India is the world’s largest tea producer (followed closely by China, who has edged it out for the #1 spot some years). Over 100,000 tea estates with over a million workers, produce close to a million metric tons of tea a year. Because India consumes much of its own tea, it was 4th in exports in 2005, behind China, Kenya, and Sri Lanka. |
Even though it’s easy to assume they have been producing it for much longer, tea production is relatively new to India.Named for the areas in which they are grown, India’s tea was originally produced by the British Empire when British industrialists established the first tea plantations in their colonies.These early teas were designed to be strong and hearty, with plenty of pucker, meant to be drunk with plenty of milk and sugar. In the late 18th cen- |
Assam. It wasn’t until 1834, though, that commercial plantations were planted, using seeds from the Chinese tea plant Camellia sinensis var. assamica. These plants readily flourished and the first shipment of Indian Assam tea was shipped in 1838, and sold at the London Tea Auctions in 1839.Tea production quickly spread during the 1850’s, first north- wards to Darjeeling and Bengal, then to Nilgiri in the Blue Mountains of India’s southwestern tip. Production increased from 180 tons in 1853, to 6,600 tons in 1870, 35,000 tons in 1885, and by 1947, when India finally won independence from Britain, yearly tea production was a whopping 277,000 tons.Producing all this tea, though, was another matter entirely. In the beginning the British tried imitating China’s style of processing tea, but quickly realized how impractical this was. For one thing, no one had ever tried making India’s three main growing regions, Assam, Darjeel- unique climate and geography.The region of Assam lies at the foothills of the eastern Hima- Assam grows the largest quantity of tea in India, producing both mass-market ctc (cut-tea-curl) With the many changes in elevation, going from high ridges, down to Darjeeling teas.Darjeeling has four distinct pluckings. The first and second China’s Qing Ming, and Japan’s First Flush Sencha teas.The lush, high forests and jungles of the Nilgiri (Blue Hill) Nilgiri teas. Although tea is plucked all year long, the best comes from Decem- Sri Lanka.Today India produces a mixture of CTC and orthodox specialty teas. tea That’s why the government, along with the Tea Board of India has worked steadily to help solve problems faced by The Tea Board is also hoping to address a problem of misleading labelling of India tea The Tea Marketing Board has launched a campaign in recent years to assure buyers |