Tea Tasting
Long, long years ago there was tea in Assam, and this is still the tea that is grown in most of India - certainly in the Assam region. But the British, keen to topple China's position as the top seller of tea back in the early19th Century, took seeds from the Chinese plants and introduced them in the area around Darjeeling and Sikkim. For nearly a century India was indeed the top tea producer, but recently China has taken the lead again.
Whatever the facts and figures, there is no doubt that the area around Kurseong, Darjeeling and a large part of Sikkim is covered in tea gardens. In some places it seems that tea is all you can see. It is beautiful, but don't be fooled - tea is big business. And there's so much more to it than I knew. Nothing like the bog-standard English Breakfast-type tea of which I am so fond, this tea comes in many guises.
On our last day in Kurseong, and with a spare hour or so before we left, our lovely guide, Sunil, whose father had been a manager of a tea garden near Darjeeling, took us to visit the Makaihari tea gardens. Masked, booted and with hair covered in the most fetching caps, we saw the tea through all its stages before it was ready to be tasted. Now, to properly taste tea, (which is served without milk or sugar), you must sniff its aroma, slurp it and roll it all around your mouth before finally swallowing. Much like wine tasting, really. We duly bought a couple of packets of tea to bring home. That was our introduction.
Come Darjeeling and the real thing. Sunil took us down the bustling Chowrasta to a very elegant tea-room. I felt I should have been wearing a long Edwardian dress and wide brimmed hat, rather than the grubby t-shirt and skirt which was pretty much my uniform while in India.
Eight teas were duly selected and prepared. Now, tea is picked at different stages, and the resultant tea is very different to taste. There's first flush, which is picked after the spring rains, second flush is harvested in June, monsoon tea, and autumn flush. On top of that there's green tea and white tea - which is made from the buds of the plant.
Once the tea was made the cups were lined up before us, mildest first, through to strongest. We had a little pyrex-type cup each, and a tiny ladle so we could serve ourselves. We duly ladled, sniffed, slurped, swooshed and swallowed each tea, went back to one, re-tried another, discussed and tasted again. Fortunately we agreed on the tea we liked and bought some to bring home.
I shall never look at a cup of tea in the same way again.
Long, long years ago there was tea in Assam, and this is still the tea that is grown in most of India - certainly in the Assam region. But the British, keen to topple China's position as the top seller of tea back in the early19th Century, took seeds from the Chinese plants and introduced them in the area around Darjeeling and Sikkim. For nearly a century India was indeed the top tea producer, but recently China has taken the lead again.
Whatever the facts and figures, there is no doubt that the area around Kurseong, Darjeeling and a large part of Sikkim is covered in tea gardens. In some places it seems that tea is all you can see. It is beautiful, but don't be fooled - tea is big business. And there's so much more to it than I knew. Nothing like the bog-standard English Breakfast-type tea of which I am so fond, this tea comes in many guises.
On our last day in Kurseong, and with a spare hour or so before we left, our lovely guide, Sunil, whose father had been a manager of a tea garden near Darjeeling, took us to visit the Makaihari tea gardens. Masked, booted and with hair covered in the most fetching caps, we saw the tea through all its stages before it was ready to be tasted. Now, to properly taste tea, (which is served without milk or sugar), you must sniff its aroma, slurp it and roll it all around your mouth before finally swallowing. Much like wine tasting, really. We duly bought a couple of packets of tea to bring home. That was our introduction.
Come Darjeeling and the real thing. Sunil took us down the bustling Chowrasta to a very elegant tea-room. I felt I should have been wearing a long Edwardian dress and wide brimmed hat, rather than the grubby t-shirt and skirt which was pretty much my uniform while in India.
Eight teas were duly selected and prepared. Now, tea is picked at different stages, and the resultant tea is very different to taste. There's first flush, which is picked after the spring rains, second flush is harvested in June, monsoon tea, and autumn flush. On top of that there's green tea and white tea - which is made from the buds of the plant.
Once the tea was made the cups were lined up before us, mildest first, through to strongest. We had a little pyrex-type cup each, and a tiny ladle so we could serve ourselves. We duly ladled, sniffed, slurped, swooshed and swallowed each tea, went back to one, re-tried another, discussed and tasted again. Fortunately we agreed on the tea we liked and bought some to bring home.
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