The Perfect cup of Tea: Cheers!

Drinking the pathetic, really morbid tea bag tea (I had run out of my regular Darjeeling tea) I got thinking about the character of a cup of good tea. It’s almost like wine. Sommeliers might go ga ga over their wine, the connoisseur of tea goes equally ecstatic over the perfect full bodied cup of tea.

Tea that has character, has taste, has the quite so perfect colour and aroma. It is not dense and thick but has that exact proportion of water and milk, giving it a texture that is so eminently “sippable” savouring it ever so slowly. You don’t ever gulp down a good cup of tea and so that brings me to the next point. Its best served in a china or ceramic cup, thats the ultimate in luxury.

 The golden reddish brown colour of the tea liquor enhanced with a few drops at the most, of milk, (the purist would frown on that I know) makes for a great cup of tea.

A great cup of tea can lift your mood, herald a good start to your day and not for nothing is there a special period of the day “Teatime” – a time that is devoted to savouring the queen of beverages.

While I might drool over the light flavor of the Darjeeling tea, I am not so fond of either green , jasmine , or other flavored varieties.

 Tea as a former colleague used to say, has to be infused; so the principle of the tea bag ( plunge it into hot water) according to him is “very, very wrong” . Water needs to be infused through tea leaves to lend to it that delicate colour and flavor and that heavenly texture.

And therefore it is pure blasphemy to eat anything heavy, like samosas and pakodas etc. with this cup of tea. Yes, lightly flavoured biscuits maybe Cream crackers go with it, but cream biscuits destroy the tea experience.

One might be so presumptuous as to say that the British, Chinese and Japanese were ‘superior intellects’, developing their unique tea ceremonies to honour and cherish a beverage that deserves every bit of the grandeur associated with these customs. But I guess it’s out of sync in this day and age. The closest we can get to it, is pouring our tea from ceramic teapots enveloped in warm tea cosies.

My tea fetish is reflected in the mementoes that I pick up on my occasional travels. While others hunt for artifacts, I’ve picked up anything associated with tea – like the China clay figurine used to test the temperature of the water for that perfect cup of tea. The Chinese as you know are very particular about their tea. Immerse it in a glass of boiling water and should it “pee” ie bubbles surface then its perfect for the tea. The oolong tea was another expensive prized souvenir from that China trip. Teapots, for me are another much sought after item - the more quaint, the better.

But away from the luxury that one associates with ‘Tea’, there is the grassroot connect of the humble “chai.” This ‘chai’ of late has acquired a political character and avatar of its own. “Chai pe charcha” “chaiwala” are concepts that have helped a political party and its leader establish a direct connect with the masses and catapulted him into office. That I guess should serve as an adequate lesson for those “Tea- totalers” who snigger at the power and daresay for me the “aroma” of Tea.

Business Standard

Dolly's Tea selling Darjeeling Tea and Assams

No Indian city knows its cup of tea better than Calcutta. Understandable, given its proximity to Darjeeling, and its tea company culture. Take, for example, our tea-lover friend Gautam, who is extremely particular about his teas: in the afternoons he obviously has a fragrant Darjeeling (without milk and sugar, of course), but for a morning pick-me-up he prefers a sinewy Assam orthodox tea (with milk and sugar). And for monsoon days he recommends a robust Assam CTC. By way of explanation, he likens Darjeeling teas to Scotch, Assam orthodox teas to vodkas and CTC teas to rums. Dolly’s is for aficionados like him. It sells a selection of teas by the kilo, from a very basic Darjeeling Tea at Rs 450 per kg to Makaibari Silver Tips at Rs 12,000. But what’s interesting is that it’s one of those rare places that also serves these teas by the cup, allowing you to play the tea-taster and experiment with different varieties before you buy. It’s a tiny joint, with walls panelled with old tea chests, which squeezes in just about a dozen people. In the course of a leisurely tasting session, we tried a variety of Darjeelings: the sparkling Darjeeling Autumn, the smoky Makaibari Oolong, the wonderfully mellow Muscatel and the perhaps over-hyped Makaibari Silver Tips (it’s considered a sin to add milk and sugar to a Darjeeling, by the way). They also serve about thirty different types of iced tea, from orange-mint to watermelon. But those are just kid-stuff. Source: Outlook India

Indian consumers on high grade Darjeeling Tea

KOLKATA: Darjeeling tea industry is in a happy mood. After years of promotion, domestic consumers have started picking up premium Darjeeling tea. This will partly reduce the worries of Darjeeling tea producers who depend mainly on export for revenue.

Annually, Darjeeling produces nearly 10 million kg tea. Of this, 40% earns the maximum revenues as they are largely exported. The rest is rain teas that generally do not fetch good prices in the world market.

"We are seeing that Indian consumers are now ready to pay higher prices for Darjeeling Tea. This is a great achievement. We have been trying to sell Darjeeling teas in the domestic market for sometime now. We were even thinking of blending the rain teas with the premium quality and market it for domestic consumption," said Sanjay Bansal, chairman of Ambootia Group, the second-largest Darjeeling tea producer in the country.

The industry feels that this will bring down the worries of the Darjeeling planters in a big way. "The impact of recession or any other financial crisis in Europe will not hit their bottomline," said an industry analyst. However, the export market is also shining bright for Darjeeling teas this year. Harrods of Knightsbridge has picked up 20% more while Twinings has placed inquiries with the tea companies. Japanese buyers like Mitsui too have placed orders. Strong demand from overseas has pushed up the prices of Darjeeling teas at auctions by Rs 10-15 per kg.

"There is a huge demand among the buyers of organic teas. Those gardens that produce organic teas are fetching good prices in the global market. In general, prices of tea are ruling firm," Bansal added.

Last year, Darjeeling tea had suffered a fall in production due to a drought-like situation in the hills. This year, production of tea has increased due to favorable weather. "Last year, production got affected due to a drought-like situation. We lost the premium first- and second-flush teas, which fetch maximum revenues for the tea companies. Revenue-wise, this year will be better than last year," said Ashok Lohia, chairman of Chamong Tee, the largest Darjeeling tea producer in the country.

Last year, Darjeeling had produced 8 million kg tea, which was the lowest in the last decade.

Source: Economic Times

First Flush (About Darjeeling Tea)

This is a book that you need to read after coming home from a hard day’s work, with your feet up, while sipping — what else — a cup of freshly brewed Darjeeling tea. In today’s fast-forward world, such indulgences are rare and the easier option is to dunk a tea bag into a cup of hot water and pretend to enjoy the resulting mix. In truth, we are denying ourselves one of life’s great pleasures. If there’s one item produced in India that confidently carries the tag “the world’s finest”, it is Darjeeling tea. Of all the tea produced in China, Sri Lanka, India, Kenya and Turkey, Darjeeling carries a special cachet, much like caviar, foie gras or truffles. In most duty-free shops across the world, the one item with a made-in-India tag will be a pack of Darjeeling tea.

Tea is also grown in Assam, the Nilgiris, and the Dooars area of north Bengal, so what makes Darjeeling tea so special? Actually, it’s a lot like premium wine, where what the French call terroir — soil, climate, terrain, location and other factors — imparts a unique quality to whatever is grown there. Anybody who has been to Darjeeling, one of India’s loveliest hill stations, will have experienced its unique, old-world atmosphere and flavour, much like the product that is nurtured in its tea gardens.

Of course, there’s much more to what makes Darjeeling, and Darjeeling tea (the black variety as opposed to green tea made in China) so very special and Gillian Wright is eminently qualified to bring us up to speed on the magic and mystery behind Darjeeling’s famous product. She has made India her home for the last 20 years and collaborated with Sir Mark Tully on a number of books. More importantly, she has also produced a book on the hill stations of India.

The British, as we know since we inherited the passion, are a bit mad about tea but were also pioneers of tea production in India. All the original managers of tea gardens in the early days were from Britain, mainly Scotland.

The British connection may have inspired Wright but it’s not just a coffee-table variety with lots of pretty pictures. This is a serious, in-depth look at the history of Darjeeling tea and the elements that go into its making, but one that is made lively and entertaining with her style, personal involvement and discussions with a range of people, from retired and current tea planters, manufacturers, buyers at tea auctions and workers, including the nimble-fingered women who pluck the leaves from the bush.

Wright treats this book much like one would brew a cup of Darjeeling tea, allowing it to simmer in the pot and absorb the aromas. That process constitutes her research into how the tea plants first made their way to India from China to set up an industry that would, ironically, displace China as the leading maker and exporter of tea. We also learn that currently, the biggest buyers of high value tea like Darjeeling are Japan and Germany, where tea is becoming fashionable, and not Britain or America. Today, tea is the most popular drink in the world in terms of consumption, equalling all other manufactured drinks in the world — including coffee, chocolate, soft drinks, and alcohol — put together. Darjeeling, owing to its geography, soil and climate, has been producing premium teas for a century now, and they are still considered both rare and expensive, comparable to some of the most expensive wines. If you want to know why, Wright’s effort is worth savouring.

Source: Indian Express