tea history – Tea Buddy

The evolution of Indian Tea

The Royal Family shop at Fortnum & Mason, London. The Queen buys her teas here. Her Royal Highness only drinks Earl Grey.

In 1973 my sister Mithoo was at Fortnum & Mason (London’s snobbiest grocery store) promoting Indian tea when an American walked up to her and asked, “Do you have a tea that tastes like a peach?”

A Peach who wants to be a tea!! Flavored teas were unheard of in the early 1970’s. America changed all that by introducing fruity and herbal teas. Strictly speaking these teas are not “real” teas but decoctions or infusions.

My sis was stumped. She had never heard of a peach-flavored tea. You may want to remember, dear reader, this was the early 70’s when tea was still tea and a peach was still a peach and nobody ever dreamed they would become kissing cousins.

My sister suggested somewhat inanely, “Why don’t you just eat a peach, instead?” The man looked confused and walked away, leaving her equally confused. She was not trying to be clever or sass the man. You must remember the idea of a tea tasting like anything other than what it was supposed to, was absurd. Assam and Darjeeling, the two famous Indian teas had their own distinct flavors. It just was not proppa for an aristocratic beverage like tea to hobnob with fruity commoners back then.

We’ve come a long way, haven’t we? Not only do we now have a tea that tastes like a peach (besides a hundred other mind-boggling flavors) but for all I know we may even have a peach that tastes like a tea! We live in a blended world of crossovers and amalgamation. Anything goes.

Tea Board Girls (my sister Mithoo on the left) promoting Indian Tea at the Pontin Holiday Camp, 1973. The “tea plucker” INDIA TEA logo (seen on the bus and umbrella) was created to give Indian tea a competitive edge abroad.

Tea sampling at F&M

My sister Mithoo was a Tea Board girl. They were glamorous envoys sent out into the world to promote Indian tea. Sis travelled extensively in UK and Scandinavia doing tea promos and sampling at trade shows, summer camps and high-end retail stores. The Tea Board Girls were always in the media, hobnobbing with celebrities. It was a PR job. They created quite a stir where ever they went. A tiny town in Norway declared it a school holiday so that the kinds could come out to see the Indian beauties in their stunning sarees. They had never seen anything quite like them.

India never dreamed she would one day have to market her teas. The best tea in the world was expected to sell itself by virtue of its superiority. But that did not happen

Lion logo for Ceylon Tea

India Tea logo with tea plucker is reminiscent of the classic depiction of women in Mughal art.

Things started to change in the 1960’s and 70’s when many tea plantations came under Indian ownership. The British left India and took their tea expertise and business acumen with them. Tea exports began a downward slide and India woke up only too late to realize she was losing valuable market share to Ceylon. Ceylon Tea had marketing savvy and branded their teas with a distinctive lion logo. They gained further mileage when Lipton Yellow Label (a popular blended tea) started implementing the lion logo on their packaging. India Tea needed a brand identity and that is how the tea plucker logo came into being. Recently this logo has been criticized as being outdated and sexist. To show a woman with a basket of tea on her head implies backwardness and servility of women, according to some people. Now there are talks about rebranding Indian tea. Some marketing genius in India has suggested the visual of a peacock sipping tea. What a dreadful thought!

Here is a fun link: Lipton Yellow Label Commercial: Theanine– a caffeine like ingredient in tea–is believed to sharpen the mind. This is why some of the world’s greatest creators drink tea when they are working. Do you?

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Teatime for the Firefly is Shona Patel’s debut novel. It is a love story set in a remote tea plantation in Assam, India. You can read the SYNOPSIS and the FIRST CHAPTER by clicking on the red links. Shona Patel is represented by April Eberhardt Literary.

Elephants in Tea

Assam is prime elephant country. It’s a land of big rivers, dense bamboo groves, rain forests with long, drooping moss and startling orchids. In the jungle clearings, elephant grass shoots up to over 10-feet to shelter a teeming wildlife. Assam Tea–the finest tea on earth– chooses to grow in this wild terrain and nowhere else. Not surprisingly “elephant trouble” a frequent complaint in the tea plantations.

williams magor elephant — Tea garden elephant with company logo

Every tea planter has a plethora of elephant stories and I have a few of my own. When I seven, a semi-domesticated elephant grabbed me by the ankle and almost got me but luckily I was yanked back by a nearby adult. I still have bad dreams about that one! Another time a baby elephant came floating down the flooded Koilapani River. For two weeks he lived in the taro patch behind our bungalow and played peek-a-boo with a hen before he was shunted off to Calcutta zoo, much to our heartbreak.

elephant pulling car — Elephant pulling car out of monsoon mire (1920’s). Photo courtesy: Fettes Falconer

Along with owning their tractors, trucks and trailers, most tea gardens own an elephant or two. Domesticated elephants are invaluable to the tea industry. They are trained by special elephant trainers called mahouts. Elephants render a multitude of services that range from forest logging to rescue missions for tea garden residents stranded in the flood. Assam is the wettest place on earth. The monsoons hit with a fury each year; rivers overflow, bridges collapse and tea plantations are marooned for weeks without power or supplies. Elephants are called to the rescue when river currents get too strong for a boat. My favorite story is about my Aunt Baruna who dropped her high-heeled slipper in the floodwaters when she crossing on elephant back to get to the gala at the Planter’s Club. All evening she hobbled on one shoe while standing tiptoe on the other foot and nobody could tell anything was amiss under her long saree!

elephant rides — Tea garden kids get a joy ride outside their bungalow. Historical photo: source – koihai.com

Tea garden kids are the envy of their friends. Town kids have puppies and kittens but guess what we had as pets? Monkeys, elephants and the occasional leopard cub! On birthdays and special occasions the garden elephant made a grand appearance to give us kiddies fun rides. Old Jumbo also showed up all tinsel-decked at the Club Christmas party with (an often slightly inebriated) Santa perched on top.

Elephants_Alan Leonard — Elephants help to rebuild the Mariani Planters Club after it was destroyed by the fire of 1960. Historical photo courtesy: Alan Leonard. Alan says although the club burnt down the original teak wood floor which was “tongued and grooved” was still intact. It was lifted very carefully, nail by nail, refitted and relaid in the new building. Amazingly it was as good as new.”

logging elephant_Davey — Logging elephant in tea garden. Courtesy Davey Lamont.

Elephants are useful during shikar (hunting) to track down game, mostly man-eating leopards and tigers that prowl the tea plantations to prey on humans.

Elephants in herds are usually harmless but they can create plenty of damage. A herd of elephants often invaded the sugarcane patch behind our bungalow and had to be chased out with lighted torches and the beating of tin cans. I still remember the sound of their wild trumpeting in the night: it is the most eerie, bone-rattling sound on earth!

elephant-bull-in-musth — A bull elephant in “musth” is a very dangerous animal and can sometimes attack without provocation.

Encountering a rogue elephant in the wild is very bad news. Rogue elephants can destroy everything in their path with mindless fury. There is the horrific incident of a local postman who was cycling through the jungle road to a tea garden when he came face-to-face with a rogue. The elephant picked him by the feet and smashed him into a tree and (this is really gross) the poor man had to picked off the bark like putty. That is the fury of a rogue.

With increasing deforestation in Assam, elephant problems in the tea gardens continue to be on the rise. Here is a National Geographic article about Elephant problems in Assam. Please share your elephant story, if you have one. Thanks and cheers!

Other related articles: The Story of the Elephant Boy of Tea

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Making no bones about bone china

Fine English china and the pleasures of tea-drinking go hand in hand. The English are notoriously fussy about their tea cups. Not only do teacups have to look delicate and pretty, they have to be strong and durable and have excellent heat retention. The English like their tea scalding hot! Porcelain and bone china are ideal for making English tea sets. Both are known for their whiteness and translucency, high mechanical strength and chip resistance.

Bone china was invented in the late eighteenth century by English potter, Josiah Spode of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, nicknamed the Potteries. Spode was attempting to replicate the Chinese imported porcelain which was in high demand in Europe at that time.

What is the difference between bone china and fine porcelain?

Porcelain is a clay mixture that is fired in a kiln at a very high temperature till it becomes vitrified (glass-like). The end product is non porous, hard and translucent.

Spode enamel & gilded teacup — Antique bone china teacup (Spodes 1825) Enamel painted and gilded.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Bone China has the same properties as porcelain but is made differently. Bone China contains up to 50 percent animal ash (mostly ox bone) mixed in with the clay. The bone is burned and ground to a fine powder before it is added. This gives the ware strength and excellent whiteness. The only difference between porcelain and bone china is the color. Porcelain has an off-white/greyish cast where as true bone china is snow-white.

Here are some totally impractical but fun tea cups for you to enjoy. I’d be a nervous wreck drinking tea out of one of these! Please vote for your favorite.

(Photos: courtesy koihai.com)

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A sippa or a cuppa –it’s all zen to me

Ah… tea and wine. Two drinks that make you surprisingly jolly and one can get you into more trouble than the other. I am talking about tea of course 😉

Historically, both tea and wine have been used as a stimulant and intoxicant. The caffeine is tea, though mild, is still addictive. This is why the Mormons don’t drink either. After all there is always a temptation to sit God down in the back porch and say “Hang on, I’ll be right back after that cuppa”. I plead guilty of such transgressions.

Yet both tea and wine are indelibly woven into history and deeply embedded into the ritual, religion and customs of the world. And the similarities do not end there:

IMG_4924b-742884 — A tea plantation in Assam. Learn more about Assam Tea Here.

Tea & wine both capture a sense of place: ‘Terroir’ is a French word that means the combined effects of geography and climate on wine. In other words the soil, climate topography and seasons all play a role in determining the quality of grapes that go to make the wine. And every batch is different even though the wine may come from the same vineyard. Tea follows the same logic. The leading tea regions of India can be broadly compared to the French wine growing regions of Burgundy, Bordeaux and Languedoc. Also like wine, Indian teas are named after the place where they are grown– each tea carrying the distinct aroma of its region. Darjeeling, “the champagne” of teas” is pale in colour and has a natural delicate, muscatel-like flavour. Assam plays “burgundy” to Darjeeling’s “champagne”. The best Assam teas, particularly the 2^nd flush teas, have a robust flavor and depth of color that is unmatched anywhere in the world.

Like wine, tea flavor involves both taste and aroma. Many teas and wines have their own intrinsic flavor with fruity, floral or woody notes. This should not be confused with herbal teas which have artificial or natural flavors added to a tea base. For example, the litchi flavour of the Gewurztraminer comes from the grapes grown in the Alsace region of northeast France. Assam Teas have a deep woody note to them. Woody teas are a great after-dinner drink, and aid in digestion.

Fresh grapes, hand-picked makes the best wine

Hand picking ensures premium quality: Good wine and tea are never made from mechanically harvested crop: they are very carefully hand-picked. Exclusive wines are made from hand-selected grapes just as GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) the top grade Orthodox Assam Tea is made from hand-plucking only the pubescent tips of a tea bush. The fresh picked harvest has to be processed immediately while the leaves are still fresh to ensure optimum quality. The same goes with wine.

001 — Tea leaves hand-plucked have to be processed within 24 hours otherwise it will spoil

Expertise and know-how are critical in tea and wine making. The decision of when exactly to finish the fermentation of rack a wine is as crucial as that of when to start or stop hand-firing a tea. That can only be learned by experience and determined by experts because wine and tea, are both living, artisanal product where top quality depends on instinct and knowhow.

Bacchus-Roman-God-of-Wine-web — Bacchus: The Roman God of Wine. To read more about the ceremonial uses of wine CLICK HERE.

Ceremonial & social uses: In ancient Greece and Rome the mild intoxication offered by wine was valued as a means of

Buddhist monks tea ceremony — Click here to read an excellent article in **Fresh Cup Magazine** on the *"Rituals, Rites and the Religion of Tea."*

entering the irrational realm of Greek divinities. Buddhist monks use tea to help enter a meditative state. Rikyu, an influential historical figure who studied tea coined a phrase that roughly translates to, ‘You can either sit on a cushion to gain enlightenment or you can make a bowl of tea.”

So here I am sitting on a cushion AND drinking tea– that should qualify me for double enlightenment, don’t you think? So whether it’s a sippa or a cuppa, share one with me, will you? And cheers to you, my dear friends!:)

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Since the Book of Grapes (and DANG, it’s a good one!) has already been written by Johnny Come-First, Shona Patel decided to write a story set in a tea plantation in Assam. You can read more about Teatime for the Firefly HERE. Shona Patel is represented by April Eberhardt Literary