Tea Board of India showed us the way to hold road shows, the new name I prefere to tea testing session, first of which we put up at Geng Xiang Tea House in Malindao tea market in Beijing on 29th December 2007 with the help of my close friend Zhu Zhongrai of China Tea Marketing Association & Ms. Xiao of Dong Li Tea Company, our agents in China.

We plan to put up a series of such shows in other Chinese cities starting March 2008 and especially in Shanghai during May 2008 International Tea Expo there.

If we can boil the sesonal fruits with right amount of good water and suger, we can get a tingy, syrupy concoction, which is such a lovely thing to drink.

I learnt it in Yuan Tai Tea in Fuzhou on 4th January 2008.

Let us give it a try.

It is thousands of years since tea has been cultivated and drunk, but we never could utilize the tea flowers, although tea seeds could be converted into tea seed oil to replace olive oil for ediable purpose.

This time I met a lady in Beijing who has sucessfully commercially utilized tea flowers into beauty products like moisturising cream, cleansing foam, toner & skin cream. Perfumes and other allied products were known to be developed in France from the green teas but tea blossom products were unknown so far, atleast to us.

This lady proposes to transfer technology for free if we can take up the marketing in India and elsewhere.

Sky is the limit.  

It was yet another milestone in my journey to the east. We entered into new year while travelling in a train from Beijing to Shanghai alongwith Mohhemed Tayebi of Hydrabad and two trainees Ta Na and Li Hai Yang. We later travelled to Hangzhou and Fuzhou also for searching the right model of a tea house.

Tea Board’s participation in this South Asian Countries Commodity Fair from 28th to 30th December 2007 and our tea testing session in Geng Xiang tea house in Malindao tea market in Beijing and Indo-Sino trade discussions on CCTV on 29th December 2007 gave us more opportunities to understand Chinese markets.

At Shanghai, Hangzhou & Fuzhou we searched for the right ambience of a tea house setting to make it economically viable by attracting the younger generation so steeped in Mcdonald culture. Yuan Tai has provided the answer and we must propagate it here in India. Health of the tea industry will depend on this experiment.  

The changing patterns in world production and consumption is making China a nett importer of tea and we must establish our presence there before Sri Lanka or Kenya as we have the advantage of better quality teas to feed this value addition industry of instant teas and other allied products like concentrates.

Nine Bend River & Xiao…

We were on a raft in Wuyi nine bend river when Ms. Xiao Juan jotted down this poem for me on 23rd November 2007. Though I have not yet deciphered it yet, but hope it must be something good. 

To Mr. Lochan from Indian: Sitting on the bamboo ship to look upon the five mountains, Following the running waters to circle the thousand rivers, the green water forms flowers, and your laughters are heard here and there.

Wei Tingyu, my friend from Beijing, just now translated.

To Russia with love….

If Russia is so beautiful then it is important for us to export our equally lovely teas. Grand Tea & Coffee Co. was approached recently during our CII Siliguri delegation, when I was in China in November 2007, and we got a positive responce.

With dramatic developements and economic prosperity in Russia things has changed drastically and we must prepare ourselves to supply tailor made teas to suit their current market needs.

To China again….

Decemeber is a cold month in Beijing so attending South Asian Countries Commodity Fair there on 28th to 30th December 2007 in China International Exhibition Center will be quite an experience. For me this will be my first visit to China in winters. 

Indian Tea Board and Ispahani Tea people from Hydrabad are accompanying me to this fair, where Harrison Malayalam will join from south India. Premier’s local agent from Chongqing will join us too. Indian Embassy will organise the buyer-seller meet as well as Indian tea testing too.

After Beijing we plan to go to Shanghai to do some business of printing catalogues and glassware and of course to sell some teas and meeting some old friends. It must be a fun if we can visit Suzhou which was overshooted last time. Keeping the fingers crossed I am bringing Li Hai Yang around to expose her to India tea business scene. 

Wuyi to Darjeeling….

Robert Fortune took tea from Wuyishan to India thru Fuzhou port was the claim staked by Mr. Wu Jian Ming of Fujian Wuyishan National Nature Reserve Lapsang Tea Industry Co. Ltd., who said he had documentary proofs to this on his website www.lapsang.cn and claimed that his 24 generations were involved in the lapsang souchong making.

My search connected with this topic always prompted me to think that tea must have been brought from Anhui thru Shanghai port, though my own involvement with Darjeeling since 1976 never made me sufficiently educated about this and only since 2004 I started thinking on this topic.

During my November 2007 trip thru Fuzhou & Wuyishan and during earlier trips to Huangshan mountaints and Shanghai port, I have been now more determined as to find clues to this. I met some people from Hangzhou National Tea Museum but nothing is documented there too.

I invite western and oriental writers to enlighten me on this further. http://www.gdz-cms.de/no_cache/dms/load/img/

Darjeeling’s black tea gains popularity in China

Kochi: Darjeeling tea, globally known for its flavour and high quality, is becoming popular in China, which is a predominantly green tea market.

In the first nine months of this fiscal, more than 500 tonnes of Darjeeling tea has been exported to China. The lone Indian exporter, Lochan Tea Ltd, in Siliguri, West Bengal, is confident of doubling it to 1,000 tonnes by the end of this fiscal.

Green tea leaves are dried and preserved without being fermented, giving it a light flavour. Darjeeling tea is black. It is fermented, dried and has a slight sweetness and distinct flavour, alien to the Chinese taste.

China has been a leader in tea production, accounting for 1 billion kg annually. About 40% of this is exported. But India has never seriously looked at selling tea to China. Last year, Lochan Tea had exported 250 tonnes to China.

“We have been trying to get into the Chinese market for five years now and finally, the results have started showing. Other exporters will look at this market soon,” said Lochan Tea chairman Rajiv Lochan.

According to him, a substantial portion of the annual Darjeeling tea production of 9 million kg can make it to the Chinese market. Currently, around 55-60% of these teas are exported to the US, the UK and a few other countries in Europe. About 2-2.5 million kg can easily be sold in China at an attractive price, Lochan said.

“The Darjeeling tea has won recognition of discerning consumers all over the world for well over a century,” said Sanjay Bansal, chairman of the Darjeeling Tea Association.

The cultivation of tea in Darjeeling, a northern district in West Bengal, dates back to the 1830s and is now spread over 17,800 ha in 87 designated gardens. It was registered as ‘geographical indication’ globally in 2004. The geographical indication status is based on identifying a product from a particular area with a given quality, reputation and special characteristics essentially attributable to its geographical origin that cannot be replicated elsewhere.

This status protects it from unauthorized production, duplication, abuse or misuse. This helps enhance the brand image of Darjeeling tea, both in the national and global markets, Bansal said.

According to Lochan, Darjeeling tea gets its particular flavour from being grown at an altitude of more than 3,000ft above sea level and the peculiar geographical conditions of Darjeeling, such as the hot winds that hit the peak of Mount Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. The peak acts as a wall returning the winds to the tea gardens across the district. At a high altitude, the atmosphere has less oxygen and this adds to the oxidants in Darjeeling tea leaves, making it a healthy drink.

Its aroma and flavour fetch a premium in the market. While other Indian teas sell for $1-1.5 (Rs39.7-59.6) a kg, Darjeeling tea is sold at a price between $4 and $9 a kg, depending on the quality.

The tea plantations in Darjeeling started nearly 200 years ago when the British brought tea cultivation from China. “Now it is going back to the country of its origin. Darjeeling tea meets the standards of what the Chinese call ‘oolong’ tea, which is somewhere between green and black. If it has the quality, price is not a factor,” said Lochan.