Assam tea is a
black tea
Black tea, also translated to red tea in various East Asian languages, is a type of tea that is more oxidized than oolong, yellow, white and green teas. Black tea is generally stronger in flavour than other teas. All five types are made from ...
named after the region of its production,
Assam, India
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur to ...
. It is manufactured specifically from the plant ''
Camellia sinensis
''Camellia sinensis'' is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree in the flowering plant family Theaceae. Its leaves and leaf buds are used to produce the popular beverage, tea. Common names include tea plant, tea shrub, and tea tree (not to ...
'' var. ''assamica'' (Masters). The Assam tea plant is indigenous to Assam—initial efforts to plant the Chinese varieties in Assam soil did not succeed. Assam tea is now mostly grown at or near sea level and is known for its body, briskness, malty flavour, and strong, bright colour. Assam teas, or blends containing Assam tea, are often sold as "breakfast" teas. For instance,
Irish breakfast tea
Irish breakfast tea is a blend of several black teas, most often a combination of Assam teas and Ceylon teas. Irish tea brands, notably Barry's, Bewley's, Lyons and Robert Roberts in the Republic and Nambarrie's and Thompson's Punjana in North ...
, a maltier and stronger breakfast tea, consists of small-sized Assam tea leaves.
The state of Assam is the world's largest tea-growing region by production, lying on either side of the
Brahmaputra
The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, northeast India, and Bangladesh. It is also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, Luit in Assamese, and Jamuna River in Bangla. It ...
River, and bordering
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
,
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
and very close to
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. This part of India experiences high rainfall; during the
monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
period, as much as 250 to 300 mm (10 to 12 in) of rain per day. The daytime temperature rises to about 36 °C (96.8 °F), creating greenhouse-like conditions of extreme humidity and heat. This
tropical climate
Tropical climate is the first of the five major climate groups in the Köppen climate classification identified with the letter A. Tropical climates are defined by a monthly average temperature of 18 °C (64.4 °F) or higher in the cool ...
contributes to Assam's unique
malt
Malt is germinated cereal grain that has been dried in a process known as " malting". The grain is made to germinate by soaking in water and is then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air.
Malted grain is used to make beer, wh ...
y taste, a feature for which this tea is well known.
Though ''Assam'' generally denotes the distinctive black teas from Assam, the region produces smaller quantities of
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
and
white tea
White tea may refer to one of several styles of tea which generally feature young or minimally processed leaves of the ''Camellia sinensis'' plant.
Currently there is no generally accepted definition of white tea and very little international ...
s as well, with their own distinctive characteristics.
Historically, Assam has been the second commercial tea production region after southern China, the only two regions in the world with native tea plants.
The introduction of the Assam tea bush to Europe is related to
Robert Bruce
Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Scottish Gaelic: ''Raibeart an Bruis''), was King of Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. One of the most renowned warriors of his generation, Robert eventuall ...
, a
Scottish adventurer, who apparently encountered it in the year 1823. Bruce reportedly found the plant growing "wild" in Assam while trading in the region.
Maniram Dewan
Maniram Dutta Baruah, popularly known as Maniram Dewan (17 April 1806 – 26 February 1858), was an Assamese nobleman in British India. He was one of the first people to establish tea gardens in Assam. A loyal ally of the British East India C ...
directed him to the local
Singpho chief Bessa Gam.
Bruce noticed local people (the Singhpos) brewing tea from the leaves of the bush and arranged with the local chiefs to provide him with samples of the leaves and seeds, which he planned to have scientifically examined. Robert Bruce died shortly thereafter, without having seen the plant properly classified. It was not until the early 1830s that Robert's brother, Charles, arranged for a few leaves from the Assam tea bush to be sent to the botanical gardens in Calcutta for proper examination. There, the plant was finally identified as a variety of tea, or ''Camellia sinensis'' var ''assamica'', but different from the Chinese version (''Camellia sinensis'' var. ''sinensis''). Indigenous Assam tea plant was first mentioned by a historian called Samuel Baidon who published ''Tea in Assam'' in 1877.
History
While on a trade expedition through the Assam area with
Singpho in 1823
Robert Bruce
Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Scottish Gaelic: ''Raibeart an Bruis''), was King of Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. One of the most renowned warriors of his generation, Robert eventuall ...
was introduced to a plant with which the Singpho and
Khamti people
The Tai Khamti, ( Khamti: တဲး ၵံးတီႈ, ( th, ชาวไทคำตี่, my, ခန္တီးရှမ်းလူမျိုး, Hkamti Shan) or simply Khamti as they are also known, are a Tai ethnic group native t ...
made beverages and food. Through his brother,
Charles Alexander Bruce
Charles Alexander Bruce (11 January 1793 – 23 April 1871) was a British naval and gunboat officer, explorer and author. He is known as the father of the tea industry in Assam.
Life
Bruce was born at Jorhat in Assam. In 1809 he was a midship ...
who was in
Sadiya
Sadiya is a town in Tinsukia district, Assam. It was the capital of the Chutia Kingdom and after the downfall of the kingdom it became the seat of the ''Sadiya-khowa-Gohain'' of the Ahom kingdom. Extensive remains of buildings and fortificati ...
, samples were sent to botanist
Nathaniel Wallich
Nathaniel Wolff Wallich FRS FRSE (28 January 1786 – 28 April 1854) was a surgeon and botanist of Danish origin who worked in India, initially in the Danish settlement near Calcutta and later for the Danish East India Company and the British ...
who mistook it for ''camellia kissi''.
It was not until over a decade later that the Singpho's plant would be recognized as being the same plant as the ''Camellia sinensis'' growing in China, after Francis Jenkins and Andrew Charlton responded to the request of the British
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
's Tea Committee for its agents to review prospects for establishing a source of tea outside of China. Charles Bruce
guide
A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom.
Travel and recreation
Expl ...
d a team, including Nathaniel Wallich,
William Griffith and
John McClelland, dispatched from the Tea Committee in 1836, to review the plant in its natural growing conditions around
Sadiya
Sadiya is a town in Tinsukia district, Assam. It was the capital of the Chutia Kingdom and after the downfall of the kingdom it became the seat of the ''Sadiya-khowa-Gohain'' of the Ahom kingdom. Extensive remains of buildings and fortificati ...
. It was cultivated in the company's experimental garden with the first batch shipped to London in 1838 and auctioned in January 1839. Though it sold well the batch was noted as lacking fragrance compared to the tea from China which had been selectively cultivated for hundreds of years and having a dullness thought to be a consequence of inexperienced processing.
[
]
That same year, two companies were incorporated to pursue the tea's development in Assam: the Assam Tea Association in London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and the Bengal Tea Association in Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
, though they quickly amalgamated to form the Assam Company. Despite early proponents such as Maniram Dewan
Maniram Dutta Baruah, popularly known as Maniram Dewan (17 April 1806 – 26 February 1858), was an Assamese nobleman in British India. He was one of the first people to establish tea gardens in Assam. A loyal ally of the British East India C ...
, British-led land reform
Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...
s such as the ''Waste Lands Act'' to clear and privatize plots of land for agricultural purposes, the Assam Company struggled and was forced to reorganize in 1847. Similarly, despite having access to a large source of inexpensive labour, including tea-makers smuggled out of China, indenture
An indenture is a legal contract that reflects or covers a debt or purchase obligation. It specifically refers to two types of practices: in historical usage, an indentured servant status, and in modern usage, it is an instrument used for commercia ...
d Indians, and refugees from famine-stricken areas, Assam at the time was a sparsely-populated, hot and humid undeveloped area and many died of disease. Despite the poor results, investment came from Britain to establish additional tea gardens, such as the Jorehaut Tea Company around Jorhat
Jorhat ( ) is one of the important cities and a growing urban centre in the state of Assam in India.
Etymology
Jorhat ("jor" means twin and "hat" means market) means two hats or mandis - "Masorhaat" and "Sowkihat" which existed on the opposite ...
, in 1860s though by 1870 56 of the 60 companies operating tea gardens in Assam went bankrupt. Industrial mechanization in the 1870s finally resulted in profitable companies as more plucked leaves were able to be dried without rotting in the humid environment. Heated withering tables and steam-powered rolling machines precipitated a need for grading so the British adapted the existing systems of tea leaf grading
In the tea industry, tea leaf grading is the process of evaluating products based on the quality and condition of the tea leaves themselves.
The highest grades for Western and South Asian teas are referred to as "orange pekoe", and the lowest ...
to sort their products. The Indian Tea Districts Association was established in London in 1879 and in Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
in 1881 (as the Indian Tea Association) to organize and advance these tea interests. By 1888 tea imported from India finally exceeded that from China.
Production
Most of the currently operating tea estates in Assam are members of the Assam Branch of the Indian Tea Association
The Indian Tea Association is a trade association of Indian tea producers. The head office is in Kolkata (Calcutta).
History
The Association was founded in 1881 to protect the interests of tea planters in British India
The province ...
(ABITA), which is the oldest and most prominent body of tea producers of India.
Steps
There are between two and seven steps involved in the processing of fresh tea leaves, the addition or exclusion of any of these stages results in a different type of tea. Each of these procedures is carried out in a climate-controlled facility to avoid spoilage due to exce JEN
Withering refers to the wilting of fresh green tea leaves. The purpose of withering is to reduce the moisture content in the leaves and to allow the flavor compounds to develop. While it can be done outdoors, controlled withering usually takes place indoors. Freshly plucked leaves are laid out in a series of troughs and subjected to hot air forced from underneath the troughs. During the course of withering, the moisture content in the leaf is reduced by about 30%, making the leaf look limp and soft enough for rolling. Additionally, the volatile compounds in the leaf, including the level of caffeine and the flavors, begin to intensify. A short wither allows the leaves to retain a greenish appearance and grassy flavors while a longer wither darkens the leaf and intensifies the aromatic compounds.
Fixing or “kill-green” refers to the process by which enzymatic browning of the wilted leaves is controlled through the application of heat. It is held that the longer it takes to fix the leaves, the more aromatic the tea will be. Fixing is carried out via steaming, pan firing, baking or with the use of heated tumblers. Application of steam heats the leaves more quickly than pan firing, as a result of which steamed teas taste ‘green’ and vegetal while the pan-fired ones taste toasty. This procedure is carried out for green teas and yellow teas.
Oxidation results in the browning of the leaves and intensification of their flavor compounds. From the moment they are plucked, the cells within the tea leaves are exposed to oxygen and the volatile compounds within them begin to undergo chemical reactions. It is at this stage that polyphenolic oxidase, including ''theaflavin'' and ''thearubigin'', begin to develop within the leaves. ''Theaflavins'' lend briskness and brightness to the tea while ''thearubigins'' offer depth and fullness to the liquor that's produced. In order to bring out specific intensities in flavors, tea makers control the amount of oxidation the leaves undergo. Controlled-oxidation is typically carried out in a large room where the temperature is maintained at 25–30 °C and humidity stands steady at 60–70%. Here, withered and rolled leaves are spread out on long shelves and left to ferment for a fixed period of time, depending on the type of tea being made. To halt or slow down oxidation, fermented leaves are moved to a panning trough where they are heated and then dried. Due to oxidation, the leaves undergo a complete transformation and exhibit an aroma and taste profile that's completely different from the profile of the leaves that do not undergo this process. Less oxidized teas tend to retain most of their green color and vegetal characteristics due to lower production of polyphenols. A semi-oxidized leaf has a brown appearance and produces yellow-amber liquor. In a fully oxidized tea, amino acids and lipids break down completely, turning the leaves blackish-brown. The flavors in such a tea are more brisk and imposing.
Rolling involves shaping the processed leaves into a tight form. As a part of this procedure, wilted / fixed leaves are gently rolled, and depending on the style, they are shaped to look wiry, kneaded, or as tightly rolled pellets. During the rolling action, essential oils and sap tend to ooze out of the leaves, intensifying the taste further. The more tightly rolled the leaves, the longer they will retain their freshness.
Drying In order to keep the tea moisture-free, the leaves are dried at various stages of production. Drying enhances a tea's flavors and ensures its long shelf-life. Also, drying brings down the tea's moisture content to less than 1%. To dry the leaves they are fired or roasted at a low temperature for a controlled period of time, typically inside an industrial scale oven. If the leaves are dried too quickly, the tea can turn abrasive and taste harsh.
Aging some teas are subjected to aging and fermentation to make them more palatable. Some types of Chinese Pu-erh, for example, are fermented and aged for years, much like wine.
Separate time zone
Tea gardens in Assam do not follow the Indian Standard Time
Indian Standard Time (IST), sometimes also called India Standard Time, is the time zone observed throughout India, with a time offset of UTC+05:30. India does not observe daylight saving time or other seasonal adjustments. In military and avia ...
(IST), which is the time observed throughout India and Sri Lanka. The local time in Assam's tea gardens, known as "Tea Garden Time" or ''Sah Bagan Time'' (also used by Myanmar as MMT), is an hour ahead of the IST. The system was introduced during British days keeping in mind the early sunrise in this part of the country.
By and large, the system has subsequently been successful in increasing the productivity of tea garden workers as they save on daylight by finishing the work during daytime, and vice versa. Working time for tea laborers in the gardens is generally between 9 a.m. (IST 8 a.m.) to 5 p.m. (IST 4 p.m.) It may vary slightly from garden to garden.
Noted filmmaker Jahnu Barua
Jahnu Barua (born 1952) is an Indian film director. He has written and directed a number of Assamese and Hindi films. Some of his notable films are '' Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai'' (1987), '' Firingoti'' (1992), ''Xagoroloi Bohu Door'' (1995) ...
has been campaigning for a separate time zone for the northeast region.[
]
Geography
The tea plant is grown in the lowlands of Assam, unlike Darjeelings and Nilgiris
The Nilgiri Mountains form part of the Western Ghats in northwestern Tamil Nadu, Southern Karnataka, and eastern Kerala in India. They are located at the trijunction of three states and connect the Western Ghats with the Eastern Ghats. At le ...
, which are grown in the highlands. It is cultivated in the valley of the Brahmaputra River, an area of clay soil rich in the nutrients of the floodplain. The climate varies between a cool, arid winter and a hot, humid rainy season—conditions ideal for growing tea. Because of its long growing season and generous rainfall, Assam is one of the most prolific tea-producing regions in the world. Each year, the tea estates of Assam collectively yield approximately 680.5 million kg (1,500 million pounds weight) of tea.
Assam tea is generally harvested twice, in a "first flush" and a "second flush". The first flush is picked during late March. The second flush, harvested later, is the more prized "tippy tea", named thus for the gold tips that appear on the leaves. This second flush, tippy tea, is sweeter and more full-bodied and is generally considered superior to the first flush tea. The leaves of the Assam tea bush are dark green and glossy and fairly wide compared to those of the Chinese tea plant. The bush produces delicate white blossoms.
See also
*Tea leaf grading
In the tea industry, tea leaf grading is the process of evaluating products based on the quality and condition of the tea leaves themselves.
The highest grades for Western and South Asian teas are referred to as "orange pekoe", and the lowest ...
*Tea-tribes of Assam
The Tea-garden community are multi ethnic groups of tea garden workers and their descendants in Assam. They are officially referred to as ''Tea-tribes'' by Government of Assam. They are the descendants of peoples brought by the British colonial pl ...
*Indian Tea Association
The Indian Tea Association is a trade association of Indian tea producers. The head office is in Kolkata (Calcutta).
History
The Association was founded in 1881 to protect the interests of tea planters in British India
The province ...
* Tocklai Tea Research Institute
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{Indian beverages
Black tea
Indian tea
Geographical indications in Assam
Tea industry in Assam