Lounge
Fill your cup with award-winning Indian teas
Summary
Indian tea makers bag three golds at the prestigious international tea awards Leafies
I have always enjoyed making booklists once a year, scanning award lists for old favourites as much as new authors . Nowadays the end of the year has me making a similar list for tea.
This month, the Leafies, an international tea award organised by the UK Tea Academy in collaboration with department store Fortnum & Mason, were announced. Around 400 entries received were blind tasted by a global jury. There are four award categories: Gold, Highly Commended, Retail and Special awards. India’s haul was 3 Golds and 5 Highly Commended, with Kolkata-based Jay Shree Tea topping the list for the most awards won by a single company: 5.
Maitreyi Kandoi, whose family owns Jay Shree Tea, says that while recognition like this energises the company (it operates 22 estates across India), it is also a win for Indian tea, in particular Darjeeling.
Also read: The legend of Darjeeling teas
Three Darjeeling teas won at the Leafies: the Steamed and Panned Green tea (Turzum estate) and Mystic Black (Balasun estate) won the Gold, while the Moondrop (Puttabong estate) received a Highly Commended award. The Steamed and Panned Tea won in the experimental category. It is a tea made in the monsoon and pays homage to the green tea-making traditions of Japan (steamed) and China (pan-roasted). Such innovations remind us of what can emerge from Darjeeling and why it’s so special to tea drinkers—“still the queen of the hills", as Kandoi calls it. The Golden Tips (Greenwood estate, Assam Company) was the other Gold winner. The Highly Commended list includes Ripple Premium White Tea (Kanan Devan), Masala Chai (Khongea estate, Glenburn), an orthodox and a CTC from Mangalam estate (Jay Shree Tea).
The Teas of the World awards by AVPA France (Agency for the Valorisation of Agricultural Products) were also announced recently in mono-varietal teas and herbal infusions. A Clonal Tippy Tea from Darjeeling’s Phuguri estate (marketed by Nunshen Tea) and a light smokey hand-rolled Darjeeling Tea (marketed by STG Associates) won the Gourmet Argent (Silver), while the Kashmiri Kahwa (marketed by Sanskriti Collection) won the Gourmet Bronze. At the North American Tea Conference last month, two Indian teas won Gold—the Golden Pearl from Assam’s Dikom Estate (Rossell Tea) and an Orthodox Black from Mangalam (Jay Shree Tea). The Goodricke Group won the Sustainability Award.
Scanning through the Leafies and AVPA winner lists, it’s hard to miss that Taiwanese teas feature prominently (18 at the Leafies, including the Best in Black), unsurprising given their expertise in black and oolong tea making.
TEA TAKES
Some of the winners are available here: Balasun Mystic, Puttabong Moondrop and Mangalam Teas (jayshreetea.com); Khongea Masala Chai (glenburnfinetea.in); Kashmiri Kahwa (mittalteas.com); Phuguri Clonal Tippy (nathmullstea.in); and Ripple White Tea (rippletea.com).
Tea Nanny is a fortnightly series on the world of tea. Aravinda Anantharaman is a Bengaluru-based tea blogger and writer who reports on the tea industry. She posts @AravindaAnanth1 on Twitter.
