Wah Kya Chai Hai !. Review on Assam Tea

Well forgive the catchy phrase.... but couldnt think of a better way to address your attention to this usually underrated product. ;-)

Ive been accociated with Assam Chai for the last fifteen years .... gimme five minutes of your reading time and you'll be speaking the language of a tea pro ;-).

THE LAYMANS GUIDE TO PROFESSIONAL TEA CHATTER: ;-D

Assam tea has its own sub categories Upper Assam tea, Lower Assam tea and Cachar Tea.

Upper Assam tea growing areas Darrang Jorhat digboi tisukia dibrugarh lakhimpur etc .....the eastern region of the state. The best teas are produced here.

Lower Assam ...bongaigaon dhubri nalbari etc the western region of the state.The teas come in only second to upper assam tea.

Cachar area tea ...south assam bordering manipur mizoram ...well they are not exactly good tea growing areas probably its the soil which makes the liquor different.This tea is not preferred.

Ok CTC stands for Crushing Tearing and Curling (by Heat) ...all granular teas are processed in this manner.

Leaf tea also know as Orthodox tea is processed on arolling table which leaves it long and well wiry /leafy.

Tea is valued for its liquor (strength and taste) and flavour (smell)

Tea season ...plucking starts frm march to december end.

1st Flush tea: Start of the season teas....good dark strong tea...good flavour.

2nd Flush tea :The second pick ...golden hue to it ...specially after the rains...fantastic stuff...the stuff that makes one really say from the heart.....WAH!Kya Chai Hai!!

and then there is the autumn flush.....pure autumn is actually october last week and november teas....good golden teas again.

Personally I prefer the Autumn ...the tea is smooth like good wine. ;-)

Well as we all know ''seconds'' in clothes so in tea we have secondary teas....the stuff best avoided.......always go in for the primary stuff.

BP BOP BOPS ....all different sizes of the ctc processed grainy tea....BOp is big whereas bp is smaller and we have Pf ....light tiny grainy tea....dust is the dust variety....nowadays better used in roadside hotels ...for medicine and for dyes.

BP broken pekoe BOP broken orange pekoe PF pekoe fannings .....

Then there are teas from Darjeeling ...light liquor..fantastic on the flavour.

Dooars tea tea from west bengal...well ..not worth it at all.

South Indian tea....cheap teas with a totally different odd taste...like sri lankan....not my cup of tea ;-).In fact these teas dont fetch too good a price....number of gardens have closed down or are in the process of .

By the way Kenyan tea is good too and cheap.....doing well in the international market...exceedingly well.

I probably could go on and on....but I ll be easy on you ;-D

Any queries comments ...syuff u'd like to know...feel free ..It would indeed be a pleasure to make my cup of tea ...your cup of tea as well.

Enough said.