Demand for the ‘champagne of teas’ has slumped as ageing bushes yield a lower quality product, prompting calls to revive the ‘symbol of Brand India’

https://www.thetimes.com/world/asia/article/darjeeling-tea-future-india-07z9pgqwx

It was seen as the perfect terroir to grow the fragrant Camellia sinensis tea plant. Rolling hills at high altitude with cool winters and a rich soil.

Darjeeling, a key hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas, became a tea-producing centre during the 19th century, as the British Empire sought to challenge China’s tea monopoly.

After India gained independence from Britain in 1947, ownership passed into Indian hands.

For a time, life was good on the tea estates, home to huge colonial bungalows with Burma teak panelling and sprawling verandas where owners would sit and drink on a planter’s chair, looking out at the misty foothills of the Himalayas.

Now, though, the future is uncertain. Darjeeling, despite being a name known throughout the world and its status as the “champagne of teas”, faces several crises which threaten its reputation — and potentially thousands of jobs.

Production has plunged by 61 per cent over the past three decades.

Until recently Keshav Kant Mittal, the third generation of his family to run a well-known Delhi tea house, would buy 100 cases of Darjeeling every month because of its popularity.

Today he buys only half that amount because he cannot find the quality of Darjeeling he wants for his customers.

“I have to shop around from one tea garden to another to find good quality leaves,” he said.

“The tea bushes on the estates are very old and the leaf they produce is brittle which gives a coarse and bitter tea. Because of the poor quality, demand for Darjeeling has plummeted and people are switching to Assam and other teas.”

In an urgent appeal, the Indian Tea Association has asked the West Bengal government, the state where Darjeeling is located, for an injection of $11 million to prevent what it calls “irreversible decline”.

“At stake is not only the future of an industry but also the livelihoods of thousands of workers… and the preservation of a globally renowned symbol of Brand India,” the association said.

It is also calling for job support during lean periods for the 55,000 people who work on the estates, money to replace ageing tea bushes, modernising of tea leaf plucking and a minimum price.

The reasons for the decline are complex. Erratic weather caused by climate change has delayed the monsoon which starves the bushes during the growth months.

When the rain comes, there is too much of it. Flash floods and landslides have wiped out hectares of plantations.

Most of the bushes are well over 80 years old and give a poor yield, as Mittal confirms. Estate owners have not replaced them because it means waiting up to 12 years before the new bushes start giving a good yield.

Tea from Nepal, which offers a similar taste and costs far less to produce, has filled the Indian market, where unscrupulous distributors package and sell it as “Darjeeling”.

While the price has remained stagnant, the cost of wages, fuel and fertilizer have risen considerably.

Sadly, the delicate, subtle and sophisticated taste of Darjeeling is not honoured in its homeland. Around 60 per cent is exported, mainly to Japan and Europe.

The vast majority of Indians, to the horror of tea cognoscenti, prefer masala tea, a sugary, milky concoction made with cardamom and cloves and boiled furiously till thick.

As a native Chinese working in the Chinese matcha industry, I mainly focus on wholesale matcha for small and medium-sized B2B businesses around the world. Over the past few months, I've spent a lot of time tasting matcha from different parts of China, comparing producers and visiting factories, so I wanted to share what I've learned.

First, Chinese matcha isn't necessarily made from the same cultivars as Japanese matcha. Most Chinese tea is still made from local Chinese cultivars, but Japanese cultivars such as Yabukita and Okumidori have also been introduced and are now being cultivated in China. We're even starting to see single-cultivar matcha.

Although China uses equipment and production technologies from Japan, sometimes with guidance from Japanese matcha professionals, there are still noticeable differences. Many Chinese companies also only started producing matcha relatively recently, so they generally have less experience than long-established Japanese producers.

Another interesting issue is the huge difference between producers.

China is a massive tea-producing country, and production efficiency is often prioritised. Large factories can produce enormous quantities at very competitive prices, but high-quality raw material is still limited. A bigger factory doesn't automatically mean more premium tea leaves. Depending on the product, the use of stems, older leaves and lower-grade material can have a noticeable effect on the final flavour.

And after tasting enough Chinese matcha, you also start noticing products that make you suspicious.

I'm not saying every unusual-looking matcha is adulterated, and without laboratory testing I can't prove exactly what has been added. But there are certain patterns I've encountered repeatedly.

For example, bamboo powder is extremely cheap and can produce a very green, exceptionally fine powder. After tasting enough of it, you can start to recognise a rather distinctive taste.

Seaweed powder is another one. If there isn't much other flavour supporting it, the seaweed taste can be unusually strong, abrupt and one-dimensional rather than having the layered umami and aroma you'd expect from good tea.

Added colouring is another concern. Sometimes the green looks unnaturally bright, and the colour seems unusually resistant to oxidation or change.

Once you've tasted enough matcha, you don't judge it by colour alone. You start looking at the combination of colour, particle size, aroma, flavour, how it develops over time, and even the price.

I've also visited factories myself, and honestly, the difference in production environments can be shocking. Some are clean, organised and professionally managed. Others have made me genuinely concerned about hygiene.

At the same time, I don't want this post to sound like I'm trying to scare people away from Chinese matcha.

A lot of people are also concerned about pesticide residues and other food safety issues, and I can't deny that this is something you need to pay attention to. But if you work with a proper manufacturer, there are usually products specifically produced to meet European standards, and there are also Chinese matcha products with JAS, EUand USDA organic certifications.

China also has some genuinely excellent matcha producers. I was originally someone who only drank Japanese matcha, but after trying one Chinese matcha that really surprised me, I started exploring the industry seriously.

Interestingly, Chinese matcha is not actually as rare overseas as many people think. A lot of it has been exported for years, particularly through wholesale channels. Some producers mainly supply businesses rather than selling directly to consumers, so people may already have been drinking Chinese matcha without realising where it came from.

This is why I don't think "Chinese matcha" should be treated as one single category.

There are huge industrial producers, small specialised producers, very affordable matcha, single-cultivar matcha, organic matcha, and some genuinely beautiful high-end products. The flavour can also be completely different depending on the region, cultivar, raw material and processing.

After tasting and comparing so many producers, I've ended up working with only a small number that I personally trust, with different flavour profiles for different applications.

So my point isn't to tell everyone not to buy Chinese matcha. It's simply to keep your eyes open and know what you're buying.

And if you're a café, bakery, or have your own matcha brand and you're interested in exploring Chinese matcha but don't really know where to start, I'm happy to help you look for a suitable producer and match the tea to the flavour profile you're looking for.

直接ツイートを評価させれるので面白い。文脈がわからん外国のツイートとかも直接つまり何なのか聞けるし、自分がおかしいこと書いたときにあとからチェックする、みたいな使い方もできる。逆に自分が書いたものをチェックさせることでgrokの評価もできる。と思って連続で押し続けたらそのうちこういう事が書いてありますみたいな素っ気ない反応になるので使いすぎると資源の分配が減るのかな？