24-05-2025
A tea lover's reflection on tradition and change
This week, I indulged in some R&R (rest and relaxation), giving in to the intense summer days here in Puducherry. The afternoon lulls you into a state of inertia, and mirroring the life outside, I too chose to retreat inwards.
This week also saw the International Tea Day (celebrated on 21 May) with the theme being 'Tea for better lives". There's a lot of preoccupation with the sustainability of the tea industry, in particular its financial viability. But this, as I discovered last month, is not new.
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I spent half a day at the UPASI (United Planters' Association of Southern India) library in Coonoor. UPASI was formed back in 1893 and remains an important planters' body. My sights were set on the collection of old planters' magazines. In 1895, a weekly magazine was started for planters by planters, called Planting Opinion. Later, it changed to The Planter's Chronicle and it continues to be published. Besides the occasional 'light reading" and verse, it packs a lot of information.
As I read through some of the issues from its earliest years, it was quite apparent that the problems of planters have not really changed a century later. Back then too, they were grappling with some of the same concerns, of pest and disease, of enough labour, of markets. UPASI (1893-1953) published in 1955 notes 'a shadow of depression was spreading over the industry" with 'under consumption" described as a problem. One contributor says that both coffee and tea were in trouble from 1898, adding 'there is a familiar ring in many of the discussions, which, taken from their context, might have occurred in 1931 or 1952."
Or 2025, as we may add. A century gone and much has changed and yet, nothing has. True of tea as it's of the world.
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I look at the assortment of tea in my cupboard—some Darjeeling black, a Kangra gunpowder green, chunks of a tea brick I have been hacking away at, some Taiwanese Dong Ding from my recent acquisition with a yet unopened Baozhong oolong, a Ceylon green tea, some black tea from Nuwara Eliya that I am rationing—I am reminded of an atlas of land and water forms I had read years ago. Entire continents were marked solely on the basis of their land forms, not political borders. It was beautiful. When I see the teas in my cupboard, it is a tad messy in how they are stacked, but it's without borders and is comfortably neighbourly. I catch myself wishing the world finds harmony despite its deep divides.
I choose the Baozhong, once famous as the Formosa oolong, recently sourced from Hsu Hao Sheng, who goes by the name Sean, at Trilliant Tea (accepts orders online). It is by far one of the most aromatic teas I have enjoyed recently, with an incredibly sweet fragrance, like the scent of flowers that bloom at night. I steeped it for 6 minutes in boiling water. It's a lightly oxidised tea, as seen in the still green leaves. The tea itself is flavourful and sweet but with these oolongs, it's the after taste I have come to await. And the Baozhong brought such sweetness, it's one of my favourites this year and I recommend it as one to linger with on moody days.
Tea Nanny is a fortnightly series on the world of tea. Aravinda Anantharaman is a tea drinker, writer and editor. She posts @AravindaAnanth1 on X.
Also read: Getting to know the Dong Ding oolong
