I am beyond the russet-colored liquid that flickers playfully in the midday winter sunlight as I give the included goblet a vigorous swirl. I close my eyes as I take an upbeat, yet alert sip. Almost immediately, my mouth fills with an expected, intense tannic astringency. What I haven’t prepared myself for is a sweetness and undoubtedly intoxicating power that belies the face of it.
down to the tea
My brain and taste buds are equally confused. where am I? And what have I just drunk? I open my eyes and I am still in the lush green Attabari tea plantation on the southern bank of the mighty Brahmaputra river in Demo village in upper Assam. Where, just a few hours back I had landed along NH 37 from Mohanbari airport in Dibrugarh.
And you, dear reader, as I was before, would not be wrong to assume that the above ‘russet-hued liquid’ we know as black tea, without milk and sugar. Or do tea experts prefer to use the more technical term “wine”.
But interestingly, it is also another kind of wine. To be more specific a homemade tea brew. A unique, one-of-a-kind liberation that I had never heard of before, let alone savoring it.
Delighted to try his longtime brewing experiment on a food writer, no less (his words!), Shantanu Roy, the estate’s manager, tells me about his tea brewing recipe, which he says. That it is just the precious, needle-like buds of the tea plant, sugar, yeast and distilled water.
And just like that, I have taken my unconventional initiation into the realm of one of Assam’s biggest calling cards – its tea.
Dalit Day
Producing about 55% of India’s tea, Assam, I learn, is home to about 850 large tea gardens – just like Attabari where I am, which were established during colonial times – as well as millions of smaller tea growers or They are known locally as STGs. Again, it would be small to treat the large estates as domineering giants to the detriment of STG.
I’m told that in a recent retelling of the classic David and Goliath victorious underdog fight, it’s STGs flexing their new muscles. They are doing this by threatening to take the estates out of competition in the organized sector. A recent paper by the Tea Association of India (TAI) puts this in perspective.
According to the new Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, large estates now have a responsibility to ensure that full benefits are provided to their workers, in addition to cash wages. And rightly so. These range from free accommodation and medical facilities to subsidized food and primary education for their children. Some STGs (defined as those cultivating tea in an area of up to 25 acres) are not affected.
prime picking
But in another large property things seem far from gloomy, which is where I go next. This time I am at Moran Tea Estate in Khatikhedi along the same NH 37 which was built by the British in 1864.
As I drive through the fecund, jade green divisions (as the tea tree growing parts of the estate are called), I see tea breakers enjoying their mid-season breaks. They are sitting in the shade of shady trees essential to tea cultivation, drinking their salted tea water mains to prevent dehydration, I am understood.
In addition, other groups have reverted to picking the standard two leaves and one bud. They seem happy and content as they sing their songs which I am told are used as local iambic pentameters to bring a certain rhythm to their selection.
Life in the estate almost seems idyllic. And why not? The organized sector seems to be buoyed once again by the record breaking sale of one kilo from Manohari Tea Estate in Dibrugarh at the famous Guwahati Tea Auction Center a few weeks ago.
Perhaps it is his turn at the next big bet.
The Mumbai-based writer and restaurant critic has a passion for food, travel and luxury, not necessarily in that order.