Lahijan

Lahijan is a city in Iran's North-Western Gilan province, on the shores of  Caspian Sea and south of Langrood. It had an estimated population of 61,953 in 2005.[1]It is historically the first town in Iran to have tea plantations. Today, it stands to have the largest area of tea cultivation in Iran. "Lahijan Spring Tea" is the best quality tea produced in the country.Prince Mohammad Mirza known as "Kashef-ol-Saltaneh" who was born in Lahijan was the first mayor of Tehran. As the Iranian ambassador to India under British rule, he knew the British would not allow him to learn about the secrets of tea production, as it was their biggest business in India at the time. So being fluent in French, the prince pretended to be a French laborer and started to work in the tea plantations and factories to learn how to produce tea. Ultimately his plan was to take back some samples of this tea to Iran to cultivate. He was successful in this endeavor only because of his diplomatic immunity which stopped the British from searching his secretly stashed sample. His mausoleum in Lahijan is now part of the "Iran Tea Museum".
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