STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 31 Tea expertise. Use that knowledge to your benefit. With our outstanding experience in tea buying and blend development, we offer you high-quality teas, sophisticated for- mulations and latest tea innovations. Independently. Personally. Since 1992. Get an impression of us: www.kktee.de of India, for example. Jayshree Tea has opened a direct-to-consumer platform. The Goodricke Group which has been in retail for a long time, has expanded its product range, the latest being a range of bottled iced teas. During the peak Covid years of 2020 and 2021, more producers ventured into online channels and going directly to the consumer. Gopaldhara Tea Estate went digital, targeting both a domestic and an international market. The garden has also found a niche in its autumnal varieties of tea, like red oolong. At Selim Hill Tea Estate, Sparsh Agarwal and Ishaan Kanoria launched Dorje Teas as a subscription model. With Dorje, they are keen to make Darjeeling tea both accessible and affordable to the Indian market. Agarwal is especially keen to improve the perception of the monsoon flush teas. These teas are not considered premium in the way spring and summer teas are. But they make up about 40% of Darjeel- ing's annual production. They are mostly absorbed within the domestic market and sold as blended teas. So Agarwal has been repositioning this tea by roasting it. The high firing gives it a unique smokey flavor, and it is sought after by the Kolkata market, although it's not very well known elsewhere. Roasted tea is offered by Goodricke Tea, Lopchu Tea Estate, Makaibari, and Gopaldhara Tea Estates but Agarwal has chosen to celebrate the season's harvest and this version of it, rather than downplay it. Rally the troops "We need to sell our teas better," said Agarwal. "Brand Darjeeling has a victim story currently. What is needs is a glorious revival." "Why aren't we trying to change the perception of Darjeeling teas?" implored Rishi Saria of Gopaldhara Tea Estate. "If Darjeeling needs to move to a demand-led selling, it needs to be promoted within India and outside, in existing and new markets." Darjeeling's tea producers tend to view their teas more as a passion project than a business priority, expressing deep love for the place and the tea. They pine for govern- ment assistance to bail them out. But producers neglect to speak with one voice. What Darjeeling needs is for its tea industry to come together. That way they can better lobby for subsidies and support from the government. They should collaborate to fund marketing, promotion, and production improvements. As Sri Lanka has successfully done, they could develop a roadmap for Darjeeling's future. Working together, the industry needs to revive and rebuild Brand Darjeeling Tea. Workers at Rohini Tea Estate, a young garden that has replanted extensively since 1996 and built a modern factory meeting HACCP food safety standards.

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