News — Assam

Guest Post by Avani Jalan What’s with the flush? You must have heard about spring flush, or second flush with regard to tea when you buy them at fancy tea stores, or perhaps have seen it mentioned in descriptions of tea that you see online. These references to the ‘flush’ indicate the season during which the tea was plucked and manufactured. For Assam teas, we normally have 3 flushes, the Spring flush, also referred to as the ‘first flush; Summer/Monsoon flush – most commonly referred to as the second flush, and Autumn flush or the third flush. The term ‘flush’...

At Chota Tingrai Tea Estate, we constantly experiment with new methods in cultivating tea. Our latest experiment, taking place in a small portion of MP 9, will utilize Japanese planting and machine plucking. Meet Tani-san, a senior tea agronomist from Japan. He has come to India for the first time to learn how Assam grows tea, and teach us how Japan grows tea. Together, we are trying to adapt the Japanese planting style to Indian tea cultivars. Through this strategy, we hope to increase our per bush yields, and make them appropriate for machine plucking. Tani-san speaks Japanese. Our field...

Last week we shared how we made MP 9 ready for planting tea. Now let’s see how we plant the bushes themselves. We started planting MP 9 on February 10, 2017. We have already planted 57,000 bushes. We still have about 10,000 bushes to finish. Planting a subsection of tea comprises three steps. First, a pair of workers measure out the rows with special chain. The ensure that the rows have the proper space by precisely staking the ends of the planting chain. They then drop a bit of dolomite at the meeting of each chain link to mark the...

On the edge of Chota Tingrai Tea Estate, at the meeting of the river and forest, our workers are busily planting our newest organic tea section, Manohar Pukur 9 (MP-9). Eventually, these 5 hectares will produce tons of our organic Assam black tea annually.  And I say eventually, because founding a new tea section takes many years. It comprises of four main stages- Land Preparation, Planting, Young Tea, and Mature tea. Over the coming months we will check in regularly with MP-9 so you can watch the tea grow with us. On this blog, we want to share with you...

In Assam, making tea is a community enterprise. While parents pluck or work in the factory, children attend tea estate schools or play sports in tea estate sports fields. Families live in houses constructed and maintained by tea companies. When people get sick, the first doctor that visits is from the estate hospital. Chota Tingrai Tea Estate itself is home to 367 families, situated in two villages. Additionally, we have a hospital, two schools, two soccer fields, a church, a mosque, and several Hindu shrines. Indian plantation law requires us with the maintenance of these structures, and the general welfare...