Tea World of Assam

HISTORY OF ASSAM AND LIVING THE BRITISH ERA

Botanists call it Camellia sinensis, the laymen calls it tea, the tree from which the most polpular beverage in the world is brewed. Among the three principal non – toxicating hot beverages – coffee, cocoa and tea – the last is probably the most ancient. According to Chinese legend, tea was accidentally discovered by Emporor Shen Nung in 2737 BC. The polpular version states that Shen Nung, who was aware that water should be boiled to make it fir for drinking, was doing so when a few leaves from the branches being used as firewood fell into the kettle and added a unique flavor to water. However, it is not the Chinese but the aboriginal tribes in the mountainous region beyond the south western borders of China who are considered by botanists to have harvested the leaves of wild tea trees and brewed them to obtain a medicinal beverage.

Tea travels the world

Whatever the magic behind tea, it originally came from China and was loved so much that it was called one of the ‘seven necessities of life’.
It wasn’t until Portuguese traders brought tea to Europe in the 17th century that Europe started its leafy love affair. Russia’s place in tea history began soon after in 1638 when the Russian ambassador Vasily Starkov brought Tsar Michael I a pound of tea as a gift from China.
By 1679, Russia had signed an agreement with China for their supply of tea. The journey tea merchants would have to take to transport tea from Beijing to Moscow would often last as long as a year.

Best of British

However the greatest impetus came from the discovery that wild tea plants grew in Assam, which till then was not been brought under the sway of British Rule.
It was way back in 1823 that Robert Bruce a merchant and soldier, first spotted tea plant in Assam and this eventually led to East-India company developing a trade in it. A visit from Dr. Wallich to Assam in 1834 saw the formation of the Assam Company in England. Among the Indians, it was, however, Maniram Dewan, an Assamese noble man, who initiated planting tea leading many others, mostly Assamese, to follow in his footsteps. After independence, as the scenario change, Indian Companies like-Birla Tata entered the fray to become biggest producers of the coveted “Assam Tea”. The picture, however, is not completely rosy as the tea plantation, tea estate have been severely affected in recent years by the militancy in the state. Dwindling economic condition, stiff competition in international market and recurrent slumps have not helped the cause either. This paper is an earnest effort to highlight the historical background of the development of tea industry of Assam.
Assam is the biggest producer of quality tea in India, contributing about 55 per cent to country‘s total tea production. It is generally believed that the people of Bodo tribe brought tea into Assam (Indialine, 2008). But they produced for themselves and hardly took it outside Assam. As pointed out by Bhuyan (1974) the tea plant was discovered in 1823 by Robert Bruce, merchant and soldier of fortune, during his visit to Rongpur, where he was imprisoned by the Burmese. A Singpho chief furnished Bruce with some plants. In 1824 Robert Bruce gave some plants to his brother C. A. Bruce who handed them over to David Scott. Scott in turn gave a few specimens to the Botanical Garden, Calcutta. The discovery of tea plant in Assam enabled the East India Company to develop a trade, which China had hitherto monopolized. Bruce was appointed superintendent of the government tea forest, who in 1837 sent 46 boxes of Assam tea to the tea committee. When, in 1824, Dr. N. Wallich of Botanical Garden identified these specimens it was the beginning of the scientific study of tea in India. Dr. Wallich visited Assam in 1834 and submitted his report in 1835. The Assam Company was accordingly formed in England in 1839 with a capital of Rs. 5 lakh. The Assam Company with its headquarters in Nazira is the oldest commercial tea company of Assam which is still functioning.

MORE DETAILS ON TEA

ASSAM TEA IS BLACK TEA.

There are two  kinds: Orthodox and CTC, both named after the manufacturing process used to create them. The leaf used from the bush (Camelia Sinesis) is the same in both cases. Quality leaf makes quality tea.There is no way around that. Quality leaf is determined by the pedigree and health of the tea bush and by careful hand-plucking. But like wine, tea manufacture is a fine art involving years of experience, in-depth know-how and often closely guarded secrets. The crucial step in making black tea is to allow the juices in the rolled fresh leaves to darken from contact with the air. Tea makers call this process “fermentation,” although, technically, it is “oxidation.” A similar process occurs when a cut apple turns brown. The dark substances that form while the tea leaves are exposed to the air is produced by the chemical reactions of the tannins in the tea.  The leaf is spread out and left to wilt, losing some moisture, stiffness and much of its weight. Then it’s rolled, exposing essential oils to the air and starting the oxidation process.  When the leaves have transformed sufficiently, then they are “fired,” dried over heat to stop the oxidation process.
In practice when a factory is running, samples are taken every hour and tasted which may indicate how the manufacturing process needs to be readjusted. Tea Planters judge determine the quality of tea by its bright color and taste. The liquor when left to cool should turn opaque.

GRADES OF ASSAM TEA “Tippy” teas have a higher percentage of buds which show up as golden flecks (like tobacco) in the finished tea. The more “tippy” the tea,  the higher the grade/quality. Very ‘tippy’ teas are expensive. Top grade Orthodox is sorted entirely by hand and woolen blankets are sometimes used to further separate the fine golden tips. Orthodox names often have the words “golden” or “flowery” in the description but some names are confusingly common to both methods (Orthodox & CTC) of manufacture.
The four grades of Orthodox black tea are: 1.Flowery Orange Pekoe (the small leaf next to the bud).  2. Orange Pekoe (the second leaf next to the bud).  3. Pekoe (the third leaf next to the bud). and 4. Souchong (the fourth leaf next to the bud).
TGFOP (Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) is the highest grade of Orthodox Assam, hand processed in small quantities at the finest plantations. It contains roughly one-quarter tips. The joke among tea aficionados is that TGFOB stands for “Too good for ordinary people.” TGFOB fetches top prices in the Arab world. It is drunk “pure” without milk. Bottom of the barrel are the Fannings and Dust. This is the tea that go into tea bags. Tea Dust is also what is boiled in milk and spices to create Indian street chai, which is a whole different cuppa altogether.

CTC TEA: At the start of the 20th century when tea drinking caught on in the UK,  British tea companies started experiments in Assam and the CTC method invented and used to the increase volume of tea. CTC is the acronym for Crush, Tear & Curl. It describes the factory process used to make the tea which is similar to that of orthodox tea manufacture but instead of the leaves being rolled as a final stage, they are passed through a series of cylindrical rollers with hundreds of small sharp “teeth” that Crush, Tear, and Curl the leaf into tiny little balls.
CTC tea gives double the cuppage for the same weight as orthodox. For example one Kg. of CTC tea yields around 500 cups compared to 250 cups from Orthodox. The quality of Orthodox however is better than CTC as the coarse leaf is discarded at the time of manufacture by shifting.
Pekoe nowadays simply denotes the size of the tea particle. The smaller the particle size the quicker and stronger the brew. Large whole leaf teas tend to brew slower and lighter, and have more subtle flavours than small leaf teas.

DETAIL LIST OF BLACK TEA GRADES:

ORTHODOX TEA

Kind of Tea	Grade Name	Nomenclature
Whole Leaf	FP	Flowery Pekoe
Broken	FTGF OP	Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
	TG OP	Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
	TGF OP 1	Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
	GF OP	Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
	FOP	Flowery Orange Pekoe
	OP	Orange Pekoe
Broken	BOP 1	Broken Orange Pekoe one
	GF BOP	Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
	BPS	Broken Pekoe Souchong
	GBOP	Golden Broken Orange Pekoe
	FBOP	Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
	BOP	Broken Orange Pekoe
Fannings	GOF	Golden Orange Fannings
	FOF	Flowery Orange Fannings
	BOPF	Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings
Dust	OPD	Orthodox Pekoe Dust
	OCD	Orthodox Churamani Dust
	BOPFD	Broken Orange Pekeo Fine Dust
	FD	Fine Dust
	D.A.	Dust A
	Spl. Dust	Special Dust
	G. Dust	Golden Dust
	OD	Orthodox Dust

CTC TEA

Kind of Tea	Grade Name	Nomenclature
Broken	PEK	Pekoe
	BP	Broken Pekeo
	BOP	Broken Orange Pekeo
	BPS	Broken Pekeo Souching
	BP 1	Broken Pekoe one
	FP	Flowery Pekeo
Fannings	OF	Orange Fanings
	PF	Pekeo Fanings
	PF 1	Pekeo Fanning s One
	BOPF	Broken Orange Fannings
Dust	PD	Pekeo Dust
	D	Dust
	CD	Churamani Dust
	PD 1	Pekeo Dust One
	D 1	Dust One
	CD 1	Churamani Dust One
	RD	Red Dust
	FD	Fine Dust
	SFD	Super Fine Dusr
	RD 1	Red Dust One
	GD	Golden Dust
	SRD	Super Red Dust

THE TEA MANUFACTURING PROCESS:

Every stage of tea processing from plucking to final shipment has to be very diligently monitored as this directly affects the quality of tea.
During the second flush (peak growing season in Assam- June to August) the factory runs non stop. The leaf plucked on the day has to be made into black tea within 24 hours and sorted into varying grades within 48.

STEP 1: WITHERING 
The green leaf comes into the factory twice a day (sometimes three times) and is immediately thinly spread on Hessian cloth placed over wire-mesh racks in what is called theWithering Shed where it stays until it loses some of its moisture content and become flaccid (only 4% moisture remains). During the hot weather this takes around twelve hours which means the factory has to start at midnight or soon thereafter.

STEP 2: ROLLING OR CTC 
The leaf is collected and either rolled in Sirocco machines or, alternatively, put through a CTC machine which simultaneously crushes, tears and curls the leaf it as the process implies.
Davey’s comment:  “The laborers were terrified of the CTC machine back in the days when it was first introduced. The grinding “teeth” were exposed and they could just as easily Cut, Tear and Curl a few fingers along with the tea leaves!”

STEP 3: FERMENTING 
The mashed up tea leaves are thinly spread at a one-inch depth on trays to ferment and become oxidized and let its own juices interact. This process has to be closely watched and it takes an experienced tea planter to decide the optimum time required which varies from an hour to two or more, depending on the ambient conditions prevailing.

STEP 4: DRYING 
Then the tea is taken to the drying machines and spread thinly on the trays through which hot air is blown so as to extract the remaining moisture in the leaf. The end result is the black tea which one buys in the supermarkets . If the tea still has too much moisture left, it goes through the drying process again but care has to be taken not to scorch the end product. The finished tea is sent to the sorting room.

STEP 5: SORTING
 This is a mechanical process where the tea is fed on conveyors and passed through vibrating wire-mesh trays of varying mesh, the dust coming  through to the bottom. After sorting, the tea is packed in tea chests made of plywood lined with aluminium foil (to preserve flavor) and shipped by train or river steamer to Calcutta and then onwards to London. Prices for teas from different tea gardens were published and carefully monitored and there was much rivalry among Assam tea planters to see who was heading the listing. Tea planters were also paid a commission on profits so the the incentive to produce more and better teas was certainly not absent. Their existence depended on it.

However tea is distributed in all nooks and corner of Assam, the other important town in Assam are Jorhat, Tinsukia, Balipara.

Come and experience the Tea world of Assam and its process of from a leaf to the most popular beverage in the world.