TEA SPECIAL ....Everyone's Cup of Tea

 Everyone's Cup of Tea



Munnar is tea heaven -from the mildly aromatic green tea to the subtle and expensive white

Sniff, swirl, sip. Perched at about 5,000 ft in Munnar's misty mountains in southern Kerala, we are “cupping“ 10 different types of teas with a professional brewer.Unlike tea tasting, which evaluates only taste, cupping is more immersive, allowing us to analyse the liquid's aroma, flavour profile, body, colour and clarity.“Take a sip of each tea and roll it in your mouth,“ the brewer instructs as we stand facing a smorgasbord of black, white, green, oolong and blend teas stacked neatly in white porcelain containers.

The first sip will tell us whether the tea is sweet, bitter, acidic, or umami. Next, we focus on aroma, palate notes, body (light, medium or full), astringency level (low to high), pungency, texture (creamy or velvety), complexity of flavours and length of flavour (short, medium or long). For a perfect cuppa, we are told, the tea should be infused the right way, no more than five minutes, with water at the right temperature.

As we move from one tea to the next, the uniqueness of each is explained. The mildly aromatic green tea teems with antioxidants; the subtle white is among the most expensive and is known for its anti ageing properties. Depending on the production process, each type has a different aroma and taste. Each tea also has a different colour -hues of orange, tan, or red. Session over, we quaff a delicious brew infused with forest honey.

Munnar, a bustling town in the heart of Kerala's tea-growing region, is all about tea. Lush tea gardens in fifty shades of green roll out endlessly in one of the highest tea-growing regions in the world.The landscape -swirling mists and drifting clouds -changes subtly at every turn.Curvy roads twine around hillsides while voluptuous Malayalam alphabet announces names of different tea estates.Tea pickers scurry through mist, traversing treacherous terrain among tea bushes with bamboo baskets on their back It was the British who planted tea here in the 1870s and developed Munnar's sprawling plantations. Until then, it was home to the Muthuvan tribes who restricted cultivation to cardamom, bamboo and ragi The British legacy still lingers. Munnar's main crossing point is named Churchill Bridge while golf courses, spiffy clubs with bars, billiards rooms, card tables and restaurants that serve sticky sponge puddings for tea pepper the town. Most of the 50-odd estates are now Indian-owned. Tata is the largest player, while others carve up the rest of the market among themselves.

“Munnar means three rivers as it is located at the confluence of the Muthirapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundala riv ers,“ a guide explains as we wend our way 15 km out of town through stunning panoramas of the Western Ghats to the 160-year-old Lockhart Tea Factory.

At the factory, hundreds of sacks of tea leaves are being off-loaded from trucks by workers in green overalls and despatched for withering -which means wilting. The air is redolent with the smell of bruised tea leaves.

Lockhart produces about 20 million kilograms of tea annually, we are told.We learn about the processes involved in making modern tea -from picking to processing to packaging. Most of my misconceptions about tea are dispelled in one fell swoop. “There are no different plants for different types of tea. All types of tea come from the same plant. The top part, the youngest bud, is for white,“ explains a factory guide. “The second is for green tea, the third black tea and the fourth dust -the cheapest -is also called the filler. The older the tea plant the better the taste. Tea plants growing among the highest ranges are superior in taste.“

Blue is the Rarest Colour

Despite the ubiquity of tea, it would be unfair to say that Munnar is only about it. The town is a place of staggering beauty. We visit the Eravikulam National Park that shelters the endangered mountain goat Nilgiri tahr. The town is also home to the Lakkam Waterfalls and the wooded Anamudi, peninsular India's highest peak at 2,695 m. The bluetinged neelakurinji flower also blooms here once in 12 years, carpeting entire swathes of the valley in shades of cyan and purple.

Be that as it may, my most abiding memory of Munnar will always be about tea. Fresh, flavourful, fragrant. On the way back to Delhi, I stuff my already bursting bags with different types of tea blends bought off shop shelves. Every time I brew a cup in my kitchen, its heady aroma transports me back to Munnar's majestic mountains.

Neeta Lal

May 14 2017 : The Economic Times (Mumbai)