The species is not rare. Magnolia champaca is cultivated across South and Southeast Asia, and champaca materials of unknown origin are widely traded. What sets a quality ceiling is not the species but the exact conditions in which a particular crop is grown.

The place

Our farm lies at Narayangaon in Pune District, on the bank of the river Meena, at 656 metres (2,152 ft) on the western margin of the Deccan plateau. It sits on the leeward side of the Sahyadri range, which shelters the basin from the Arabian Sea.

The conditions

• —Water from the Kukadi Left Bank Canal, delivered by drip irrigation root by root.
• —Deccan trap black cotton soil interlaced with red lateritic loam.
• —Zero synthetic pesticides and zero synthetic fertilisers; the soil is replenished with gobar and composted matter.
• —An all-season bloom, cut on alternating days so each flower reaches full maturation.

What we claim — and what we do not

We do not claim that altitude alone makes a better absolute. We claim something more useful: that every one of these conditions is documented, constant and visitable. A batch of L’Or Champaca can be traced to a harvest window at a named farm, and partners are welcome to walk the rows.

Origin is everything. And ours is documented.