea, is shaped by the people who show up when it matters most.
Rebuilding is rarely a single moment; it's a series of quiet decisions made when everything familiar is suddenly gone. When the Jasbire Tea Factory was destroyed by fire in March, it wasn’t just a building that was lost, but decades of craft, livelihood, and shared purpose. What followed, however, became a powerful reminder that tea is never made alone, and that resilience, like good tea, is shaped by the people who show up when it matters most.
This Story is about Sarad Shubba.
When the fire destroyed the Jasbire Tea Processing Factory in March, the loss felt impossibly large. Sharad Subba had spent more than twenty years building that space, learning, experimenting, and creating teas where 300-400 farmers, tea pluckers, and workers depended on their daily livelihoods. In the early days after the fire, while he was still recovering in Kathmandu, he said the hardest part was the fear, and the sudden emptiness of not knowing how or where to begin again.
But he did not have to begin alone.
Sharad received support in forms he never expected. What helped him most was the way people around him showed up. One of his close tea friends offered him a set of rolling machines so that he could begin processing leaves again soon after the fire. Partners who usually help him source machinery from China sent a cabinet dryer and a small rolling table free of cost. Much of the help came from farmers, the local community, Chiya Sahakari Sangh (Tea Cooperative Association), and partners such as Nepal Tea Collective.
After hearing about the devastating fire, we at Nepal Tea Collective immediately mobilized our global tea community and set up a GoFundMe Campaign. Every employee at Nepal Tea Collective also contributed one percent of their monthly salaries to support him during those first critical days. Through the GoFundMe campaign, we were able to raise $5,680, and Sharad shared that the timing of that support mattered more than words can express.
It allowed him to buy construction materials right away, replace a few essential items, and regain his footing at a moment when everything felt unstable. He described it as a very big relief. More donations and small loans arrived in the following days and together they helped him take the first steps toward rebuilding.
This collective effort was led by the Impact Club at Nepal Tea Collective, a team-led initiative formally launched in February and coordinated by Arya. The Impact Club was created to ensure that our work goes beyond selling tea and focuses on creating meaningful change for the people behind every tea leaf. It serves as a space for our team to take real action, grounded in accountability and shared ownership of the impact we aim to create across our tea-growing communities.
The support that left the deepest mark came from the farmers and the local community. Sharad still thinks about those first three days after the fire. Farmers and villagers arrived without being asked and worked from morning to night. They helped clear debris and recover whatever could be saved. They began preparing the grounds for rebuilding at a time when Sharad himself was still trying to understand what the path forward might look like. He told us he never imagined that kind of help. The way people worked, with the care and commitment of family, is something he says he will never forget. He said that without this support, not only the factory but his entire family would have been in a very dark place.
The new factory is not yet complete, but it has reached a point where fresh leaves can be processed as usual again. Sharad and his team have already begun making and selling tea, and this has brought a sense of continuity to the farmers who rely on the factory each season.
Rebuilding has also given Sharad the chance to rethink the entire space. The previous factory was mostly built from wood, which allowed the fire to spread quickly. Now, with the help of a young engineer from his village, he designed the new structure using fire-resistant materials. The layout is more modern and intentional, and each machine will finally be placed according to the flow of production rather than wherever space happens to be available.
In the past, the arrangement was scattered and inefficient, which increased production costs and created inconsistencies. Limited machinery also forced a lot of manual sorting, which was time-consuming and affected quality. He says that his two main goals for the new factory now are to reduce production costs and improve the quality of the teas he creates.
When asked if he had anything he wanted to say to everyone who supported the GoFundMe campaign, his message was simple and heartfelt. He expressed deep gratitude to everyone who contributed, people he has never met and who live far from Nepal. He spoke especially about Amy’s young daughter of the founder of The Metolius Tea who sold her paintings to raise money for him. He often thinks about her and says her gesture has had a profound impact on his life.
The support he received has been overwhelming and it has filled him with a sense of responsibility to come back even stronger. The feeling is that the support was not only for one factory but for the entire Nepali tea community. It has become the motivation to work harder and honor the trust that so many people have placed in him.
