The ‘O’ Word is Spreading

Some call it liquid wisdom; some call it cup of life while others prefer to call it a religion of the art of life. In which ever way one takes it, tea, the oriental antiquity, still continues to raise storms over its cuppa. Moreover, to quote from Henry James’, The Portrait of a Lady, “there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.”

Tea being a common and popular beverage in India, stalls selling the potion is ubiquitous in the country. Earlier the tea stalls used to be nondescript joints where the tea lovers thronged for a typical cup of hot tea and adda. Many such joints have emerged as the breeding grounds of great political, social, cultural and literary ideas. Many famous personalities frequented these stalls with their friends and peers. Some of those joints are still there while a new concept called Cha Bar is gradually emerging as a preferred destination of today’s youth. 

Triparna (30), a lecturer in English communication proclaims the cha bar inside the Oxford Book store at Park Street, Kolkata, to be her favourite joint for an evening adda with friends or colleagues. “The smell of the different brews at the Cha bar acts as a stimulant to my weary soul at the end of the day. Nothing can be more refreshing than a cup of Darjeeling tea. For me each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage. Besides, I am very much for the ‘Go Green’ catchphrase and that’s another reason I prefer to drink tea, organic tea to be precise, as I believe by doing it I am taking care of both my health and my environment.” chirps the young lecturer. Sayan Chatterjee, a 3^rd year engineering student is a regular visitor of the cha bar at the City Center Mall of Salt Lake. “As the weekends draw close I get this habitual urge to spend a couple of hours of my evenings at the cha bar with friends and sometimes even alone. The mere chink of cups and saucers tunes my mind to happy repose and the aroma uplifts my spirits. But I prefer my brew to be an organic one as it is believed to be grown without artificial or chemical inputs and hence good for my health,” quipped the young music lover.

Making most of this trend is the big industry players. Big groups like Ambuja Realty owns a country wide chain of tea stalls called Tea Junction. However, they offer ‘mashala cha’ (a kind of spice tea) and are yet to foray into the ‘O’ world. The Apeejay Group which owns a chain of tea joints called Cha Bar with outlets at Kolkata, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore is one of the pioneers of the concept of cha bars. The calm, soothing, refreshing, healthy environment of the joint helps one to recharge. According to a spokes person of Apeejay group the ‘cha bar acts as the perfect foil to the busy world outside – it is a space of perfect calm amidst chaos’. If studied carefully the craze for the going organic can be perceived in the bars quite easily. And vouching the fact, Ms Renu Kakkar , Vice President,  Corporate Communications, Apeejay Surrendra Group, said, “Organic herbal teas are extremely popular today due to method of growing and processing them and there has been a visible switch in the last decade towards consumption of organic tea , which in all its exotic varieties, is now not only just fashionable but very healthy. Fitness and health are a major concern for the urban Indians especially the youth, and organic tea flavors score well with youngsters too. Our cha bar has a regular demand for many types of organic tea, including green tea, black tea and white tea. In addition, many different flavors exist including ginger, lemon and basil and all of these help in preventing or fighting different diseases and illnesses. Including organic tea in your diet helps boost the immune system imparting a feeling of wellness and health. Based on the kind of customers we serve, its our observation that a typical youngster enjoys all kinds of beverages but is getting more inclined towards health and fitness and thus experiments with new offerings like various flavours of organic tea.”

However, Dolly Roy, the professional tea aficionado and the first woman tea auctioneer of the world, feels that organic tea is less publicly popular in India compared to its popularity in the West due to the limited production with much higher production-cost and less appeal to the taste-buds of the tea-connoisseur of Kolkata. “From a tea-taster's point of view, there is not much prominent difference in the brew of organic and chemically manured tea. Within permissible limit, organic one is often found to be qualitatively poor and un-economic,” articulated the tea writer and researcher.  Dolly owns a unique tea shop named Dolly’s Tea in south Kolkata which offers 24 different infusions and as many iced flavours. Approximately 55-60% young customers visit the boutique daily and that has helped Dolly's achieve the highest position in the list of most popular tea-Joints in the Metro. “So far as our experience says, young customers of our boutique chiefly order Ice-tea of various flavour within certain price-range, therefore care more for brisk, tangy liquor than a quality health-drink Till today, there is no such trend found amongst the teenagers but ads and awareness programme on reduced caffeine-content and health-benefits of organic tea may have some impact on future generation in near future,” emphasized the regal matriarch.  

Nonetheless, the tea world is now abuzz with the O word. Organic tea is grown with utmost care and sincere efforts are taken to maintain the quality. Tea bushes get their nutrition from vermiculture (the use of specially bred earthworms to regenerate soil) and large-scale application of composts, neem cakes and castor cakes to the soil (the last two are natural insect repellents). And the Tea Board monitors the soil in organic estates at regular intervals throughout the year to ensure strict compliance with organic norms.

The young who are forging a new India are primarily leading this new wave switch to go green of which organic is a big part. The youth today is very aware and is confident to practice their belief in their lives. The demand for organic tea is growing everyday and the big players of the tea industry are increasingly engaging themselves in the production of the organic variety even though it is expensive than the other hitherto popular brands. Rajah Banerjee, the fourth generation scion of the family that runs the world's oldest single-owner tea estate (Makaibari Tea Estate) believes that though costly, organic tea is going to emerge as a strong brand in India. “We pioneered organics to global tea to be certified in 1987. At Darjeeling district 40 per cent is organic certified. Eco agriculture is certainly addressing two burning issues today, safety to health and safety to the environment. Essentially going organic does means an escalated cost, but not outrageously so. Also, consuming pure foods results in better health, higher levels of energy that increases one's efficiency, improves the environment and creates grassroots entrepreneurs. Organics results in holistic sustainable synergies to be released that ensure long term gains and today’s youth are aware of these facts and hence endorse the concept  The short term increased costs are easily compensated in the long term. This is the true way to India really shining as 70percent are farmers,” remarked Banerjee.

Another leader in tea, the Lohia Group also approves the rising demand and popularity of the organic brand of tea. Tea has been a tradition in the Lohia family for close to a century. Beginning in 1916 with the acquisition of its first garden in Assam, the Chamong group now owns 13 estates in Darjeeling and 5 in Assam. Speaking on the issue, Mr Ashok Kumar Lohia, Chairman, Chamong Tee Exports (P) Ltd said, “The trend for Organic tea first started in India in the late 1980s. Organic tea is very popular and successful today. The success is mainly because it’s a healthy beverage, having been grown and produced in natural conditions. The younger generations is taking to Organic tea in a big way, as they are very health conscious and so obviously would prefer drinking a healthy brew than the aerated and artificial drinks.”

With ‘Go Green’ becoming the watchword of present day India, organic tea going to add an extra tinge and tang to the campaign. We expect more and more storms over the tea cups with ‘O’ written over it.