STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 27 ECO-FRIENDLY TEA PRODUCTS Packed with materials made from naturally renewable resources As an international family-owned company with more than 140 years of experience in the tea business, Hälssen & Lyon has a long tradition of responsibility – to our employees, partners, society and nature. For several years now, we have developed tea products for our business customers where not only the tea comes from sustainable cultivation, but the packaging is produced with naturally renewable raw materials. Our production processes have been successfully adapted so that we can effectively process these eco-friendly materials using our machinery. We want to set standards – in terms of environmental awareness and social commitment. Join us on this journey! www.haelssen-lyon.com In the 20th century, it was in Assam that Scottish inventors began to intro- duce mechanization to scale up produc- tion. Among the equipment was machin- ery that enabled the production of CTC (crush, tear, curl) tea, which changed the landscape of tea and the sheer scale of production in Assam. Most black tea blends, notably English breakfast, in- clude Assam tea. Assam tea stands out for its flavors. The Assamica varietal produces larger leaves than the chinary tea plants. The liquor, a rich coppery red, is full bodied, malty, often sweet, and with a welcome astringency to the cup. A well-rolled or- thodox Assam tea with a sprinkling of golden tips is especially flavorful. Well- made CTC is worth drinking straight up. It has some astringency, but tea produc- ers in Assam prefer it plain, as rangsa or red tea. Delicious! Assam Orthodox won its Geographical Indication tag in 2007. Production, markets, prices Assam State has some 347,000 hectares un- der tea, according to India Tea Board data. CTC remains the mainstay of Assam's in- dustry, most of it consumed within India. In 2022, production for the first 11 months was reported at 657 million kilograms, up about 10 million kg from 2021. During the past two years, the loss of production in Sri Lanka, the other strong producer of orthodox black tea, brought extra business to Assam. But exports of 227 million kg in 2022 remained below the recent peak of 256 million kg in 2018, according to figures from the North Eastern Tea Association (NETA). And these amounts fall short of the industry's goal to export 300 million kg annually. This will require keeping a steady focus on the big picture, stakeholders say. "India should concentrate on tradi- tional markets and explore new markets with a long-term strategy," says Bidyanan- da Barkakoty, head of NETA. "Assam tea's strong market is our own domestic market, and of course, effort should be there in the export market too, so as to reach the 300 million kg annual target." In 2022, auctions saw about 365 mil- lion kg from Assam, with a sale volume of 72%. Of this, only 52 million kg were orthodox teas. Assam Orthodox fetched an average of Rs 284 per kg at auctions. That compares to Rs 205 per kg for CTC from Assam.

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