Vivek Lochan on status of Indian tea industry

Doke tea images provided by Vivek

After talking with Vivek Lochan recently about how social media group discussion goes, mostly on Facebook, I asked if he could fill in some background on the Indian tea industry in a Q & A form.  These are the kinds of ideas that should come up in online discussion, but it's hard to get starting points to develop to that.  

Most vendors and producers are posting online related to marketing, and tea enthusiasts might just show what they're drinking.  Marketing is fine, and it's interesting hearing about different tea types, or preferences, but it tends to not extend to a deeper level.  

This partly relates to me being the only moderator for a large Facebook tea group, International Tea Talk.  There had been interesting discussions there about a range of themes in the past, but it has shifted to occurring more in other places now, as tends to happen.  Reddit and Discord are active, for example.

For introduction Vivek is from a well-known tea producer family that owns and runs the Doke tea plantation.  His father, a main founder, is Rajiv Lochan, who has been very familiar in specialty tea circles for quite awhile.

This is their Doke website; there is more background there, and it lists some related social media channel contacts.  This blog post works as an intro to that background story.  This is a review in this blog about their Black Fusion flagship product, or one version of it, from back in 2021.

There is always a chance that different people could see different aspects or shifts in local tea industries differently, but to me it's quite interesting to consider thoughts from someone with more local area exposure than almost any of us will ever have, even given that kind of interpretation concern.  

I've discussed local tea industry themes in India quite a bit over the years, most in relation to discussions with Suzana Syiem, a close friend.  We even talked to Rajiv once about related themes, back in 2021 when Covid disruptions made talking to people online seem like a helpful outlet.  Most of this matches and extends what I'd heard before.

Vivek's input on tea industry status in India

How is specialty tea uptake going in India?  Do you see differences in how preferences are changing in other places?

Specialty tea is slowing increasing in demand and interest with customer across the country. People are willing to experiment more and with better buying power, they can easily afford to try more than once. The increase in availability of teas with flavours – natural like fruits and herbs or like mocktails kind of stuff – also helps attracting a newer audience of tea lovers who can’t necessarily be called tea lovers.

Specialty tea quality development often seems to relate to two different factors, to small, private producers developing a more artisan approach to making tea, and to experimentation and development by larger producers.  Is one of these inputs having the most impact, or others?

I think the abundance of small, private producers is having more impact. The larger producer is usually under economic pressure to produce more and sell more. The smaller producer usually doesn’t have as much pressure and is more open to experimentation to set himself apart from the crowd. 

These small growers sometimes mimic styles from other countries / areas but that is only apparent to a person who is well versed with teas from foreign nations. Most people are appreciative of efforts to partially ‘copy’ production styles while keeping the end result unique. Something like our Black Fusion from Doke seems to be well appreciated. 

Black Fusion, from that earlier review

In different places different approaches to promote awareness seem to work, eg. public tastings, or media articles.  What seems to make a difference there, and what doesn’t work?

Media articles, semi private tasting sessions, food pairings and free sample distributions seems to be working quite well. We are trying to get more hotels involved with setting up tea tasting and food pairing sessions so we can attract more people to the tea world. Larger public tastings don’t seem to work because then it can be difficult to engage with people. Engagement is important to have both the drinker and the brewer understand what each other are looking for - kind of like wine tasting sessions. 

Are cultivars in use continually evolving?  Can you add a bit about that?

The TRA is always working to introduce new cultivars or better the current crop of cultivars available [the Tea Research Association, a government run institution under the Tea Board of India]. They have certainly come a very long way in the past decade or so in making the tea crops more pest / insect resistant and sturdier against drought. Constant evolvement of the cultivars is very important.

I seem to recall mention of a specially designed sprinkler system doubling as irrigation and offsetting high temperature impact on tea plants at Doke.  Is that accurate?  Can you describe this more?

Yes – we have a new government sponsored irrigation system at Doke which has been working wonders for us for the past couple of years. Upkeep has been a little bit expensive at the beginning with sprinklers failing and pipes bursting but overall, it has been a great addition. The new sprinkler system has all its piping underground, so they are permanently placed unlike the old system which needed everything moved as and when required. Set up time and wastage is almost nil now. 

The older sprinklers had a larger coverage area per sprinkler with a stronger throw while the new system relies on smaller sprinklers creating an almost mist like situation. This results in better absorption of water in the leaves and in the ground. The sprinklers are situated according to a design generated by a computer program that takes into account terrain features like trees and elevation changes.

Are changes related to climate change impacting tea production?

Climate change has very severely impacted tea production throughout the country this year. A dry winter coupled with a very hot and dry summer had decreased growth very sharply up till May. The situation started getting better end May onwards with some rain showers. June and July has been much better with constant rain and some sunshine in between. The tea bushes are still under stress due to almost 6 months of rain deficiency, but the situation seems to be improving. 

How many flushes or harvest periods can you harvest from tea plants?

In North India, the tea season usually starts in March and ends in November end. Old hands like to say that it starts with the Holi Festival and ends with the Diwali Festival. This is true as both festivals are based on the lunar calendar. When either festival goes up or down in the date range, the tea harvest season seems to follow. Of course it is not an exact science but has been pretty accurate.

Can you add some description of background on major plantations in Darjeeling transferring from family ownership to corporate ownership?  Is this a concern for continuity of Darjeeling tea production?

Almost all the tea gardens in Darjeeling today are corporate owned with a head office in Siliguri or Kolkata and a managerial team at the garden itself. The only family owned and family run tea garden in Darjeeling today is Giddapahar. Both brothers look after all the aspects of the tea estate directly without employing any manager level employees. They make it seem easy to sustain a tea garden in the current economic situation but I know that it is anything but!

What factors are changing the local tea industry there most, among new themes like sustainability, fair trade, and safety (related to pesticide use and testing)?

The Food Safety Authority of India has recently highlighted the pesticide use but that is a very difficult situation to tackle. The Tea Board regulates what pesticides can be used in tea gardens and the dosage as well. A blanket ban is not possible as some pesticides banned by the Tea Board are allowed in other fields. Pesticide use also cannot be checked regularly at the field level. Soil testing takes time and labs are not very common. Made tea testing can be expensive and not every lot can be tested. People are becoming more aware about these things.

Are public sales platforms like Amazon—different variations of that—changing the tea sales landscape in India?

Amazon and other online platforms are certainly extremely helpful to market teas and find retail customers. We are seeing more and more of our customers moving online even if it is just to have an online presence. People are willing to purchase online and can find a wider range online compared to physical stores. 

What potential changes or developments could best improve the lives of tea plantation workers?

The biggest change would be to increase the wages of the workers, but the producer is barely able to make ends meet at the moment anyway. The consumer, the middleman, the wholesale buyer is certainly not interested at all in increasing their prices or reducing their margins. The tea gardens already provide subsidized rations, medical facilities and housing facilities but those can be a bit basic sometimes. The government could do more to help –  most of their programs don’t seem to be able to reach the right people.

Lào Cai Old Tree Black from Vietnam (2023)

 

This is an interesting looking black tea that I ordered along with the sheng I've just reviewed from Viet Sun.  For whatever reason black tea is the main other type I've stuck with as a preference beyond sheng, even though I drank a lot more oolong earlier on, and can still appreciate versions of it.  I especially like Yunnan style black teas, by definition Dian Hong, since that more or less translates to Yunnan black tea.  

Just to fill in the extra background usually what is sold as Dian Hong is a certain style, most often all leaf material or leaf with some bud, relatively fully oxidized, and oven dried versus sun dried.  The slightly less oxidized versions that are sun dried, which leaves potential for development through aging for a few years, are often called Shai Hong, or sun-dried tea (maybe just translating as dried?  I don't speak any Chinese language variations).

I'll try to keep this post simple, to just describe the tea.  If it helps describe it to comment on oxidation level, or something such, I'll go there, but it would be nice to just say how it is this time.  Here is the Viet Sun description, which I have read before tasting this time (just to mix up the process):

Our first black (red) tea from Lào Cai Province! A buddy hồng trà from old/ ancient trees growing at 1800m in Bát Xát, Lào Cai. The people living in this tea area are primarily of the Red Dao ethnicity.

A fruity, honey cacao fragrance emerges upon first infusion. This tea brews up quickly into a rich crimson golden soup. The flavors I pick up are fruit jam, chicory, malt, cacao, honey with warming spices. This tea has a chicory dark chocolate bitterness with a rich lingering effect in the throat with and an uplifting, focused qi.

Medium oxidation, medium rolling time/ pressure, lower than average air drying temp/ longer drying time. A great option for a morning pick me up or any time when you need a burst of clear headed energy.

This tea goes many rounds. I like to brew it at 85-100 degrees for shorter and then longer steeps...

Sounds good, and it looks nice and smells great in a dry leaf form.  It smells like plum.

Review:

first infusion:  still opening up, but quite pleasant already.  Rich fruit tones and just a trace of cacao already; those will probably evolve.  Feel is rich too, but that should thicken.  

Amount of malt tone present seems to mostly define whether a tea seems similar to Dian Hong or good orthodox Assam to me, and this contains a little, but for that being moderate it's closer to Yunnan style.  People might associate a characteristic dryness or feel structure with even good Assam but really to me that varies by version (so much for keeping this simple, only a description).  Dian Hong often contains type-typical roasted yam or sweet potato, and I can notice that in this, but it's secondary to a rich fruit tone range, and cacao stands out just as much.

second infusion:  I didn't brew this for long, maybe just over 10 seconds, but intensity is pronounced.  Warmer tones and mineral stands out more with brewing a tea stronger; to keep the other range of emphasis on lighter and brighter range I would need to brew this quite fast at this maxed-out proportion, which is my typical approach (probably 8 grams in a 100 ml gaiwan; most of what would fit).

Savory range picks up, along the line of sun-dried tomato.  Fruit is still pronounced, but I would expect dried fruit tones would stand out more brewed quite light.  This would have to work well brewed Western style, but one would have to be careful about intensity, getting that dialed in to not ruin the effect.  For me Gongfu brewing would be a more natural approach.  Cacao (chocolate, basically) is often a dominant flavor aspect when it's present, but it's a supporting aspect in this.

third infusion:  I went light on this round, to check how that does change things, maybe even a little too light, not long over 5 seconds.  It does draw out a lot more of the fruit; the plum nature in the dried leaf scent finally shows through as a main flavor.  Then a roasted sweet potato flavor along with that is pleasant, and a much lighter cacao aspect is still there, but it wouldn't be noticeable without expecting it.  

The feel is still rich, even though this is brewed quite light, and some aftertaste still carries over.  Often Dian Hong contains this kind of pleasant flavor aspect range but often it's really subtle related to producers using summer harvest material for it, while spring and fall leaves go to making sheng pu'er.  This is pretty intense black tea; you can't get away with 5 second infusions of lots of types, and still get ok intensity.

Sweetness level is good; that's implied by the flavors I keep mentioning but I didn't actually say it.

fourth infusion (back to 10 to 15 second infusion time):  this is balancing better and better.  It's complex enough that it starts to taste like some sort of flavored Christmas blend, there is so much going on.  Cacao stands out more than ever, and the fruit tone shifts a little towards a dried tangerine peel effect.  Roasted sweet potato (I think it's that, not yam, but flavor can fall in between those) fades back to form part of a nice base.  Warm mineral is also nice, very moderate in level, but pleasant as a supporting tone.  Oddly all that integrates so well that at the same time it's complex it comes across as all one thing.  It's an interesting effect.

fifth infusion:  not so different than last round.  Warm tones might be increasing slightly, that one "tastes like tea" flavor range, or I guess that could be interpreted as an aromatic spice input in this.  This is probably a good place to leave off taking notes.  It's probably only half finished related to infusion count but the aspects may or may not go through more interesting transitions, versus the balance of what was already expressed just shifting. 

Conclusion:

It's good.  Never mentioning malt again after that first comment related to not noticing much for that.  For some that would be negative, but for me for liking Dian Hong style better it works better.

The next several infusions were just as good, maintaining good intensity and positive flavor balance.  It dropped off fast when that intensity wore off but a couple of extra long infusions were still nice.  This is a really nice breakfast tea, although it's also good enough to be appreciated as a solo session version.  The style matches what I like most in black teas but I think anyone could relate to it; preference wouldn't limit who could appreciate it.  For me this is the kind of tea I could drink a few times a week for a year, and not get tired of it, but of course that part just depends.

Value is quite good for this version.  It's in a range that a lot of Dian Hong falls into as well, but quality and novelty vary a lot for those versions.  I'd expect most costing a comparable amount would give up a lot for intensity, complexity, and novelty.  It is still just black tea, and those only get so refined or novel, but this checks most of the boxes for pleasant character and good balance.  Someone looking for malt tones or heavier feel structure should be drinking good orthodox Assam instead.

a different cat visited for this tasting

Assam green and silver needle teas

 

Not long ago I reviewed an exceptional quality version of Assam whole-leaf black tea, sent by a producer friend Maddhurjya to enjoy and to review.  These were sent with it, a green and silver needle version.  They look amazing, and they should be amazing.

As with the first post I'll keep the back-story here to a minimum.  Maddhurjya started working on exploring better quality tea production, new types of processing and equipment use, and organic tea production quite a number of years ago.  He might've been somewhat new to it when we first met, something like a half dozen years ago, but he was making quite good tea then, and it has only improved since.  There's more on him and that project is on FB and Instagram.

It's now on a level with better teas from anywhere else.  The highest end Chinese teas tend to draw on an older and more developed tea tradition, with the absolute best tea versions the result of many decades of tea growing and processing, or really centuries, so the absolute highest quality Chinese teas tend to have an edge on others from elsewhere, but that matters more for some tea types.  Black and green teas are more basic in general style (as I see it), and white (the silver needle) is the least processed broad type, so it might vary a little less.  Differences related to terroir and plant type issues might stand out more than processing being dialed into optimum for these.  But we'll see.

I haven't been drinking much green or white tea for years, but many cycles of trying many teas from a lot of different areas over a decade give me confidence that my judgment will be reasonably informed.  Related to brewing process I'll go with a Gongfu approach, and a pretty high proportion, as is normal for me.  Brewing water temperature might be a little high, possibly around 90, or maybe down into the mid to upper 80s as a thermos I'm using sheds some heat, which is probably not optimum for the green tea version.  But I'm a sheng pu'er drinker, so if it includes a little extra astringency edge, extra mineral base, or if a heavier vegetal tone stands out a little I'll be fine.  It would be sweeter and lighter brewed 10 degrees cooler, which I'll probably be able to comment on a little as I go.

I should mention that some people consider silver needle a certain style of white buds-only tea, and often silver tips is used as a more general term.  Silver needle is often used for the English derived name for a Fuding, Fujian tea version, based on plant type and growing conditions that result in a larger bud form.  I don't even get caught up in naming issues people far more often consider important or restricted, like pu'er (although I do respect the registered Yunnan-origin only convention by awkwardly calling other versions "pu'er-like), or Oriental Beauty, which isn't registered to describe only Taiwanese teas.  I don't have any conclusively grounded opinion on whether this is truly silver needle or instead should be called silver tips, but I'm pretty sure that silver needle is closer to the Oriental Beauty example, not a registered and restricted naming convention, so I think it's fine.

Review:

green tea:  I brewed this round a bit fast, not trying to compensate for the tea needing time to become soaked, instead going with a first light introductory round instead.  Range is pleasant so far, light and sweet.  This tea could have far less of an astringency issue related to being in a mostly whole leaf form.  Umami already stands out, even though the tea is brewed quite light.  I'll save adding a flavor list for next round.

silver needle:  a lot of mineral base stands out in this; interesting.  Often buds-only white teas can be subtle to the point of not tasting like much, with some vague floral sweetness coming across.  That's not how this is.  Sweetness is still pronounced, and there's plenty of floral range there, but at least right away a mineral base stands out most.  It reminds me of how Nepal white teas often strike an amazing complex balance, including all that I've mentioned, and maybe even a bit of citrus.  For people familiar with good Nepal white tea that's clearly very high praise.  This should be interesting.

green tea, second infusion:  I brewed this more like 20 seconds, if anything perhaps slightly over optimum, but it will avoid another comment about these needing another round to get started.  Umami, underlying mineral, and heavier flavor range really stand out in this.  I think it's already to the point where using nearly 90 C water is pulling flavor range to a heavier, less bright and sweet range.  I'll cool the next round to experiment on that, mixing in just a little room temperature water (not sciencey, or optimum, but it'll work).  Floral tone is a main input, along with umami, and from there heavier vegetable range stands out.  It's hard to place, non-distinct, maybe as close to cooked okra as anything else.  I'll keep working on a more detailed flavor list.

silver needle:  warmth, sweetness, and depth really bumped up in this tea.  It's not really that close to Nepal white, which is lighter in form, with flinty mineral, light floral, towards a light citrus edge; that was only similar to the early round profile, it seems.  A much warmer range of floral tone and citrus both really kick in, but it's more like a warmer orchid scent than a lighter version of that, and more like a tangerine than a sweet and light orange.  Rich feel rounds out the experience; for still developing this has a lot going on.  There's even a hint of drier edge, relating either to oxidation input or to a natural mineral flavor tone (feel and flavor ranges tend to naturally couple in standard ways).

green tea, third infusion:  cooling the water (mixing it) did shift results a little, but not too much.  Heavier mineral and vegetal flavors still stand out, along with sweetness, and rich floral range.  I brewed this for a bit under 10 seconds; infusion strength is fine for both even brewed fast.  I won't pin down floral or mineral range much, which are hard to describe, but I will attempt to say more about the vegetal range.  There's a grass aspect to it, but it's complex, and not mostly that.  Vegetable range could be fairly close to okra still.  That gets odd because it's not a heavy, cooked vegetable flavor, but who is familiar with eating raw okra?  It seems like what is happening relates to a lot of range combining.  Rich and lighter floral tones seem to mix, along with a lot of mineral base, grass, some vegetable, and some holy basil spice range.  It's intense, but it's pleasant for being such a clean effect, with decent balance.

I've mentioned many times that green tea isn't my absolute favorite range, which I suppose could seem odd given that I drink mostly young or slightly aged sheng pu'er, which is closest to that.  I don't hate the entire flavor profile range, I just don't like the straight-grass effect, or more one dimensional vegetable flavor inputs.  Sheng often tastes floral, and essentially never like grass or vegetables, although characteristic astringency and mineral base can overlap with some green tea range, and unusual pine-like aspect can enter in (which I just noticed in a Jing Mai version two days ago).  For this green tea being complex, generally positive, and balanced I like it.  I'd probably like a sheng version that's this high in quality and distinctive better, but that's how type preferences and acclimation works.

silver needle:  this is richer, sweeter, heavier on rich floral tones and warm citrus fruit, and thicker in feel.  I think this would naturally appeal to a broader range of people; there is no conflict with aspect preference range to get in the way, it's just good.  It's definitely not subtle or wispy.  This was even brewed for 10 seconds or less; pushing it would draw out even more intensity, although lighter flavor balance would give way to heavier range if you did that, to some extent.  I should push the next round a little to check on that, since I've just brewed these quite light.  It will be more of a test of the green tea; I don't think that you could easily ruin this tea with brewing variations.

green tea, fourth infusion:  I cooled the water even more by mixing one third room temperature version; this will be brewed quite cool, maybe even under a 70 C relative optimum (160 F or below).  Ordinarily that would impact intensity, but I've let these brew for more like 20 seconds, probably just under that.

It's lighter and sweeter, for sure, with feel range not diminishing at all, or the heavy mineral base flavors.  Interesting!  If someone absolutely wanted to keep the heavy grass and vegetal range in check this is the way, use fairly cool water, maybe even dropping slightly below 70 C.  I'd probably see using 75 to 80 C as an optimum, and might even go with 85, accepting some heavier flavors that I don't love as much as a trade-off for bumping intensity way up, even brewed fast.  Sweet floral tone does come across well in this round, with an even stronger mineral base, so it's not overly light, but for being a sheng pu'er drinker I'm accustomed to intensity, which sticks around even with fast and light infusions.

silver needle:  not changed, really; the last description still works.  Heavy floral tone might be bumping up as the sweet citrus drops off, but it's still similar.  I'll probably do one more round to check on changes, back to brewing the green tea hot, and leave off taking notes.  These teas are not half finished yet though; cutting off writing is about keeping this length moderate, and about later transitions not being as interesting to me as describing the basic character of the teas.

green tea, fifth infusion:  the heavier flavors punch is back, related to using quite hot water again.  I suppose it's nice that the flavor can be that dialed into different ranges like that, if one likes.  Other tea types tend to not work out like that; you can shift the range of experience, but not necessarily the basic flavor profile.  The grass and vegetable might seem a bit much to some but to me it's balanced well enough with heavy mineral base, umami, and equally pronounced floral range input.  I like that feel structure too; it has an edge to it, brewed hot and somewhat intense, but again I'm familiar with teas including intense feel along with intense flavors.  

In discussing what I like about sheng with a Yunnan producer friend he guessed that people might just adjust to liking a little more complexity and intensity, then a little more again, until they need a lot of both to get their fix.  Oolongs are plenty complex and interesting, with full feel, but once you follow that pattern it might not be enough, since they tend to give up both--related to sheng--in exchange for exhibiting refinement and flavor aspect range that's a more natural fit to ordinary, unconditioned preference.  Bitterness alone is a big part of that (which of course I've not mentioned in relation to this green tea; they tend to not be bitter).  People new to drinking beer would probably love a mild amber more and then later on IPA and pilsner can somehow seem more appealing. 

It's interesting the bag it came in has a common type of orchid on the front, and the "flavour of Assam" branding.  There is plenty of floral range in both these teas.  This seems to be transitioning more to green beans in later rounds, so there's other range too, but it works better for it all balancing.

silver needle:  not transitioning too much, but a little.  The gradual, subtle drift towards warmer floral tones might be leading into a light spice-like range now.  For this tea being so approachable, while still being complex and intense, you could try out pushing it with full boiling point brewing water and see what that changes.  

It might work as an optimum to start cooler, maybe in an 85 C range, and then keep bumping temperature as intensity fades just a little.  This is still plenty intense, and you can add more to that just by lengthening brewing time, but drawing out warmer tones and a touch more astringency could be good--in the form of feel depth at this lighter level--as the tea softens further and narrows in flavor range.  At five infusions in it's far from fading away, so I'm talking here about messing around to experience change and an optimum.  Or it's great like this, or surely brewed hotter; this is the opposite case of when I'm describing how one might get a decent but mediocre tea to give up a bit more intensity, more about how one might try out a finer level adjustment of brewing process just to highlight what is already present.

Conclusion:

I liked the silver needle more; that really stood out for complexity, intensity, and flavors being in a very positive range.  I liked the green tea more than I like an average good-quality green tea version, and if I was a green tea drinker this would all be framed in completely different context, much more positively.  It's a green tea version that a sheng pu'er drinker could appreciate, but they would still probably like sheng pu'er of equivalent good quality even more.  Drifting off the subject a little, I tend to like sheng versions that seemed to have been heated a bit too much, spoiling a lot of the long term aging potential, and shifting the aspect range, but they can be nice as very young / new versions.

It's interesting considering if these were better than I expected, or different in any way.  I thought that they would be quite good, so that matches.  This white tea intensity was a pleasant surprise; fine bud content white tea can be intense, as this was, but often that comes with negative or neutral aspect range trade-off, for example the mineral tone not integrating as well as this did, or giving up brighter floral and fruit range.  You usually don't get that kind of balance across a range in white teas; it's either mostly a very pleasant sweet and floral high end, or a deeper base joins much less of that.  That's why Nepal white teas really stand out, but they often express a brighter, lighter-tone range, light floral, and bright citrus, not the warm and deeper range.

Probably I'll come to love this green tea more as I try it a few more times, and automatically dial in brewing better, versus messing with it round to round.  To me green and black teas can tend to be more basic in range expressed, which can still work out as a positive experience, in a way that can work really well drank along with food.  I still drink sheng with breakfast almost every day, or black tea, oolong, or shu if I feel like it, but that's not really about setting up an optimum pairing.  I eat plain foods, breakfast cereal, toast, or fruit, and the sheng is often out of balance related to intensity, even brewed light.  I probably should buy more black tea than I tend to, but I often end up reaching for sheng anyway.  It'll be nice to have a couple more options to mix in, while I have these teas.

Specialty whole-leaf Assam from Maddhurjya

Maddhurjya Gogoi, a tea producing friend in Assam, recently sent me some tea to try and review.  It's been awhile since I've tried Assam on this level, or any Assam, really.  I've been through a few cycles of checking out teas from there, so the range is familiar, but I've been mostly on sheng pu'er for a number of years now.  I've already tried this tea, before tasting it to write review notes, so I know how it works out; it's pretty good, as I would've expected.

I met Maddhurjya on a visit here once before; he's such a nice guy.  Their tea production theme and philosophy is a familiar one, moving to create much better quality, organically produced teas from plants that were producing more ordinary versions earlier on.  They've been at it awhile, allowing time for experimenting with different processing techniques, changing processing equipment use (much earlier on), or even changing plant type inputs.  We didn't discuss all that again; this will just be about the tea.

Maddhurjya is second from right, beside Kittichai, the Jip Eu shop owner

The packaging mentions a number of branding and company names; it's described as Lu Ma Whole Leaf Assam Orthodox, Hand Crafted Black Tea, from MG TE, produced by Chah Bari, operated by Gogoi and Sons, under Assam Teehaus.  The last one is familiar.  They're in Dabohibil Village (Assam, of course).

In the past their tea versions have held their own against any other highest quality Assam I've tried.  Next one might wonder about placing that in relation to Darjeeling, or Chinese teas, or from elsewhere.  Assam is interesting and novel for including a variation of maltiness that comes across much differently in whole-leaf, higher quality versions than in relatively ground leaf tea forms.  The astringency drops out almost completely, reduced to a fullness of mouthfeel effect, so that flavor input stands alone more, combined with better sweetness and other range.  Flavors tend to include dried fruit along with a mineral undertone base.

I've still not covered if the quality level or general appeal can match that of good black tea elsewhere.  Style and aspect variations stand out more than quality level, which varies within any kinds of categories.  To me it's fair to either associate or separate whole-leaf tea production from other quality inputs, depending on what you mean, how you want to use that umbrella term (quality).  Broken leaf tea tends to not be as good as whole leaf versions, although there would be plenty of exceptions to that on both ends, just amazing broken or cut up leaf tea (like most tea from Japan, for example), or plenty of whole leaf versions that just aren't that good. 

Beyond that, comparing like for like, more whole leaf versions from Assam versus Darjeeling, China, Taiwan, Thailand, or wherever else, quality can vary, but in general aspects shift by local plant type, growing conditions, and processing inputs, more than some from a location tends to be better or worse (as represented by the best versions, of course).  Darjeeling doesn't express the same flavor range, or as much intensity (at least in one sense), but refined and very pronounced fruit flavors with good sweetness can stand out more.  Nepal teas can be fantastic in a different way, maybe a little closer to Darjeeling in character, but also just their own thing.

This tea description will help place all that.  I'll brew it Gongfu style, which is a normal approach for me for higher quality, whole leaf black teas.  Water is not far off boiling, and proportion higher than most people would use, probably 7 grams for a 100 ml gaiwan, brewing in less water than that, since that measurement tends to relate to the volume to the top, not how much you use.

Review:

First infusion:  malt hits you first; the usual.  Of course it's a soft and mild version of malt, not the type with a bit of edge, that seems to somehow pair with the astringency.  The depth of this tea is nice, the way layers of aspects combine to provide a really complex experience.  Warm mineral tones seem to support it as a base, but there is range one might interpret as either aromatic tropical wood or spice.  Mind you this tea is just getting started; it's not even fully wetted yet.

Fruit isn't as pronounced, at least yet, but one part tastes a little like dried tamarind.  Even though this first round is brewed a little light the feel is already rich and full, and aftertaste lingers on.  It's hard to describe why that matters in tea experience; how it supports a more complete experience.  The tea drinking experience can seem more limited without those extra dimensions, as a quick flash of a few positive flavors, versus an experience of more depth, when they're present (fuller feel and aftertaste).

I just reviewed two Chinese oolong versions, presented as being two different quality levels by the vendor, or at least that was implied in a cost difference.  A Tie Guan Yin version didn't include any more aftertaste experience than this, even though usually that's more noteworthy in that range of oolongs than in good Indian black teas, and then the other, a Dan Cong, compared more favorably.  

some color difference is from inconsistent camera settings, which I'm not editing to correct

Second infusion:  depth picks up, which wasn't exactly a limitation that first round.  What I'm describing as warm mineral tones, working as a base, combined with dark tropical wood or spice range, similarly more a context background than forward element, really needs even more unpacking, but I'm not sure if I can add a list of extra descriptions or concepts to help with that.  It's interesting how really good Darjeeling can seem to dazzle you with a complex range of pronounced, higher end fruit and floral tones, with pleasant deeper range supporting and balancing that, along with great sweetness, and then this is the opposite; the depth itself stands out.  The higher end might be drifting some to a warm dried citrus peel aspect, with dried tamarind fruit still present, but not overly pronounced.  Then that deeper range is more complex and intense.

I hadn't really thought of all this in those terms before but this may relate to what I love so much about Dian Hong, Yunnan black tea, that it covers both ranges equally.  Some versions can have a nice forward aspect, with less base, and it's more common for others to include a lot of warmer, deeper structure, mineral tones, mild and deep fruit elements, earthy range, etc., missing balance in what I'm describing spatially as a high end.  But often it just balances.  The different flavor range of roasted yam, roasted sweet potato, cacao, and mild spice is well suited for expression as pronounced aspects and deeper tones.

Back to this version, it's not unbalanced, because sweetness and lighter flavors are also present.  But one more cacao element, a touch of raisin, or a little extra other fruit or spice would balance it to expressing forward notes just as much as depth.  Often the more forward aspects can fade while depth picks up over rounds; it will be interesting to see how this changes in relation to that, if the deeper tones really dominate more later, or if the opposite somehow occurs.

third infusion:  the more forward flavor aspects transitioning round to round offsets some of the pattern I'm describing here, the depth standing out more.  There is still a faint edge of warm dried citrus in this, and more that relates to something like dried tamarind (more to place that range; it might differ slightly from that), but more of an autumn leaf tone is picking up, a sweetness and richness across an unusual vegetal range, that's really in between fruit and vegetal ranges.

Permit me a tangent about fallen leaves; the scent of tropical tree and plant leaves is much different than the range of those I experienced living in places like Pennsylvania and Colorado.  PA had deep and rich, very complex, tree vegetation range, so the fragrance of walking in the woods in the fall, or even spring and summer, was very layered and complex.  It's drier and less heavily forested in the high mountains in Colorado, so more spice-like, subtle, lighter fallen leaf scents would stand out.  Since you adjust to the scent range you happen to be in, just as your eyes can relate equally well to a broad range of light levels, to some extent all this would become transparent, just the intensity range you're within just then.  

The tropics are something else.  Vegetation has a sweeter, more floral oriented scent range.  It gives up the depth of a heavier, richer PA forest tone, and doesn't settle on the same lighter, almost spice-like range of CO forests, but in one sense fragrance is much more pronounced.  Sweeping the leaves in the driveway almost makes you want to brew that and try it out.  Some of that is from a range of types of flowers thriving at different times, or aromatic components of trees covering more range.  Back in Hawaii that tied to seed pods seemingly related to tamarind or other fruits, but here in Bangkok the gardens at the house grow dozens of kinds of plants, papaya, banana, lime, and mango, flowering vines, palms, basil, and so on.  

The depth of this tea ties to all that; in a sense it might be a mix of layers of tones that comes across as a base due to the diversity, since it's not that 3 or 4 of those stands out to seem more forward.

fourth infusion:  I brewed this a little lighter, not varying infusion time to see how results vary, but it did work out like that.  Brewed light the lighter flavors stand out more, and the warmer depth is less pronounced.  I think this is more in line with how a lot of people brew most Chinese teas, to try to be clear.  Intensity is still fine, but it would be easy for someone acclimated to mild black tea to like theirs brewed stronger.  

Getting back to a flavor-list approach a round later might help keep this reading length in check, and describe transition patterns better.  I'll get back to a 20-some second infusion time next round, brewing it on the stronger side again, since that works better as an experiential optimum for me.

fifth infusion:  fruit range seemed to shift the most.  What had been dried tamarind with some dried citrus peel might have transitioned a little towards plum.  Of course heavier flavors picked up too, from increasing brewed strength, back to warm mineral tone standing out.  

I'm not mentioning malt so much, for starting out by saying that's the main flavor aspect, right?  It's there too, but it settles into more of a mid-range background context; all the rest stands out in relation to malt.  Malt in CTC Assam seems to link to very dry flavor and astringent feel range, to astringency experience, and that's not present in that form here, since this has good feel structure but not that kind of edge.  Here it's a little more like malted milk ball range, or the malt that gets added to a milkshake (not often enough; I miss that from my childhood), or in Ovaltine.  That blends in better than the stronger and harsher variation; it's easier to almost miss it as one part that integrates with the rest.

sixth infusion:  probably a good place to leave off; this is long enough, and it won't be as interesting a story how this fades over the next half dozen rounds.  For brewing it strong it won't make it far past a dozen infusions.  The more forward, higher end range is definitely not dropping out; there is plenty of fruit left in this, and other more vague but complex aromatic range.  

Conclusions:

This is a really solid, high quality tea.  In terms of a general quality level I don't think this is giving up much to other black teas anywhere.  Flavor range and other character is different, varying naturally along with a range of inputs, but it's "as good" as any other black tea I've tried.  

That's a real accomplishment; it can drop into the background as a natural outcome, that of course any tea can be really good.  But so many inputs had to be controlled to go just right for that to happen.  The tea plants themselves, growing conditions, processing choices, processing equipment used, storage conditions; it all had to go really well.  Weather had to contribute positively; it's not as if all the conditions were something producers can control.  Maddhurjya and his family did a great job.

There is always going to be one more version out there that's distinctive in some other way, or finer and finer quality level steps to climb.  I'm not trying to say that this is the best possible orthodox Assam that could reach the market.  It's pretty far up the scale; interesting, distinctive, balanced, and refined, lacking any noticeable flaws.  

Sometimes I'll mention that pricing relates to the assumed quality level, that teas can be presented as one thing or another, like a Tie Guan Yin oolong version being sold as upper medium range, or a Dan Cong oolong selling as a similar thing, implied as better since the standard type quality range doesn't match directly, the scale of typical offerings.  I don't keep up with how higher quality Assam maps out, or how many alternatives would be anything like this, or some even better (there always is more range).  I suspect that awareness and demand for teas anything like this in both Indian and international markets is still limited, with the same being true in very different senses for Darjeeling, better Nepal versions, good Chinese black tea, and so on.  For whatever reason sheng pu'er awareness and demand "blew up," just in a very limited sense, and oolongs have always been a favorite category of many.  

Someday maybe specialty tea will have its moment, or maybe it will always be a niche interest.  Either way in the meantime this is a good example of what most people are missing out on.  That's too bad but not so bad, given how good Darjeeling and Chinese black teas, and the rest, all are in their own ways.

the last time I saw these guys, just a few days ago, with more separation to follow

What does it mean for a tea to be brisk?

first published in TChing here

I answered a Quora question about what it means for a tea to not be brisk, here, which I'll convert into the opposite, a summary of what "briskness" in tea actually means.  To me it either means bright in flavor and character or else astringent (possessing a mouth-feel) in such a way that is appealing, having a feel that is sharp in a particular positive way.  To me the latter is really the core meaning.  Could the two overlap?  Sure; I'll get to that.

A particular feel range does tend to pair with a general flavor and character intensity, or rather multiple variations of both tend to correspond in different tea types and forms. As you experience a slight sharpness in mouthfeel--not harshness, which would be a flaw--you also tend to experience a brightness or intensity in flavor range. It’s not as if they have to be combined, but it tends to work out like that.  Probably we are mostly talking about black tea, which will be implied in a lot of the following, but more explicit in certain ways related to the cause.  After talking through some basic meaning and experience range related to types this will get to root causes and compounds causing related effects.

Green tea often possesses a very different but typical astringency (feel), but to ask about an oolong being brisk makes no sense. Oolong is a broad category, that varies quite a bit in range, but versions tend to be full in feel, rich, or even creamy. Some contain an astringency that’s different than in black teas, but how that works out, and related to what inputs, and how positive that is, is all a bit complicated to add as a tangent.  The main types of oolongs, Tie Guan Yin, Wuyi Yancha, Dan Cong, Taiwanese high mountain rolled oolongs and Oriental Beauty, are all not particularly rough in feel / astringent.  Only off-area Guangdong oolongs I've tried are like that, which I won't go further into here.

A black tea that isn’t brisk might just relate to a different style of black tea not being like that. Yunnan style black tea, Dian Hong, or a related sun-dried variation of those, Shai Hong, are not brisk. The form of astringency is different, and the set of typical flavors. So we’re now down to talking conventional black teas, like those from Assam and Sri Lanka, with typical Assam character including more of that range. Darjeeling can even fall by the wayside a bit; for lots of those being oxidized to different levels aspect range tends to vary, and what we often mean by a positive “briskness” input doesn’t tend to apply.

Whole leaf tea in general possesses far different astringency character than ground up or broken black tea. Flavor range aspects vary too, not in such a narrow set of ways that it’s easy to map it all out. I just drank a very pleasant Georgian black tea for a review and in one sense it wasn’t brisk; astringency was moderate. But flavors were quite distinct and intense, so if someone was using the terms in a different way than I do they might judge it differently.

Greengold Georgian black tea; too whole-leaf to be very astringent

One last aside before getting to more direct cause inputs:  how could there be differences in how a basic description term is used for tea? Aspects tend to adjoin and mix, and then without a centralized form of definitions other usage variation can creep in. Here’s a standard simple definition from a main commercial vendor, Harney and Sons:

Briskness - Refers to a tea’s ability to make your mouth pucker, also known as astringency.

So for them it just means astringency. I take that to be right, but common usage also implies connection to other tea character, even though it’s really a different aspect range (eg. flavor intensity, or certain flavor range).

Let’s consider if a specialized use of the term couldn’t have evolved within a research context in India:

UPASI TEA RESEARCH FOUNDATION

The major quality parameters that are tested in made tea include Theaflavins (TF), Thearubigins (TR), High polymerized substances (HPS), Total liquor color (TLC) and Total soluble solids (Water extract). TF has a direct correlation with quality and price realization. TF contribute towards the briskness and brightness of tea liquor…

In addition to the above quality parameters briskness and color indices developed at UPASI TRI, correlate well with quality of made tea. Briskness index is given as percent ratio of TF to TF+CAF and the normal range for south Indian CTC tea is above 23.

Theaflavins and thearubigins are complex compounds found in black teas, outputs of an oxidation process as other types of complex compounds are converted to those. This Tea Epicure site reference covers all of the main types of compounds found in tea, and more on those in particular:

Chemical Compounds in Tea

There are several known categories within polyphenols. Flavonoids are arguably the most important category; they are the reason for many health claims surrounding tea because they contain antioxidants.

Within the flavonoid group are flavanols, flavonols, flavones, isoflavones, and anthocyanins. Flavanols (short for flavan-3-ols) are the most prevalent and thus the most studied. Flavanols are often referred to as tannins or catechins. The major flavanols in tea are: catechin (C), epicatechin (EC), epicatechin gallate (ECG), gallocatechin (GC), epigallocatechin (EGC), and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is the most active of the catechins, and this flavanol is often the subject of studies regarding tea antioxidants.

Flavanols are converted to theaflavins and thearubigins during oxidation. They are the compounds responsible for the dark color and robust flavors that are present in oxidized teas.

The reference to color, flavor, and feel (implied in explaining that these are what is referred to as “tannins”) starts in on unpacking why it’s a good thing that certain feel range increases, because flavor range also does. People tend not to value certain colors in tea without training or experience in associating them with other experience, but that links too.

So, heading towards a conclusion, there are two types of discussions about the positive level and role of briskness, depending on the tea type, origin, presentation form (chopped vs. whole leaf), and related to varying use of terms. Describing a tea as brisk or not has two completely different meanings, depending on whether that’s an expected positive input range in the first place. For CTC (ground up leaf) black tea Assam a version had better be brisk (astringent in a particular sense, to a particular expected level), and for Chinese or Taiwanese whole leaf black teas in general they’re just not, because levels of related compounds are moderate, by design.

Astringency still plays a very important role in judging the quality of those teas, and the role and form is comparable. A black tea lacking astringency, in the different sense of fullness and structure, wouldn’t be as positive. It’s just that very positive versions of such teas wouldn’t be described as brisk, because astringency and related compounds are much more moderate, and probably quite different in proportion, at least in relation to those providing the most feel edge / rough feel.

If further reading on types to clarify this is of interest I reviewed a very pleasant Chinese black tea recently, that I wouldn’t describe as brisk, with a lot of detailed commentary about feel range in that review:  Wuyi Origin Wuyishan benefit black tea.

Just to offset this seeming biased towards Chinese versus Indian teas I also reviewed two fantastic, very well regarded Darjeeling second flush black tea versions this month, with very comparable observations in that review:  Arya Ruby and Giddapahar Second Flush Darjeelings.

None of those three teas I've just mentioned would I describe as brisk, but the mouthfeel properties in all three are different.  To me a brisk tea balances on the edge of being rough in feel and intense in warm flavor range, towards aromatic wood tones, without going far enough that it seems better to add milk to delete out that effect.  CTC teas, ground black tea versions, tend to cross that divide, and be more positive drank with milk added, and I suppose good plantation origin Assam is an example of what is right at that edge.  Really good orthodox Assam tends to be more like Chinese black tea, full in feel but smoother yet in character, with this main plantation Halmari version back at the slightly rougher edge but still balancing it well.

two phone cameras back the pictures weren't all that clear

Again I'm a Chinese black tea drinker, mainly, also open to Darjeeling and Nepal versions in different styles that are comparable in quality, so I'm not seeking out the more intense but rougher range of experience right at that edge.  Trying a more brisk black tea could be interesting but I'm fine with almost never experiencing what I interpret as in that range.  And I mostly drink sheng pu'er, which is very diverse related to complex mouthfeel range, but in a different set of ways that wouldn't be described as briskness.

Doke Black Fusion, 2021 second flush

 

We talked to Rajiv Lochan, a well-known tea industry figure, about developing a new tea region in Bihar, the Doke plantation there.  That discussion, part of an online meetup series, was summarized here.  Not so directly related he was kind enough to send some teas for review, including their signature Doke Black Fusion, which I'm reviewing in this post (many thanks!).

There isn't that much more to say beyond the backstory covered in that post, with the exception of mentioning that they are also related to an online tea outlet, Tea Swan.  This and teas mentioned in some following posts might be available there.

There is a second tippy version of a second flush Black Fusion tea in that set, which I've not tried yet, to clarify why a related version mentioned elsewhere might sound a little different.  Their description:

DOKE BLACK FUSION

The best Indian black tea that has a combination of sweet and malty roast notes with caramel flavour aftertaste... This tea fills the air with its aroma of caramel and a spicy texture that is beyond words to explain! Coming from Bihar, Doke Black Fusion is processed using Assamica tea leaves that compels the tea lovers to explore this tea...

AROMA : Caramel, Currants and a Finish of Grapefruit, Notes of Malt, Spices

FLUSH: 2nd Flush 2020

CAFFEINE: High

SERVING : Hot and Cold - Both

ORGANIC/NON-ORGANIC: Non-Organic

TASTING NOTES : Sweet & Malty Roast Notes With Caramel Flavour Aftertaste

Review:

First infusion:  a little light; I tend to brew tea that way, using a fast first infusion to evaluate a tea, then get a more grounded opinion based on a stronger infusion the next round.  Intensity seems the main limitation in this infusion, and I can't really separate that effect from the light brewing approach.  It seems like it might be a limitation of the tea beyond that, but next round that will be clear.

Flavor that is present is positive.  Rich toffee like flavor is primary, with rich dried fruit or heavy floral flavors beyond that.  Unpacking those will be easier based on a stronger infusion.  A base mineral effect is nice, and aftertaste carries over nicely.  There are no notable flaws but sweetness seems limited (although again, next round will tell that part of the story better).

Second infusion:  I brewed this a little long to make sure to resolve the intensity issue, in the range of 15 seconds.  It might not sound like long but for this infusion proportion it is.  The heavy mineral base flavor ramps up considerably, dominating the overall experience.  That does connect in a positive way with a toffee sweetness, the actual sweetness level is just moderate.  

Some degree of rich dried fruit and heavy floral fills in beyond the mineral taste, and toffee, so it is complex, in a sense. The feel is nice, not astringent, but with significant body that supports the rest in a positive way.  I'll try the next round a little lighter and try to place the character better.  I would expect the tea aspects to balance out a bit, and maybe for it to evolve to become a little more complex.

Third infusion:  it is developing nicely.  Sweetness picks up; that does help.  It's an unusual form of it, covering more than one flavor that seems sweet.  This almost seems like a roasted tea, based on what I'm experiencing, but that also doesn't seem right, given expectations about the type.  It might just be that a heavy mineral range comes across, standing out more than a typical underlying base layer.  

Flavors are complex; more vegetal range fills in along with warm mineral, toffee sweetness, non-distinct dried fruit, and what I interpret as warm floral range.  When people drift off onto talking about a tea seeming like some sort of cookie that applies here, maybe like a graham cracker, or for British people like a digestive.  It is good.  

Fourth infusion:  

Fifth infusion:  an interesting spice range flavor picks up; it's a good sign that transitions are positive this far along.  At the same time woodiness also increases, and that mineral base flavor range shifts, so the overall change could either be seen as positive or not depending on interpretation.  Overall it's distinctive and complex.

Conclusions:

I like the tea.  It's complex and balanced, with all positive aspects, as I've described.  But I'm also drawn to considering what seemed like a limitation.  For having good flavor complexity and a nice base, and decent but moderate sweetness, there is a layer of the overall profile that's limited.  It's a richness or depth, maybe a mid-range complexity.  It might be that a heavy mineral tone is a pronounced part of the experience, and usually that's experienced as a base for the rest, not a dominant aspect, again almost as if this is a roasted tea.

It really could just be that the style is unfamiliar to me, the region-influenced character, or level of oxidation, and that trying the exact same tea a few more times it would seem to balance better.  Dian Hong, my favorite Chinese black tea (from Yunnan) tends to have a rich, complex depth, at times with a "high end" or forward aspect that is light or not very pronounced, and it could just be that difference, emphasis on a different flavor range not matching my own expectations.

This tea might work better brewed Western style; it can be hard to know without trying any one version both ways.  Sometimes splitting the experience apart in layers adds an interesting dimension, and in other cases combining those provides a more ideal overall balance.  It kept transitioning in positive ways across a number of infusions, beyond the ones with notes listed here, which is a good sign in relation to it being positive brewed across a longer infusion time, the Western approach.

To be clear I'm judging this in relation to good versions of small batch produced tea, and against good versions from the Chinese tradition, or the best of what is made in plantations elsewhere.  This is better than any commercial black tea I've tried coming out of Thailand, and probably roughly on par with better limited production versions, or at least better than most of those, again with my own bias towards Yunnan style throwing that off (not far from the North of Thailand).  It's quite good, and the one critique here is about placing that in relation to the highest potential for black teas.

Meeting Susmit and Maddhurjya, Ketlee vendor and Assam tea farmer

 

Back to India for a meetup series, a sort of exercise in networking and idea sharing.  This was interesting for combining a vendor and producer perspective.  A vendor who sells tea directly is both (Maddhurjya does, but he mostly sells wholesale to other outlets), but they are really different things.  Per usual I'll go through what we covered that stood out to me, but not really summarize everything.  A short bio introduces both people who joined first (with Ralph, Suzana, and Huyen also hosting as usual).

Susmit:  founder of Ketlee tea, an online vendor based in India, selling unique Indian teas.  These include an Indian version of sheng, which is particularly unique, and also smoked teas, Indian oolongs, and other range.

Maddhurjya:  Assam tea farmer and producer.  I've met Maddhurjya visiting here in Bangkok, so I've already written about him (in an interview post about development issues, beyond the reviews).  He is trying out new processing methods and equipment, based on traveling and training in China and Taiwan, and importing tea processing equipment.  The main sub-themes seem standard enough now but they are still quite timely and important, developing a small producer based alternative to larger scale tea production, and moving towards organic, whole-leaf, higher quality tea production. 

Maddhurjya is beside me in blue, beside Kittichai, the Jip Eu shop owner

capture with cats

Susmit and Indian sheng development

Before most others joined Ralph, Susmit, and I talked for a half hour about Ketlee's sheng, about how it is, and how development of a type new to India worked out.  As far as he knew sheng--not "pu'er," according to most, but the same type, just without the name that's reserved for Chinese versions--was never produced in India, and I'm not aware of it existing elsewhere either.  We discussed how Singpo falap might be similar, ending on agreeing that it's not the same at all.  I've tried only one version and it was good though, and not so different than a bamboo sheng version from Yunnan (not that everyone would use that type description there), and really not so far off sheng style, even though processing isn't the same.

what it looks like, photo credit the Ketlee site

To summarize, the version Susmit sells is from wild, old-plant sources, plants for which he couldn't identify a clear history.  And he sells other wild origin Manipur material teas, and Indian region versions that aren't so common, from Sikkim and elsewhere.  Good accounts and records go back 250 years or so but the plants were almost certainly there before that.  With better dating attempts some of the living plants there might be older than that; kind of an odd way to revise a limited historical account.

As to that tea version character he said that it's not bitter like Yunnan sheng (maybe just a little?), different in aspect character.  That comes up for wild teas even in Yunnan, and also for variations in South East Asia (a recurring theme in this blog; I've written about that at least a dozen times).  Beyond that we didn't get far for a review flavor list description, or speculation about aging potential, the kinds of issues people would experience by trying the tea.  He did mention how processing development worked out, that making "dragonballs" had been breaking up leaf material so they switched to small cakes.  And producers needed to iron out other processing details along the way, like processing the tea leaves fast enough to limit natural oxidation.

It really makes you wonder how it will age, doesn't it?

A venture in producing and selling local versions of specialty teaware is interesting, especially for including gaiwans.  These are porous clay versions, raising a conditioning issue (some people would use only one tea type per device related to that form), but it's a smoothed finish porous version, so I don't know how that interrelates.  Helping develop a new teaware tradition is a good match with exploring new tea types.

Indian and foreign demand for higher quality--and more expensive--teas

This was a really interesting theme, how ramping up awareness goes.  It's bit by bit, according to Susmit (and Maddhurjya, to some extent, but his less direct consumer exposure narrows experience down to one producer's sales case).  Within India it's developing; that's something I have relatively little feel for, even though I hear a little about how that goes about every other week.  From the sound of it his business being viable at this early stage also depends on foreign sales and demand, since few Indians are open to changing tea types and consumption habits.  But the process has started.

2019 versions of Maddhurjya's tea, or maybe that was 2018

We discussed how to develop that, drawing on examples of other cultures where it either moved faster or was also slow to take.  Susmit's impression is that physical shop infrastructure in countries like Russia--the Moychay case I keep writing about--enables them to support customer tasting, or events, and facilitates learning about brewing and gear.  Selling tea online he can just post descriptions or images, or discuss themes in groups, which only goes so far.  That make perfect sense, and matches my experience, that discussion and posted content can only have a limited reach or impact compared to helping people prepare and try tea.  I've tried to support the same function in holding local tasting events, even setting up a Bangkok based Facebook group for that, but it was inactive even before the 2020 pandemic shut down social gatherings.

Ralph shared how in Germany there are layers to tea interest, vending source scope, and types demand, which is how that would more or less go everywhere, just mapped out differently.  Here in Thailand there are specialty tea enthusiasts, but so few that businesses based around catering to demand are slow to develop.  Outside of Chinatown I'm familiar with two higher end specialty tea vending businesses, with two other exceptions, Peace Oriental (a chain now relying on pre-made blends sales) and Monsoon (a long story; a Thai tea producer making something novel, mostly blends and also wild-origin tea, so it overlaps).  

There are other mall shops, or booths, so maybe we're not running so far behind other places outside China, Taiwan, and Japan.  That one level of German small vendors selling familiar high quality teas (Wuyi Yancha, sheng pu'er, Taiwanese oolongs, etc.) is probably much smaller in scale than the first levels of more mainstream outlets, just perhaps more developed there than here.

Assam tea production issues

I won't do justice to conveying everything Maddhurjya shared, but I'll mention some highlights.  He makes high quality whole-leaf tea, versions of which I've reviewed here, but it's been a couple of years since I've tried them.  He says that he's still adjusting technique and improving them, which I don't doubt, but they were already pretty good then.  That approach is a somewhat small movement in Assam but other producers and vendors have also been headed in that direction.  The awareness and demand side trails that direction, it seems, so that producers also need to develop foreign sales channels to make the business viable (so the same issue for producer level and direct retail sale level).

Related to production, needing to use the same types of equipment foreign tea producers do has been a limitation in the past, rolling or drying machines and such.  To some extent more hand made tea is potentially better, but it's not practical to make tea completely by hand at significant scale (even low volume compared to main plantations), and for some steps results are better from machine processing.  This Farmerleaf reference on processing Taiwanese style oolong adds detail to that.  Maddhurjya encountered significant personal expense in traveling to places like China and Taiwan to study production methods, and to import equipment, and per his account he's not quite to the point to where established volume of production and sales covers that earlier expense.

This is a good place to clarify a broader point: developing a brand new range of tea products is cost intensive.  Kenneth of Monsoon Tea has discussed this with me in the past (the Thai wild tea producer that I mentioned).  Years of exploration and work can precede profitable product development.  It seems this must skew the early supply and demand factors relating to cost of those new-form teas.  Market rates are going to limit what they can be sold for, unless teas are so novel that there is no established market rates, and even then demand patterns have to match up for sales to occur.  

I'm not necessarily saying that Ketlee sheng and Maddhurjya's teas are more expensive now than they will be once ramped-up production covers initial investment and overhead better; demand will shift and increase along with supply-side cost issues leveling out.  I'm just pointing out that if a tea seems a bit pricey that doesn't necessarily mean that a producer or vendor is making a significant profit on it, at least initially.  Or maybe any profit at all, depending on those early expenses.  

To tie all this back to basic economics, as any given producer or vendor gets initial expenses sorted out pressure from market entry from other sources should moderate market rates and set prices for the related goods.  Other factors can disrupt that.  A spike in demand, for any reason, could support keeping prices high, and entry of a large supply of products identified as comparable could drop market rates, potentially making sustainable business difficult.  In an odd twist specialty tea sold as high cost versions can sometimes imply the product quality is high, shifting demand pattern positively just by raising pricing.  I guess that part is marketing, not economics.

We also discussed organic production issues.  It's problematic that certifications can really mean less in places like India and Thailand; testing steps can be avoided, replaced by personal payments.  Maddhurjya knows that he isn't putting chemicals on his teas (pesticides, at least; we didn't discuss fertilization), but for having large plantations located around his farm that doesn't necessarily mean he could pass the most strict forms of testing, due to incidental contact with sprayed compounds applied nearby.  For real forest grown tea the issue more or less drops out; it wouldn't be practical to apply pesticides to plants already growing in a stable and natural local ecosystem.  Per discussing testing with Jan in the Netherlands awhile back completely naturally grown tea may not be completely clear of any tested compounds risk, since some natural compounds can be identified as posing a health risk, and levels of those may vary still based in natural growing conditions.

Maddhurjya cleared up some points in later discussion, about how they stopped using any chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers since 2002 on their farm.  It originated with a practical concern, his family putting any available funds toward his father's medical care when he had cancer, and education expenses.  Then later that negative turned into a positive, since they learned exactly what the trade-off would be in terms of production impact, and moved on to supporting organic and limited input growth related to potential health impact concerns instead.

Maddhurjya also mentioned that he is developing limited direct sales, just not on the scale or form of setting up a webpage, or exploring in-person channels, opening a shop or attending markets.  At first demand for higher priced tea versions had been a significant limitation, he said, but the relation to other forms of food expenses and potential for a different form of tea experience has opened some people up to the experience of orthodox specialty tea, even at significantly higher costs than for CTC tea versions.

Next steps, future direction

Maddhurjya is helping other local farmers develop their processing capabilities, both in relation to processing steps and equipment use.  At least some; we didn't discuss details, but seemingly in the sense of limited knowledge sharing versus co-op development.  He's focusing on making narrower plant-type input tea versions related to his own production, tying to previous mention that the plant types his farm had already been growing were mixed.  He mentioned potential for new areas of wild tea development; it's not limited to where it is already known and in limited use.

Susmit is really at the cutting edge of sourcing unusual types and new source area products (new to some markets; local teas have been around in India), so his business model is already about new directions.  To the extent possible, increased Indian awareness of other tea range and demand will support further developments.  The sheng is already somewhat well received, but per his account demand in places like the US and Singapore leads demand from other places, with that balance related to India not so clearly narrowed down in this discussion, to be clear.

In discussing these things, and pricing issues, and comparing that to my own preferences and buying habits, it makes me consider to what extent specialty tea is a luxury good, and what that means.  I've posted in an online group about specialty tea types recently and met with comment about how the cost is really high in comparison with tea-bag tea.  For the average person, maybe even in the US, this could be a factor.  

A tea bag can sell for significantly less than 5 cents, and moderate quality loose tea might cost 20 cents a gram, with someone often brewing 3-5 grams per session (with 5 grams producing several cups worth of tea).  $1 for two large mugs of high quality tea (or a dozen tiny cups) seems pretty good to me, but it's not as if this is a limit. 50 cents to $1 per gram really represents the higher end cost of higher quality teas, and it keeps going from there.

Where am I going with this?  None of those numbers is quite to the level of a $20 bottle of wine, or even $10, but it's worth keeping an eye on to what extent people may not have access to this form of interest.  It seems possible that perception is as much a concern as the actual cost.  

Susmit mentioned that with higher end coffee appreciation the equipment costs can really add up, specialized grinders or espresso machines, or even the more basic pour over devices.  In some online tea groups there is a natural acceptance that to really have the full experience you need to buy a tea tray, several $100 or more clay pots, a number of cool looking cups, and so on from there, onto using charcoal to heat a cast iron pot.  You really don't need all that (no offense intended, to people on that page), only a way to boil water and a $10 porcelain gaiwan, which I buy for less that that in the local Chinatown.  But a shared group acceptance that you should own it all is potentially enough to set it as an implied requirement to play a normal role in that specific subculture.  You might need some handmade natural fabric clothes too, later on.

I doubt that cost is main concern.  A lot of people might need a more direct motivation to explore a beverage range, and accept the costs, beyond "it tastes better."  It has to be a relevant part of a culture, or at least regarded as a somewhat mainstream option.  Once it enters personal experience scope, once someone sits down and tries better quality tea, that could become less relevant.  Then specific starting points for types become important, and introductory gear issues, brewing approach, and so on.