Tea

Origin & story

The plant is Camellia sinensis, grown in two forms: the small-leaf China type (var. sinensis) suited to cool highlands, and the broad-leaf Assam type (var. assamica) that thrives in warm, humid lowlands. India's crop sits in two belts. The genuinely Western Ghats belt is the South — the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, the Kannan Devan / High Range hills around Munnar in Idukki district of Kerala, and pockets of Karnataka; the separate North-East belt (Assam, Darjeeling, the Dooars) lies outside the Ghats. Commercial planting on the High Range dates to the late 19th century, associated with the Poonjar lease to John Daniel Munro and the later involvement of James Finlay & Co., which consolidated estates into the Kannan Devan Hills Produce Company.

How it grows

Made tea is not distilled; it is manufactured from the leaf within hours of plucking. Pluckers take the tender "two leaves and a bud" (down to just the bud for finer grades), and the flush is then withered to shed moisture, rolled to bruise the leaf and release its juices, left to oxidise (the trade calls it fermentation) until it turns coppery, then fired dry and sorted over sieves into grades. South India runs both the orthodox route (traditional rolling, prized for flavour and loose leaf) and the CTC route (crush-tear-curl into granules for strong, quick-brewing tea). UPASI Tea Research Foundation at Valparai provides technical guidance on manufacture across the southern estates.

For growers

Tea wants deep, acidic, well-drained soil, steady moisture, and cool humid air; it does not tolerate waterlogging. It is a hill crop here — the Nilgiris and the Munnar High Range are planted at high elevation in the Western Ghats. Bushes are plucked on a regular round through the year, and the first flush after the cold, dry winter — the Nilgiri "frost tea" of the early year — is valued for its concentrated flavour. Climate variability and higher temperatures are a growing worry flagged in recent tea research, alongside the usual estate pest and disease management.

Grades & quality

Buyers read tea by leaf style and size. Whole-leaf orthodox grades run through Orange Pekoe (OP), Flowery Orange Pekoe (FOP) and the tippy FTGFOP end; break them and you get Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP), then the smaller fannings, and finally dust — the finest particles that brew fastest and often go into bags. Bud (tip) content lifts a grade; CTC is sold largely as brokens, fannings and dust for quick, strong liquor. Grade is size and appearance, not automatically quality — good fannings can out-cup poor whole leaf, so the tasted liquor still rules the price.

Uses & applications

Tea is overwhelmingly a beverage crop — black tea for the cup, milk tea and chai, and the base for iced and ready-to-drink drinks. Orthodox leaf goes into single-origin and specialty loose teas where the estate's aroma and briskness are the selling point; CTC feeds mass-market blends and tea bags. The leaf is also a carrier for flavoured and blended teas and for instant/soluble tea, and green and other styles are made from the same plant by varying the processing.

For buyers & the trade

India is one of the world's largest tea producers and exporters, with buyers across West Asia, Russia, the CIS, the UK and the USA. South Indian estates are distinctly export-oriented, and orthodox teas tend to command premium realisations that keep pulling capacity that way. For provenance, note the Tea Board's GI protections — Nilgiri (Orthodox), Darjeeling, Assam and Kangra teas are GI-registered. The Tea Board of India regulates the trade, and UPASI-backed research plus the southern auction system underpin sourcing from the Nilgiris, Munnar and Karnataka.

Frequently asked