Recently, while working on a coffee story, I couldn’t help but feel that Indian speciality coffee is driven by enthusiasts who are curious, invest in equipment, spend on good coffee, and talk about it. It made me wonder what tea needed to inspire that same love. This month, I saw that change is brewing, still nascent, but unmistakable.
Even five years ago, the idea of “speciality” tea (styles beyond the staples, like the oolong, white tea, and several kinds of high-grade black and green teas) drew blank stares; mass green tea and blends claiming to boost immunity dominated the shelves. Handmade or hand-rolled teas were a lesser-known secret. Cut to today and much has changed.
In November, I hosted a tea session for Aprisio, a community for midlifers in Bengaluru. Expecting beginners, I picked a wide range of teas. But of the 20 who attended, most were familiar with different styles or were actively pursuing tea as a hobby. Teas like the phoenix dan cong oolong were met with familiarity.
Later in the month, Sai Karthik, whose gongfu session I once wrote about, launched the India Tea Collective (indiateacollective.notion.site) to bring tea enthusiasts together to share knowledge, swap tea and meet for tea. In my first week there, I’ve already discovered new tea styles, vendors and drinkers. “India lacks a culture of drinking specialty tea,” he says. “The collective’s mission is to nurture one, however small, and become a platform for communication with the tea industry.”
We still lag behind coffee in meet-ups and tea-focused spaces, so every effort counts. I spoke to Reagan Creado in Mumbai. A green tea connoisseur who has studied the Japanese tea ceremony, he now offers The Ocha Odyssey. This Japanese tea tasting and brewing experience costs ₹2,500 per person for a two-hour session.
With matcha trending and Japanese stores, restaurants and brands opening in India, their tea and teaware are easier to find. So different from a few years ago, when even sourcing Indian speciality tea was difficult. On the Collective group, I met Bangalorean Aditya Ramakrishnan who, inspired by his Sichuanese wife, runs the Má Là Kitchen supper club. Tea is a big part of it. He brews and serves Xiao Qing Gan, an aged pu’erh stuffed in mandarin, re-steeped through the meal. And to think it’s a tea one can taste in Bengaluru is a promise of new tea journeys for tea heads.
The Tea Collective is the only WhatsApp group I haven’t muted. Every evening, I read the lively exchanges. A meet-up is being planned, and I’m already thinking of the teas I’ll take, and the ones I’ll get to taste.
Tea Nanny is a fortnightly series on the world of tea. Aravinda Anantharaman is a tea drinker, writer and editor. She posts @AravindaAnanth1