A brief history of Tea in India

The history of tea is as fascinating as the history of mankind. Some believe that tea was first ‘discovered’ some 4000 years ago in China when a king, who was sleeping under a tree had kept his hot cup of water, right next to him, to be taken when he woke up. The story goes that some leaves of the tree, under which he was sleeping, fell on the hot boiling water. When the king woke up he found the leaves floating on the water, the colour changed and a beautiful aroma coming out of it. He took a sip to see what that aroma tasted like and he was amazed. He fell in love with the brew! The rest, as they say is history.

While this is a very convincing story about the invention of tea as a beverage from China, many a tea historians are now saying that tea was also very popular in India around the same time. The Indian tea, however, were more herb based with lots of premium spices which were brewed together for a fine pix of delicate aroma, excellent flavour and requisite health benefits. The tea, those days in India, were truly the drinks of the royalty. And saffron, cardamom and basil were some of our choices spices and herbs.

However, credit should be given to the British who made this Asian drink a truly global beverage. Such was their love for tea that when they couldn’t get tea from China, they picked up some Chinese Tea Plants (Camellia Sinesis) and planted them in high altitude Himalayas in the Darjeeling. Slowly tea cultivation moved to other parts of India like Assam, Nilgiris, Himachal and neighbouring country like Sri Lanka; and in no time, tea became one of the most profitable cash crops for the British empire from India.

The Indian citizens, however, took time to get used to the British tea, and it was not until middle of 20th entury that Indians, mainly the elite class Bengalis, took to teas as a regular beverage. Until then Indians were still having their herbal teas mixed and brewed in their homes.

The British, unlike the French, love to have their tea with a hint of milk and a dash of sugar. India converted to milk tea; and perhaps, due to the love and faith that Indians have on milk and its health attributes, it slowly became a cooked, boiled tea in milk and sugar, rather than the brewed tea that the British sip.

 

A cup of Tea

The Chai

This cooked tea that we drink everyday at home, and which we lovingly call, the Chai, or the Kadak Chai, is good for your morning bowel movement perhaps, but it kills all the goodness of tea. Chai, after all is a concoction of milk, water, sugar with pinch of dusty tea. And it’s sad that while we produce some of the best and most premium whole teas in the world, we end up drinking the tea that are neither good for our health, nor are they premium. Many problems like indigestion, bloated stomach, laziness, blood sugar, etc comes from this milk tea with sugar.

The time has come for us to switch over to the healthy teas that are brewed correctly, and take pride of the finest teas that we produce in India that the world die for.

Tasting the Avataa Tea

Avataa Tea is one of the leading tea brands of South India, and the distinguishing factor that I find about their teas, are the unique flavours and the freshness that each of their teas offer.

Avataa comes from the Sanskrit word “fresh” as their website mentions and coming from an elevation of 6400 ft in the Nilgiris, their teas are processed by an award winning steaming and dehydration method that ensures that the tea leaves retain their freshness long after they have been packed. And so, the apt name.

Avataa tea is also the winner of several awards both in the North America and in India – a very prestigious one being the Golden Leaf India Awards from “Southern Teas Competition”.

I was approached by Avataa tea to try and taste some of their unique and award winning teas; and it was with much pleasure that I indulged in that activity. After all, tea is what I do, and sipping as many cuppa as possible, only adds to my euphoria 🙂

Here are my observations after tasting their teas:

 

Name of the Tea: White

Aroma: A perfect grassy white tea aroma, I was hooked immediately.

Flavour: A simple, soothing white tea, absolutely fantastic on head, body and tail.

Brewing Time:  3 – 4 min.

Comments : I really enjoyed this tea. Just my kind of white tea that I will drink by itself or may be with a piece of cracker. The best tea that I tasted from the lot.

Name of the Tea  : Jasmine Green

Aroma : A strong green tea aroma, which kind of overpowered the aroma of jasmine.

Flavour : Bitter on the head which was consistent throughout.

Brewing Time:  3 min.

Comments : Not a subtle green tea. This is my favourite flavoured green tea, and I wanted this to be little more easy on my senses.

 

Name of the Tea  : Green Tea with Ginger

Aroma : A strong smell of ginger when we smell the tea leaves.

Flavour : Not as bitter as the Jasmine green tea, though I made it lighter bodied.

Brewing Time:  3 min.

Comments : I think ginger is not a good flavour for green tea, because green teas are mild and ginger has a very strong aroma. It becomes difficult to balance these two elements.

 

Name of the Tea  : Orange Green

Aroma : A very nice orange peel smell which I really liked.

Flavour : It was little hard on the mouth, perhaps from the combined bitterness of the green tea and the orange peel.

Brewing Time:  3 min.

Comments :  The green tea was little too bitter like the other green teas. The brew was quite nice but strong.

 

Name of the Tea  : Vanilla Green

Aroma : The tea has a hint of vanilla smell as loose tea.

Flavour : The vanilla smell was not apparent after brewing.

Brewing Time:  3 min.

Comments :I was hoping that this unique flavoured tea will deliver a right combination of smooth green tea flavour along with the delightful essence of vanilla. But the vanilla smell was lost on the mouth.

 

 

 

 

Name of the Tea  : Oolong Tea

Aroma : Was pleasantly surprised by the nice aroma.

Flavour : Perfect flavour as a oolong should be.

Brewing Time:  4 min.

Comments : Oolong teas are very complicated to manufacture. And Nilgiris are not really known for their Oolongs. Therefore, I must say I am very impressed with this Oolong that I tried. Quite comparable to the Karngra Oolong I drink. This could be a best seller with right promotion.

 

 

Final comments:

It seems all the green teas that I tried are on the bitter side of the taste palate. I am not sure if this is on purpose. Perhaps this is to meet the demand of the consumers who think “green teas should be bitter”. A strong green tea has the capability to overpower all other aromas once brewed.

The white and the oolong teas are a MUST try. And since we don’t really have a good source or variety of these two teas in India, they can be super hit products.

 

 

My Tea Workshop with Lloyd’s Tea House, Chennai

Lloyd’s Tea House is a well know tea room in Chennai –  you can say that this is the go-to place for all tea lovers in this land of coffee. Run by investment Banker Pavan Mahtani and his very accomplished baker wife, Lloyd’s Tea House, I found, is a buzzing joint filled with happy customers with air infused with the brewing teas.

I understood that this is the first time ever that the city of Chennai was hosting a Tea Appreciation workshop; and while I was surprised, I was truly honored to be the one conducting this maiden event.

Since tea is not a very understood beverage in Chennai (as well as in India), the workshop was an introduction to various types teas, aromas and flavours, how to taste teas and a basic introduction to tea and food pairing. I was pleasantly surprised to see a house full of attendants who participated attentively throughout the entire 75 min session. These are the teas that we tried with their paired food:

1. White : Second flush Castleton: paired with : Vol –au -vents
2. Oolong: Hari ghatta: paired with hash brown potatoes
3. Black: Temi Second Flush: paired with corn cheese balls
4. Herbal: Himalayan Rhapsody: paired with strawberry cup cake
5. Flowery : Chamomile: paired with lemon cake

The workshop went well, and was much appreciated. I was happy that each one of the participants went back home with at least one new learning about tea, which, I am hoping, would bring them close to this wonderful beverage.

I can’t end this note without mentioning the hospitality I received from the host and hostess. Right from picking me up from the airport to the well thought out breakfast box in the car, to my favourite dosa lunch, everything was well thought off and showed their generosity. They even had booked a hotel room for me for the day in case I need to take rest or freshen up. It was a wonderful experience and one that I would remember for years to come. And I hope to return to Chennai sometime soon with more tea workshops.

Thank you for this wonderful experience.