“Puer tea’s improvement with age is said to be its distinguishing feature. From this, several key values were drawn out by traders, connoisseurs, consumers, researchers, mass media and the government.”
And that’s a quote from “Puer Tea, Ancient Caravans and Urban Chic” by Jinghong Zhang. (pg. 97)
Caption: A stack of valuable aged Pu’er [beeng] bing cha
Kyle Whittington reviews Puer Tea, Ancient Caravans and Urban Chic
Sitting on the academic end of the tea bookshelf, this is a fascinating and thoroughly well-researched foray into the complex and multi-faceted world of Puer tea. An anthropological study that explores the “cultural biography” of Puer tea, the ethnographic and anthropological research that has gone into this is book is exceptional and really opens up the intricacies of Puer. And yet, despite being such an academic text it is entirely readable and utterly fascinating.
The first third (introduction and “spring”) sets up the rest of the book, introducing and outlining the research, including terms and definitions used throughout. With such a complex subject matter, this is invaluable and helps to deal with complexities around such things as fermentation (pg. 13) and geographic locations. In this, we get to grips with Puer, the tea, the people involved and begin to grapple with the issues surrounding authenticity.
Indeed, the issues surrounding authenticity are central to the book as a whole and open up numerous questions and considerations we should probably all be aware of when it comes to exploring and particularly to purchasing Puer tea.
Building on this grounding, the book jumps up and becomes massively absorbing in the latter two-thirds (“summer”, “autumn” and “winter”). Exploring the changing historical and current cultural context of Puer, the importance of location and differences and difficulties surrounding the production, and of course, aging is both revealing and fascinating. Accessing multiple areas and sources within the realm of Puer we get real insight and understanding without the veneer of the “sales pitch” that pervades much of the public Puer world.
As a native of Kunming and with the rigor and perspective of an academic, Jinghong Zhang really gets at the heart of the matter and presents us with clear and thorough insights. The famed boom and bust of the Puer market are revealed in startling detail. How and why it happened and importantly how its effects were felt and dealt with in different circles. The impact and conversations that arose as part of and as a result of this around authenticity and what is valued in a Puer are explored from producers to connoisseurs and consumers. The importance and meaning of place and how this is varyingly defined in Puer circles and indeed how place affects taste and experience is revealed and explored.
I could go on, there is so much content in this book! But suffice to say a thoroughly excellent read! Whether an aficionado or with an inkling of an interest in Puer, this book is an excellent and essential development of that interest. We thoroughly recommend it!
Here’s what some TeaBookClub members thought:
I’ve recommended this book to a couple of people since I started reading it because I think it’s possibly the best read on tea I’ve had this year. – Aimee
I really enjoyed the view from inside, from someone who got to get close. Especially the films, they’re very complimentary. – Aimee
Her insight into the market crash. The how’s and the why’s were really helpful. – Nicole
Strong research – Brigette
The films are perfect little snippets that illustrate what she’s talking about. – Nicole
It’s very rich. One of the bits I really enjoyed was the translating and contextualizing of some of the idioms. – Anesce
I think she has access to very interesting materials about the producers and the traders’ lives that maybe wouldn’t have found their way in was she someone else. – Aimee
I really appreciated that she defines what she’s talking about and the definitions she uses for words within the tea. The table in the introduction (page13). She explains her use of “fermentation” so I was like, that’s ok, I know what you mean so I get it. – Aimee
She offers a very nuanced version of everything, always giving you more context on everything. You understand more. – Aimee
It’s made me think about how I would buy Puer tea, a lot more thought, a lot more questions. – Ernest
It deepened my understanding and appreciation for Puerh. – Nicole
Although based in the UK, The Tea Book Club is an international group of tea lovers and readers who meet up virtually every month to discuss tea books. If you’d like to join us for the next read, visit teabookclub.org or @joinTeaBookClub on Instagram.
Puer Tea, Ancient Caravans and Urban Chic
Goodreads: In the 1990s, as the tea’s noble lineage and unique process of aging and fermentation were rediscovered, it achieved cult status both in China and internationally. The tea became a favorite among urban connoisseurs who analyzed it in language comparable to that used in wine appreciation and paid skyrocketing prices. In 2007, however, local events and the international economic crisis caused the Puer market to collapse.
Tea Master Sun seems to comprehend that I’m being transformed, yet his words are as colorless as can be. “So, Pu’er. Tell us what you know about it.”
The minute he asks this question, I understand two things…
That’s a quote from The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See (page 175-176)
Kyle Whittington reviews The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa SeeThe Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
A Brilliantly Layered Book
Despite being a work of fiction, one immediately feels that the tea content is thorough and factually based, adding interesting and personable facts to a tea reader’s knowledge banks.
I found myself repeatedly drawn in and captivated by the story whilst doing my initial skim read, checking there was sufficient tea content for TeaBookClub members. There was. Tea content aplenty. Whilst reading, and by the time I’d finished it I found myself with a renewed interest in the world of Pu’er tea, a pond I’d previously only dipped my toe into. Fascinating and well researched tea content is liberally scattered throughout the book, revealing the mysterious world of Pu’er tea. From ancient secret groves and lost production through its re-discovery to rapid growth, boom and bust over the last three decades. Despite being a work of fiction, one immediately feels that the tea content is thorough and factually based, adding interesting and personable factoids to the tea readers knowledge banks. And ultimately, for many, inspiring a new or renewed interest in the world of Pu’er.
Undoubtedly a literary work worthy of the recommendations that brought it to my reading chair, it is interesting how different lenses can change the readers experience. Reading it with a tea mind gives, I feel, a rather different experience to that of a reader coming to it purely as a novel. Something which became clear when discussing it with TeaBookClub members.
For the tea reader, this is a book of two halves. Whilst the first half cleverly sets up Li-yan’s world of Akha tradition and starts her on her journey. It can at times feel like wading through a documentary on the Akha, despite the captivating writing. It’s not until Li-yan makes it to Kunming that the pace suddenly picks up and we’re zipping through the exciting tea world as the pu’er trend picks up pace alongside. I personally wanted to spend more time with Tea Master Sun and in Li-yan’s tea shop in the tea market at this point. But on we zipped to California and the eventual riveting ending, which left me desperately wanting to know what happened next.
There are so many brilliant layers to this book, and it could be looked at through so many different lenses. The rapid transition of the Akha way of life into the modern world was fascinating and could spark its own lengthy discussion. From another view, the mother daughter story, adoption, or Chinese immigrants in the USA could all be delved into and discussed. But for the tea reader this is a wonderful story, packed with great tea content that will either develop or ignite an interest in, and desire to explore the world of Pu’er further.
Here’s what some TeaBookClub members thought:
“I haven’t gotten into Pu’er that much, but the book has definitely inspired me to now.” – Alison, UK
“I thought the ending was a tear-jerker, I was definitely glued to those last ten pages“- Chris, USA
“I found it touching to read” – Aimée, Canada
“I thought it was too encyclopedic initially [the first time reading it], I found the beginning too much explanation about the Akha people but then because TeaBookClub chose it to read I picked it up and I’m happy I really read it though.” – Aimée, Canada
“I found it a little bit cliche when she finds the love of her life and he’s like her knight in shining armor and she’s a little bit of the princess, a Cinderella kind of thing. But then what I really liked about it was the little nuggets about tea culture in China. How the women when they’re picking the leaves talk about life. The culture in the villages, tea is their life, their culture, they have this appreciation of the leaf. She describes that really well; it’s not just about picking and processing. But I thought bits of the story line were a bit Disney, she’s shopping on Rodeo drive, its like Pretty Woman at one point! I liked those little bits about the life, about the culture of tea.” – Alison, UK
“When it talked about selling the fake tea, that was very relatable in the tea industry. And their reaction to it, how could you be upset with all the money they’re making, just make a little bit more. It showed how different the view was on the ground versus our 30,000 feet distance view.” – Chris, USA
“There was so much build up around the tribe and then it jumped very quickly though the story.” – Chris, USA
“The first part really explains the character and how she feels different from the Han majority and from her own tribe.” – Aimée, Canada
“It’s easier to digest the tea knowledge in that [novel] format sometimes, it drops bits of information in and it’s easier to take the information in.” – Alison, France
“I liked how she brings up the challenges of being an adopted Chinese girl in America. Not feeling Chinese, not feeling American…. I thought she captured the experience of wanting to find her [Hayley] birth parents and the excitement she got around seeing how other people found it. It’s a one in a million chance, its never going to happen but at least I’ll try, it makes sense to go and do that. I thought that was captured really well.” – Chris, USA
“I really loved the part with all the girls talking with the psychologist. That was really clever.” – Aimée, Canada
Although based in the UK, The Tea Book Club is an international group of tea lovers and readers who meet up virtually each month to discuss tea books. If you’d like to join us for the next read, visit teabookclub.org or @joinTeaBookClub on Instagram.
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
Goodreads: Lisa See is a Chinese-American author. Her books include Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), Dragon Bones, and On Gold Mountain. She was named the 2001 National Woman of the Year, by the Organization of Chinese American Women. She lives in Los Angeles.
The recent sale of two iconic Darjeeling gardens drew attention to the ongoing challenges facing growers in this fabled tea-growing region. Jungpana and Goomtee were acquired by the Santosh Kanoria group, which owns tea exporter, Balaji Agro International. The group also owns the Tindharia estate in Darjeeling. We spoke to Anshuman Kanoria, chairman of Balaji Agro and also chairman, Indian Tea Exporters Association, about this acquisition.
Listen to the interview:
Anshuman Kanoria discusses his company’s purchase of two iconic tea gardens in Darjeeling, India.Jungpana Tea Estate, Darjeeling, India
Assessing Darjeeling’s Jungpana and Goomtee Estates
Anshuman Kanoria is chairman, Balaji Agro International, and chairman of the Indian Tea Exporters Association. His company owns the estates Tindharia, Goomtee, and Jungpana in Darjeeling.
Aravinda Anantharaman:What is the mood in Darjeeling? We hear of many gardens going up for sale.
Anshuman Kanoria: The last three years have not been easy. Nature has conspired against us; we had the lockdown last year which affected quality. And this year, we had one of the worst droughts in Darjeeling that affected the first flush. The outlook for Darjeeling is bleak.
There was a time when people used to say that more tea is sold in the garb of Darjeeling than is produced. It was hoped that with the GI [2011 EU authentication and protection as a registered Geographical Indication*] the price for Darjeeling would improve, and there would be more real Darjeeling in the world. As it stands, it has become difficult to find buyers, even for 8 million kilos. Today, 8 million kilos are sold but not at a price even close to the cost of production.
People like to blame it on aging bushes but to the best of their ability, people have planted, replanted, and rejuvenated their bushes. The real problem lies in a combination of climate change, insufficient pluckers, and various disturbances which have been occurring in Darjeeling on a regular basis over the last five or six years.
Wages are a highly sensitive issue. [Jungpana was last sold in 2017, a sale that came on the heels of the Gorka agitation and 103-day tea worker’s strike.] I understand the need to pay much more for workers, but there needs to be a correlation between what a garden is earning and what it can pay for labor.
You have to understand the breakup of Darjeeling production. Approximately 20% of Darjeeling production is the first flush, and approximately 20% is the second flush. Approximately 60% is rain production. Now we can break that down to the grades; in the first and second flush it’s 60% whole leaf, in the rains, it is at a maximum of 55% whole leaf while 45% are broken leaf teas and fannings.
The average cost of production can vary from 10% lower to 30% higher, but let us say, the average cost of production of the garden is $10 (per kilo). So, 42-45% of your annual production, which is broken leaf, fanning, and dust, is selling for less than $4 a kilo; and you’re losing $6. In gardens with a higher cost of production, losses can be even more. Let’s say 60% is the whole leaf; of this, roughly 35% is produced in the rainy period and sold at an average price of less than $8 a kilo. That leaves you with 25% from which to make up that loss. This 25% is the whole leaf production from the first and second flush that is prized quality Darjeeling. We really need to be getting average prices close to $25 per kilo to make ends meet in Darjeeling, which is a very tall ask. Therein lies the mathematics of Darjeeling.
What is the reality? Every year we see a winter drought, which means the first flush will get affected. Every year, we see heavy nonseasonal rain from May onward which disturbs the second flush. So the two periods which are your quality periods where you need to do well, are getting adversely impacted due to climate change.
It is getting more and more difficult to get pluckers. As workers’ children become better educated, their aspirations are naturally increasing. And in the hills we can’t do mechanization, we can only do very limited shear plucking which is not good for quality. On top of that, there is so much pressure now on the industry, in terms of food safety and MRL [Maximum Residue Level] compliance. This is an additional challenge that Darjeeling is facing as well, now that everybody is heading towards greater requirements for compliance and certification.
Aravinda:What does the acquisition of Jungpana and Goomtee estates mean for your company? And for Darjeeling’s tea industry?
Anshuman: This is a decision where my brain kept telling me are you crazy. And my heart said, if not now, then when. Can I make it work? I can give it my best shot. Up till now, the people who used to own these gardens have been either plantation people or investors. Nobody has been in marketing. My forte has been marketing, my core company is Balaji Agro International which is an extremely well-known trading house and we’ve been around since the late 1960s. My father Santosh Kanoria was one of the pioneers in the field of export.
My focus is going to be quality. My number one concern is the back end. You can have a garden like Jungpana and call it the ‘Louis Vuitton’ of Darjeeling tea, but that claim is worthless unless and until the product is good. It should taste good. It should be aspirational. I can create a story around it, I can leverage the story of Jungpana but my first focus is restoring the quality and restoring the discipline of working in the plantation; of establishing much better plantation management. It’s shocking beyond my comprehension how these estates have been just left to flounder.
We have already started to get them back on the road to recovery, putting different practices into play and much better administrators. I think the workers also recognize that now they have somebody much more serious about the tea. I’m praying that I get the cooperation of people to try and restore it.
Am I a hundred percent sure I’ve done the right thing? Definitely not. Financially, it could be my greatest disaster, something that can really set me back in a massive way. I have no illusions.
I think Jungpana is a much bigger brand name but it is also a much more adversely affected garden. It’s a beautiful garden, it’s a beautiful brand but we are treading much more on a short-term basis. The challenges with Jungpana are immense. Frankly, we are giving it our best shot but I have to really consider if in the long-term I want to keep it.
Goomtee is a garden that we want under our umbrella. My first aim is to make it 100 percent organic. We will begin the [three-year] conversion this year. I believe organic is the way forward for Darjeeling. We have a lot of plans for Goomtee but Jungpana – we have kept our options open in terms of our long-term holding of Jungpana.
We ended up buying both the gardens because it was offered as a package deal and I did not have a way to buy only Goomtee.
Aravinda:What about your other garden, Tindharia? What do you make there?
Anshuman: In Tindharia, in the first flush we make a conventional black tea. It’s doing very well. Almost all of it has gone to Germany with a bit of it going to Japan and the US.
In the second flush, we make conventional (conventional in terms of quality) black tea from our China and clonal section. But around the second flush period, that is some part of May, most of June onward, we turn the garden into a green tea garden.
My father had mastered a very old art of making green tea, which does not use the conventional method. We bathe each freshly plucked green leaf to remove the bitterness from the leaf and all the dust that has settled on it. It is a much more extensive and worker-intensive method to produce it, but we produce it.
The tea is very well received and hence the demand has been more than what we can produce. The garden produces approximately 65-70% green tea and 30-35% conventional black tea. It is an organic garden. In Darjeeling, if you want to survive in the long term unless you are to be a high-yield, low-cost production estate, in which case you might survive without being organic, but everybody else should really be organic.
Aravinda:You also head the exporters’ association. What are your views on the export market? Is it still sustaining Darjeeling? How are the dependencies changing? How is Darjeeling holding out to the competition?
Anshuman: I think we have mishandled a lot of things. For example, when the GI* registry was approved, there was a belief that our importers were cheating (that belief didn’t come from me, but it came from a section of the trade, which was very misguided in my view). They reasoned if they could prevent passing off non-Darjeeling as Darjeeling teas, they would have a great price discovery and there would be a financial boom for Darjeeling. I think the premise that [40 million kilos] of tea grown elsewhere was being passed off as Darjeeling was exaggerated. Secondly, it was presented to buyers in a manner that, ‘Okay, now we are the policemen and we are going to catch you wherever you go.’
You can’t regulate your buyers with a stick like that.
The buyers had no benefit. They were told, ‘You are thieves, you are going to be regulated.’ And all these fancy logos that we managed to get… I mean what good is a logo if you don’t attach value to it? We have not pumped in any money behind our logo promotion.
And, really, who is responsible for having popularized Darjeeling tea? I would say it is the German importers, to whom we owe everything. It is not the growers, it is not the exporters, it is not the government, it is not the Tea Board of India. It is the Germans who have taken the tea and made it popular around the world. They may have kept larger cuts for themselves, but we still owe it to them. They are the ones who are gunning for us.
And instead of trying to take them along, we have really tried to be confrontational. I think that the GI registry, which could have done very good things for Darjeeling, started off on a very bad note and alienated a lot of people who were supporting Darjeeling.
The other big mistake was taking the auction online from a manual system. What used to happen was producers concentrated on producing tea while the marketing was being done by tea exporters. In a physical auction, the room used to be full, there used to be many people buying tea and they were all bitter competitors. So everyone used to make sure that nothing sold cheaply to anyone. How do you bring about price discovery? True price discovery comes from competition. The old auction system, the manual auction, used to create much more competition. Now we have almost every grower selling directly to a limited number of buyers. Where is the competition? The merchant exporters who used to be the backbone of the industry, have almost lost interest in Darjeeling. And each merchant exporter was catering to 20-30 buyers. If you had 20 people like that, you had competition coming from 300-400 sources.
The Germans are very keen to promote Nepal. They look at Nepal as something truly exotic. Production of hill-grown Nepal has gone up to something like 6 million kilos. They don’t have labor laws or food safety laws as we do. They don’t have a Plantation Labour Act like we do. They are not estates. They’re all small factories, which are buying tea from small growers. So their cost for production is in line with the market. So they can’t lose money. The small growers get what they can get. And the Germans are happy to promote it as something exotic.
Aravinda:Do you think the damage to Darjeeling’s reputation with buyers has reached the point of no return, or is there some hope to revive this relationship and see what comes of it?
Anshuman: If I thought there was no chance I wouldn’t have gotten into all this.
I know that costs will increase. And I can only keep my fingers crossed that the labor union, the government will understand the plight of the industry and not try to impose such figures on us which are “unsustainable.”
Every time I go abroad, participate in a trade show, or at a conference, the word I hear the most is “sustainable”. And we have the gurus of the import trade give us long-winded sermons about how we need to ensure soil sustainability, water sustainability. I have only one question: What about the financial sustainability of the estates? Every time we try to bring up prices, we are told there is a war among supermarkets and we have to keep prices low. Consumers want everything, but don’t want to pay for it. What do we do? Either we pay the labor nothing, which is not possible in today’s India, or we lose money to a point where we are not sustainable. Plantations are going to lose out to tourism or some other crop and tea will be secondary. There are maybe 5 or 6 or 7 owners today who have a real passion for Darjeeling and a real commitment for Darjeeling. It’s in our blood. This is why Darjeeling is still alive. Otherwise, even on a macroeconomic level, there is no future for Darjeeling.
Aravinda: What about innovation in the tea itself?
Anshuman: Well, take the example of Tindharia. If I had tried to run this as a pure black tea garden, the garden wouldn’t have survived. You have to basically see the leaf profile and the quality profile of your estate. And you have to think about what kind of a product mix you want to have based on what quality output you can get from your garden at any given time during the year.
We can do green tea and we have enough challenges with green tea because the whole leaf green tea has a market. But 40-45% of the smaller grade, which is the broken leaf and fannings, has a very limited market.
Aravinda: So, is there a need for something like the Muscatel that sets Darjeeling apart from everybody?
Anshuman: All the new planting that has been done in Darjeeling uses clonal bushes. You hear fancy names like AV2, P123, etc, which are great denominators of quality in Darjeeling. But these are bushes with a very specific flavor profile. And the gardens in Nepal have very similar bushes and young bushes at that. And the thing about these bushes is, whether you are located at 2,000 feet altitude or 6,000 feet; or whether you are located on this side of the hill or the other side of the hill, your flavor character is going to be very similar. You might have a higher flavor or a lower less intense flavor but it’s going to be the same character. You’re not going to get a muscatel flavor from a clonal bush. The muscatel flavor comes from a China bush. And when you uproot your China bushes to plant clonal bushes, you are actually sacrificing the USP [unique sales proposition] of Darjeeling which is that Muscatel which you find in this bush. So we have to really strike that balance with keeping our China character which is something that Nepal can never compete with. That is what stands Darjeeling apart. I can understand replacing a lot of the Assam, the Assam hybrid bushes, with the clonal bushes. But I’m not really in support of replacing any good China sections with anything clonal.
Aravinda:What about the domestic market? There’s more talk about the domestic market these days than there ever has been. Do you think it’s not been explored enough and two, do you think the time has come, or is it just a desperate attempt to find a significant market?
Anshuman: So I have a cynical view. Nowadays I’m seeing a lot of people, producers are investing in their e-commerce operations and their website management. There are a lot of other companies, smaller startups, which are trying to be a B2C e-commerce operation. I don’t think most of them are asking themselves the question, ‘What sets me apart?’ They just think this is a good idea, let’s do it, let’s try to make a little bit of money, we don’t have an idea of what else to do.
Another category, which has done this in a bigger way, managed to get a hell of a lot of investor funding and they have their own USP. I quite admire what Vahdam Tea has done, for example, and the way they have positioned themselves in the US. But there are a lot of small startups who are really coming in the hope that they will get some footfalls, get acquired by somebody else, or let’s get some investor funding and make some money. I don’t know how much they really think they can really increase demand. And they’re starting off from a very low base of how much good tea they are selling on an e-commerce platform in India.
If you give me any growth number in terms of percentage, it means nothing; if you’re starting off with 5 metric tons of tea and you say we went to 500 metric tons, that’s something.
I think the Indian market has potential, there is no doubt about it. I think the pandemic has given an opportunity as well. Tea is associated with wellness. We all know the health benefits of tea. And we need to somehow combine the platform of health, great taste, and a lifestyle and build that story around tea. That’s a lot of hard work. I’m not sure how many people are really going to attempt to do that. I sincerely hope that given the employment numbers of tea, the fact that Darjeeling is so strategically located, that it is a flag bearer of quality for Indian tea, it’s a GI product for India, I truly hope that the government of India, will come and lend a hand because Darjeeling at the moment is struggling, after the kind of pitfalls it has faced, particularly during the strike of 2017 and the lockdown came right after, and then in 2021, the drought came. I don’t believe in government subsidies but right now, looking at the kind of situation we are facing, I truly hope the government will come up with some kind of scheme. It’s not about handouts, it’s about promotion.
What can save Darjeeling? Some help from the government for promotion, some kind of a development package as a one-off thing just to help Darjeeling stand up again from the three blows it has received in the last few years, taking that into account. We need to completely focus again on quality.
It’s also very clear that a tea garden will find it difficult to survive only as a tea garden. The government now allows you to use a part of your land for other activities, whether it is tea tourism or whatever. I think we have to all utilize our land and look at land parcels and also try to get revenue.
Aravinda: What do you make of the recent Tea Board mandate on the 50% production to be routed via auctions?
Anshuman: One of the problems with Indian tea, in general, is you have so many different marketing platforms. You have an auction that is over-regulated, micromanaged by the Tea Board. You have completely unregulated private sales where a producer can choose to give a 3-month credit to a buyer. You have a producer-exporter doing direct exports, you have a producer doing direct packaging for the domestic market. So in a multi-faceted marketing environment, what is the future of an over-regulated auction system by the Tea Board? We need the auction, for sure. But not with the current set of regulations and rules. This is something that the government has to take note of and completely deregulate and let the stakeholders run it.
The Tea Board has many more important things to do, such as concentrating on tea promotion.
Aravinda: Your acquisition of the gardens has brought some optimism to Darjeeling. Why is that?
Anshuman: Optimism came from the fact that there has been a lot of speculation as to what we have paid for the gardens. I refuse to go on record and confirm but it’s very clear that we have paid a hefty price. So a lot of the optimism came from other people who want to sell their garden and think now there will be a resurgence in the valuation of Darjeeling gardens. A conservative guy like me entering Darjeeling despite the odds will probably increase the prospect of others being able to sell their gardens at a reasonable price.
There was also some optimism from traditional tea purists who saw the garden changing hands from a group with no background or commitment to Darjeeling, to us, who really have a passion for Darjeeling and some understanding of it. I want to burst their bubble a little bit by saying that this acquisition was really not something my mind advised me to do.
Wherever we are today, as a group in terms of our financial standing, in terms of our business tactics, I owe a lot of this to Darjeeling. These gardens have also played a role in helping us achieve something. So I just told myself that if I am going to lose a lot of money, I am paying it back to Darjeeling to give it one shot.
When the gardens were owned by the Kejriwal family, I was deeply associated with these properties. And that is one of the reasons my heart took over because I have spent time in these gardens, I have bought thousands and thousands of tons of their teas over the years, and I have marketed these teas.
But should my acquisition give hope to people? God no!
There is optimism, but the optimism is for different reasons, some of which are selfish, some of which are daunting. As I said, I’m not here to make a statement. I know what I’m going to do. I have plans to make the gardens much better managed. They are already in play. We are seeing some differences at the ground level day by day. Other than that, is it going to be economically viable? I don’t know.
Kanoria with his wife, Vrinda and younger daughter, Parthivi.
*Beginning in 1983 growers in Darjeeling sought to register the 87 gardens there as a protected Geographical Indication. The European Union granted GI protection in 2011. Prior to that time, many teas sold as Darjeeling were blended with similar teas for consistency year to year, an accepted practice. In other instances, these teas were blended (up to 50%) with inferior teas and marketed as Darjeeling. The GI rules allowed a period of transition to deplete stock and then required blenders and growers to market only teas grown within the recognized boundaries as Darjeeling. Teas qualify for a seal of authenticity for marketing purposes and legal remedies if fraudulent brands are sold.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Jungpana and Goomtee Tea Estates
The two estates are located 12 kilometers from Kurseong in steep and remote terrain. Roads are primitive and the factory is connected through a snaking pathway, accessible only on foot. Jungpana, founded in 1931, is spread over 78 acres (32 hectares) at 3,300 to 4,900 feet above sea level. On arrival, visitors must climb more than 350 steep steps on a pathway to the garden factory that crosses a footbridge over Changey Khola, a small fast-moving mountain stream. Surrounding areas include the Goomtee Tea Estate, a 600-acre expanse of land with forests, mountain slopes, streams, waterfalls, and tea fields.
Philippe Juglar is president of Paris-based AVPA (Agence pour la Valorisation des Produits Agricoles) a non-governmental, non-profit organization that judges wine, chocolate, coffee, and teas best suited to local preferences. He joins Tea Biz to discuss what it takes to be a winner in the only “gastronomic” tea competition in a major consuming country that evaluates tea solely to promote the good practices of production and trade. The deadline to enter the 4th Teas of the World International Contest is Sept. 15, 2021.
Dan Bolton: Welcome back to the Tea Biz podcast. Will you share with listeners details about AVPA’s upcoming Teas of the World competition?
Philippe Juglar: Last year, we received more than 200 teas from more than 20 countries all over the world and we are very happy with that result for such a young contest. We hope this year to get 300 teas from 25 countries.
The most important participant in our competition are newcomers in the tea industry. This year, for instance, we have a tea from the UK. Great Britain is now a country producing tea in its Highlands.
We have a lot of teas from Taiwan, from Asia, from Africa, Eastern Africa, Western Africa. What is missing up to now is China, China is a bit shy, but I suppose it will come one way or the other. Japan is now very present in our competition.
In France, tea is a very new and dynamic industry we have very, very good tea amateurs. We are not great, great tea drinkers, but we are sharp tea drinkers. And we have very good teas in France now.
Dan:Which teas have been most successful in previous contests?
Philippe: Any type of tea is welcome our contest. We have categories for monocultural teas ? Camellia sinensis and Camellia assamica ? and we have categories for herbal teas, blended teas, perfumed [scented] teas.
In each category we judge aromas, taste and texture. What we are looking for is harmony, balance, and originality. We rather prefer controversial teas, a tea which may have scored 10 over 10 with three judges, yet scored maybe only a three or four over ten with two other judges. We are looking for teas with distinctive character rather than a standard tea. We prefer teas that are different from the average.
Dan: How does the tea industry benefit from AVPA’s annual contest?
Philippe: Agricultural product competitions are a part of the food industry. In Europe we have had contests for years, I would say for centuries, with wine, with olive oil, with cheese, and so on. When producers compete they share information and compare their own production against that of their friends and neighbors which are always different. Obviously, each producer is sure to be the best producer in the world, but it’s good to check it in front of other products. So, I will say the first point is that competitors can compare the quality of their products with other products.
A second, interesting point from the tester’s vantage, is the opportunity to see what the industry is offering to the world. Each year, we have very important buyers – when I say very important buyers – not only for the turnover they can do [earnings] but also for the level of quality they are seeking. The competition lets them compare what they are normally buying, with what they could buy from other countries or other producers, or from gardens that are new.
Once the judgments are returned, we try to help the happy growers that have received a medal in our competition to inform their final client [customers] of the quality of their offering to the market.
Contest winners are announced in October at a virtual award ceremony. Winning brands may display their award on their packaging.
Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products
Monovarietal teas are evaluated by a jury chaired by Lydia Gautier. Infusions (other than Camellia Sinensis) are evaluated by a jury chaired by Carine Baudry.
ATTENTION: AVPA makes everything to valorize the producers, many of them asked to extend the deadlines to have enough time to send their teas and herbal teas as in some areas the producers are just finishing their harvest. The August deadline has been extended samples must be in Paris before the 15th of September – Ksenia Hleap
How AVPA Elevates Origins
Recognition, professional education programs, and contests build self-esteem and economic success that directs a larger share of the value chain to the country of origin. “This is why we cling to local transformation of agricultural products so that producers benefit from the pursuit of excellence,” says AVPA President Philippe Juglar. Read more…
Juglar poses with winners of the 2018 contest.
Competition Tea
Tea competitions that “speak” for their respective markets are great for the industry. In the tea lands, skilled growers and tea makers can infinitely adjust their pluck, style, grade, and sort for export – but first, they must understand market preferences. In France AVPA judges companies from around the world for excellence “based on gastronomic rather than standardized refereeing.” Read more…
As athletes from around the world competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, tea lovers participated in an event of their own: the Japanese Tea Marathon.
The marathon included 15 days of online events that shone a spotlight on Japan’s teas, producers, and the 15 tea-producing regions. Led by the Global Japanese Tea Association and Japan Tea Central Council, tea marathoners learned about 30 Japanese teas, how to brew them, and where they’re grown.
Kyle Whittington, a Tea Biz contributor and host of the TeaBookClub, attended every tea marathon event, tasting 30 teas over 15 sessions. He gives the event a gold medal!
Listen to Tea Biz’s interview with Kyle Whittington:
Kyle Whittington on successfully finishing the Japanese Tea Marathon.Marathon hosts were members of the Global Japanese Tea Association
A Race for Tea Lovers
Jessica Natale Woollard: What was it about the Japanese Tea Marathon that inspired you to attend so diligently?
Kyle Whittington: It was the range of teas, that’s what really got me hooked. I have to admit, I fully intended not to attend all the sessions when I signed up for the Tea Marathon. But once I got started, I was so caught up with the variety and quality of the teas, I developed a serious case of FOMO and couldn’t miss a day! After the first few sessions, I thought, I have to attend tomorrow’s. The presentations, chats with the farmers, and videos, got me hooked into exploring each new tea region of Japan each day.
About midway through the marathon, I decided to sign up as a Pioneer Member with the Global Japanese Tea Association. I thought what they were doing, their passion, was inspiring, and I had to support it. Whenever I struggled to get up early to attend the marathon, making sure I turned up to support them was what spurred me on.
Jessica: Did you set up your own tea rituals when partaking in the tea marathon? For example, did you select specific vessels to use with certain teas or set up your space a certain way?
Kyle: I have a little bit of an admission here. I attended the first few events from the bath — with camera and microphone off and sticker over the camera on the iPad, just to be sure that I wasn’t flashing the world! I’m just not a morning person. So being compos mentis, awake and functioning for 8 am and looking respectable for the camera was not going to work for me and took some getting used to. My solution was to soak in the bath while I adjusted to the schedules. The first two or three sessions I did from the bath, and then got up and did the tea tastings downstairs. The rest of the sessions I did on my iPad while I did the washing up, made breakfast, and went through my morning routine. When it came to brewing the teas, then I would sit down, get out my nice Japanese tea ware and enjoy brewing the teas along with everybody else on the marathon.
That was really nice — delving into my collection and selecting pieces based on the tea we were brewing and its requirements for brewing, the recommendations the farmers gave about volume and water temperature. I got to use pieces I haven’t used in ages. It was so nice to do that and then post some pictures to Instagram.
The first day of the marathon was quite special as I had my first tea ceremony guests since before the first lockdown last year. I saved the teas from that day’s session to serve to my guests. I used the Fukamushicha from Kagoshima and brewed it cold to serve when they arrived as a refresher. I served it to my guests in the garden while we chatted. Later, we brewed the tea hot. I made a ponzu dressing (soy sauce and lemon), and we ate the tea leaves after brewing three infusions. It was a lovely touch to open the first day of the marathon in that special way.
Jessica: How did hearing from the tea producers right before you tried their teas influence the tasting experience?
Kyle: We heard from the farmers before and during the tasting, learning about their growing and processing. What I really enjoyed was them teaching us how to brew their teas. You can’t get much better brewing advice than that. It was interesting to explore with them their individual approaches and practices. We learned so much from them — new and interesting brewing methods for specific teas. They had great fun showing us the special tea ware they had developed with local potters specifically for those teas that they grow. You were actually learning how to use the tea at home from the person who grew it.
Jessica: Did any particular farmer’s story capture your imagination?
Kyle: Several! Their passion and dedication really shone through, as did that of the marathon organizers. I was particularly caught by the story of Otoyo Goishicha Kyodo Kumiai from Kochi prefecture. He makes Goishicha, a rare fermented tea. He was the last farmer making it at one point and saved it from extinction. There are now three producers, but he saved this tea; it would no longer exist otherwise. It was captivating.
Slabs of dried, fermented Goishicha. Photo credit: Simona Suzuki
I also really enjoyed Forthees from Nagasaki. We heard a really lovely story of four young tea farmers who joined together to open a factory and create their special teas, which we tasted. It was just lovely, the way they’d come together in their community to push forward and promote tea together. We tasted their Tamaryuokucha and Bo Hojicha, made from the stems from matcha production.
Jessica: Is there one tea in particular that, because of the marathon, is on your list to explore further?
Kyle: How to pick just one? I might have to pick two or three.
Goishicha absolutely! I only heard about this rare, fermented Japanese tea last year. I was excited when I saw it was on the list for the Japanese Tea Marathon, and I was looking forward to hearing from the producer. I loved it. It was amazing. Absolutely delicious. I drank it all day; it’s one of those teas you just keep on brewing. It’s way at the top of my shopping list.
Sannen Bancha, note the unusual inclusion of thick, woody stems. Photo by Denis Torres.
I also really enjoyed the Sannen Bancha, which I’m sipping as we’re chatting. It’s made from tea bushes that have been left to grow for three years before being harvested and processed. It has huge big chunks of stem in it, and it tastes really delicious. It’s sweet and gorgeous.
The other one that stood out for me was the Gyokuro from Yoshida Meicaen in Kyoto. It was amazing. I had goosebumps when I took the first sip. It was one of those incredibly amazing teas.
Gyokuro from Yoshida Meicaen in Kyoto. Photo credit: Kyle Whittington
Jessica: After this rigorous test of your tea endurance, are there any lessons learned you can share with our listeners?
Kyle: One thing that really came through is the importance of brewing techniques. Understanding each individual tea and its brewing requirements and characteristics. Especially with the Japanese teas. With the farmers showing us different ways to brew, it showed how much a difference it makes. The Japanese method of boiling the water and then cooling it to the required temperature actually makes a huge difference to the taste of the tea and how it brews rather than what we tend to do, which is heat the water right to the required temperature.
I hope we’re going to have more of these events in the future, given that we’re used to online events now. With any event like this, I think it’s important to find a way to make the structure and the time work for you — like I did, by attending from the bath! When events are digital, we have flexibility that we wouldn’t have if we were attending in person.
Explore Kyle’s favorite Japanese teas — Yokuro, Goishicha, Sannen Bancha — and all the other teas from the Japanese Tea Marathon on the Japanese Tea Association website.
The Global Japanese Tea Association reports that association membership increased by 25% during the course of the marathon, with some 89 new member registrations. GJTA has therefore, thanks to the Japanese Tea Marathon, achieved their target of reaching 100 Pioneer Members, those who were the first to trust in and support the association.
