I spent months thinking about one particular tea OOLONG , where three entirely different traditions wear the same name. I always feel tea pot as a vessel of mystery and longing . The genie in my frame is holding today a secret .When I placed them together I understood something which I always reflect & work upon for past couple of years, SINGLE ESTATE TEA .Thats the magic lamp , you do not need to rub it but just brew it slowly , nothing hidden , nothing added. Now few facts about INDIAN tea market.
Black tea dominates the market 68 percent , north India favours strong ASSAM CTC flavour., South India prefer lighter orthodox blends., Green tea is growing rapidly the functional and flavoured ones.But my question what about OOLONG , the beauty of the oriental.
Chinese oolong 400 years old,tea with imperial history ¢ury old processing rituals. The cup results in a floral , roasted flavour. Taiwanese oolong carries precision, known as oriental beauty also. Taiwanese treat oolong as a science. High mountain oolong a from Alishan are clean , buttery and has a flowery aroma.
Well when Indian urban health conscious consumers hear about oolong they ask me few questions:
- Is it for weight loss ?
- Its not chai what is it?
- It is expensive , how to brew?
- Is it Chinese ?
- Is it better tha green tea ?
- So on and so forth ?
I wonder how come this speciality tea never got its place in my own land ? But what about Darjeeling oolong ?Recent phenomenon. Most Indians do not know what oolong is,why?
Unlike Chinese and Taiwanese oolong no one built a education layer , no entry point. When tea came to India through British the system designed CTC . A tea engineered for speed and volume , not contemplation and that’s chai .
Darjeeling oolong sits at the rarest intersection . WHY ?
Darjeeling oolong an extraordinary tea, grown at an altitude , shaped by the Himalayan mist and the summer. The Indian narrative was never told . For me its an honest reckoning of why oolong missed its own homeland & why ,that is about the change ?Some lamps holds genie our lamp is holding OOLONG.
#Drajeeling oolong
#Founders perspective on oolong
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