By Ritwik Mukherjee Nov 03 2011 , Kolkata
The way to Kurseong, the idyllic village in the mountains of Darjeeling, is paved with beauty: An unending expanse of lush greenery broken now and then by fog and white orchids. A detour down the steep but shorter Pankhabari route leads you to the huge iron gate of Makaibari Tea Estate. Suddenly, serenity takes a back seat: A palpable excitement pervades the atmosphere as tourists, students and researchers bustle around.
Makaibari Tea Estate is where you get to taste the world’s richest tea. The kind that’s served at teatime to the likes of Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, Emperor Akihito of Japan and Elton John.
Four years ago, the estate sold a 55-kg lot of Makaibari Silver Tips at an astronomical Rs 18,000 a kg — a world record — at an international tea auction in Indianapolis, US. This wasn't just a flash in the pan. These days Makaibari does not sell its tea through auctions, but regularly sells small lots of organic teas at Rs 10,000 to Rs 18,000 per kg. The tea is a symbol of pure luxury.
The estate is owned by Swaraj K Banerjee, 61, aka Rajah Banerjee, the man behind the brand and the world’s oldest single-owner tea estate. Sipping on his ‘world’s finest tea’, he chuckles as he recalls how Silver Tip almost never happened. As a swaggering youth educated in the UK, he had returned home for just a few days to visit the estate which was then owned and run by his parents. His vacation never ended, in a sense. He had an accident. His horse, Invitation, threw him off its back. He stayed back to recover. And then he stayed forever. The accident altered the course of history of Darjeeling tea as well.
The story of Darjeeling tea is more than 160 years old. It began when A Campbell, a British civil surgeon, planted tea seeds in his garden at Beechwood Estate, 7,000 ft above sea level, just for kicks. That simple (and largely unplanned) act laid the foundation of the world's most famous tea industry. But when Banerjee began his tea estate baron career, things were not going that smoothly for Darjeeling tea despite its smooth fine taste. Most of the tea gardens were losing money: Some of them could not afford to buy even fertilisers and pesticides. They had little control over the geographical indication ‘Darjeeling Tea’ and the future mocked at them.
But they say necessity is the mother of inventions. Banerjee, for one, decided to go organic: “It was mostly a conscious decision, but partly compulsion as well. I realised that nature doesn't require any external help to sustain and evolve the myriad life forms that make up the ecosystem. How do so many varieties of trees exist cheek by jowl in a subtropical rain forest and sustain the wide diversity of organisms that exist in them? The mulch (a protective covering of leaves placed around tea bushes to prevent the evaporation of moisture) created wonderful topsoil, but millions of useful organisms were annihilated by a single dose of fertiliser. I, therefore, banned all chemical applications.”
Although these days the organic tag accords a luxury status, there is compelling economic logic behind this conversion. Contrary to popular perception, organic tea farming does not result in lower yields. It generally believed that organic farming leads to a crop loss of up to 50 per cent and a 50 per cent rise in production cost. But Banerjee’s experience is that organic tea yields are 15-20 per cent higher than those of regular teas and production costs come down in the long run. The cheapest organic teas sell for Rs 250 a kg compared to Rs 100 a kg for regular varieties. Thus, it presents planters with a win-win option.
Banerjee is not alone now. Taking a cue from his initiatives, the Darjeeling tea industry is reinventing itself in line with the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP), formulated by the government, which provides an institutional framework for implementing standards for organic products. There are, at present, 89 gardens in Darjeeling, covering an area of about 20,000 hectares. And more than 50 per cent of them have already gone organic. The growing global demand for organic tea is fuelling this organic revolution.
Since its introduction in the late 80s, organic tea consumption has been growing at 10 per cent annually. There is also a growing demand for organic tea within the country, mainly in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad. Organic tea is already extremely popular in the UK and Japan, the two largest export markets for this variety of tea. It is also gaining acceptance in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and — wonder of wonders — the US. Its reported therapeutic properties are also drawing increasing numbers of converts in these countries.
The way forward, according to a senior Tea Board official, “is to set up a few model organic tea estates and then launch a sustained awareness and brand promotion campaign for organic tea across the country and abroad. Planters will have to realise that this is the future and people at large will have to be made aware that organic tea is the safest for human health and the environment.”
Banerjee is certainly all for this. But to him, a model organic garden is what he has already done at Makaibari. “Makaibari spans 670 hectares over six separate ridges. Tea covers 270 hectares while woodlands cover twice that area. The tea is ensconced between the forests. Mind you, this makes supervision extremely difficult. In other plantations, tea is a contiguous carpet. This means that one has to work thrice as hard to cultivate tea at Makaibari. That’s how a model garden should be,” says Banerjee.
According to the Tea Board official, the law of unintended consequences has also started working in favour of the Darjeeling tea industry. Since most of these organic teas are single garden brands, there is very little scope for blending. This is expected to provide a fillip to the Darjeeling tea brand and arrest the widespread practice of blending only a small quantity of Darjeeling tea with teas from other regions and then selling the mixture as the real thing. Darjeeling produces only 11 million kg of tea in a year, but the total volume of “Darjeeling tea” sold worldwide is more than 20 million kg — a clear pointer that much of it is blended.
The growing worldwide preference for organic tea is obviously not without reasons. For Banerjee, the building of such a strong brand has not been a structured or conscious exercise. “I would say this is an evolution. It was actually the right initiative at the right time. Makaibari has become what it is today not thanks to ownership but thanks to strong partnerships with all its stakeholders. Women empowerment, community developments through initiatives like Makaibari Joint Board, Makaibari Ekta, offering home-stays to scholars and researchers, tourists (both domestic and foreign) has helped us immensely in connecting and stay connected with our stakeholders,” says Banerjee.
A chance meeting with Mertine Gaumet, a retired architect from France, a home-stay guest of one of the Makaibari Tea Estate families, proved how right Banerjee is. “I would not have known so many things if I had not come here. As soon as I am back I am going to write to all my friends and relatives about my experience out here. If I could I would even write a book on my Makaibari experience, so it could reach out to more people across the world,” says Gaumet.
Obviously, Rajah Banerjee, without compromising on the status, has found a way to mix luxury with the ordinary. Here’s to that cuppa.
Source: http://www.mydigitalfc.com/good-living/sippin%E2%80%99-luxury-889
World’s most expensive tea — the organic Makaibari’s Imperial Silver Tip — comes from the world’s oldest single-owner tea estate in Kurseong
The way to Kurseong, the idyllic village in the mountains of Darjeeling, is paved with beauty: An unending expanse of lush greenery broken now and then by fog and white orchids. A detour down the steep but shorter Pankhabari route leads you to the huge iron gate of Makaibari Tea Estate. Suddenly, serenity takes a back seat: A palpable excitement pervades the atmosphere as tourists, students and researchers bustle around.
Makaibari Tea Estate is where you get to taste the world’s richest tea. The kind that’s served at teatime to the likes of Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, Emperor Akihito of Japan and Elton John.
Four years ago, the estate sold a 55-kg lot of Makaibari Silver Tips at an astronomical Rs 18,000 a kg — a world record — at an international tea auction in Indianapolis, US. This wasn't just a flash in the pan. These days Makaibari does not sell its tea through auctions, but regularly sells small lots of organic teas at Rs 10,000 to Rs 18,000 per kg. The tea is a symbol of pure luxury.
The estate is owned by Swaraj K Banerjee, 61, aka Rajah Banerjee, the man behind the brand and the world’s oldest single-owner tea estate. Sipping on his ‘world’s finest tea’, he chuckles as he recalls how Silver Tip almost never happened. As a swaggering youth educated in the UK, he had returned home for just a few days to visit the estate which was then owned and run by his parents. His vacation never ended, in a sense. He had an accident. His horse, Invitation, threw him off its back. He stayed back to recover. And then he stayed forever. The accident altered the course of history of Darjeeling tea as well.
The story of Darjeeling tea is more than 160 years old. It began when A Campbell, a British civil surgeon, planted tea seeds in his garden at Beechwood Estate, 7,000 ft above sea level, just for kicks. That simple (and largely unplanned) act laid the foundation of the world's most famous tea industry. But when Banerjee began his tea estate baron career, things were not going that smoothly for Darjeeling tea despite its smooth fine taste. Most of the tea gardens were losing money: Some of them could not afford to buy even fertilisers and pesticides. They had little control over the geographical indication ‘Darjeeling Tea’ and the future mocked at them.
But they say necessity is the mother of inventions. Banerjee, for one, decided to go organic: “It was mostly a conscious decision, but partly compulsion as well. I realised that nature doesn't require any external help to sustain and evolve the myriad life forms that make up the ecosystem. How do so many varieties of trees exist cheek by jowl in a subtropical rain forest and sustain the wide diversity of organisms that exist in them? The mulch (a protective covering of leaves placed around tea bushes to prevent the evaporation of moisture) created wonderful topsoil, but millions of useful organisms were annihilated by a single dose of fertiliser. I, therefore, banned all chemical applications.”
Although these days the organic tag accords a luxury status, there is compelling economic logic behind this conversion. Contrary to popular perception, organic tea farming does not result in lower yields. It generally believed that organic farming leads to a crop loss of up to 50 per cent and a 50 per cent rise in production cost. But Banerjee’s experience is that organic tea yields are 15-20 per cent higher than those of regular teas and production costs come down in the long run. The cheapest organic teas sell for Rs 250 a kg compared to Rs 100 a kg for regular varieties. Thus, it presents planters with a win-win option.
Banerjee is not alone now. Taking a cue from his initiatives, the Darjeeling tea industry is reinventing itself in line with the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP), formulated by the government, which provides an institutional framework for implementing standards for organic products. There are, at present, 89 gardens in Darjeeling, covering an area of about 20,000 hectares. And more than 50 per cent of them have already gone organic. The growing global demand for organic tea is fuelling this organic revolution.
Since its introduction in the late 80s, organic tea consumption has been growing at 10 per cent annually. There is also a growing demand for organic tea within the country, mainly in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad. Organic tea is already extremely popular in the UK and Japan, the two largest export markets for this variety of tea. It is also gaining acceptance in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and — wonder of wonders — the US. Its reported therapeutic properties are also drawing increasing numbers of converts in these countries.
The way forward, according to a senior Tea Board official, “is to set up a few model organic tea estates and then launch a sustained awareness and brand promotion campaign for organic tea across the country and abroad. Planters will have to realise that this is the future and people at large will have to be made aware that organic tea is the safest for human health and the environment.”
Banerjee is certainly all for this. But to him, a model organic garden is what he has already done at Makaibari. “Makaibari spans 670 hectares over six separate ridges. Tea covers 270 hectares while woodlands cover twice that area. The tea is ensconced between the forests. Mind you, this makes supervision extremely difficult. In other plantations, tea is a contiguous carpet. This means that one has to work thrice as hard to cultivate tea at Makaibari. That’s how a model garden should be,” says Banerjee.
According to the Tea Board official, the law of unintended consequences has also started working in favour of the Darjeeling tea industry. Since most of these organic teas are single garden brands, there is very little scope for blending. This is expected to provide a fillip to the Darjeeling tea brand and arrest the widespread practice of blending only a small quantity of Darjeeling tea with teas from other regions and then selling the mixture as the real thing. Darjeeling produces only 11 million kg of tea in a year, but the total volume of “Darjeeling tea” sold worldwide is more than 20 million kg — a clear pointer that much of it is blended.
The growing worldwide preference for organic tea is obviously not without reasons. For Banerjee, the building of such a strong brand has not been a structured or conscious exercise. “I would say this is an evolution. It was actually the right initiative at the right time. Makaibari has become what it is today not thanks to ownership but thanks to strong partnerships with all its stakeholders. Women empowerment, community developments through initiatives like Makaibari Joint Board, Makaibari Ekta, offering home-stays to scholars and researchers, tourists (both domestic and foreign) has helped us immensely in connecting and stay connected with our stakeholders,” says Banerjee.
A chance meeting with Mertine Gaumet, a retired architect from France, a home-stay guest of one of the Makaibari Tea Estate families, proved how right Banerjee is. “I would not have known so many things if I had not come here. As soon as I am back I am going to write to all my friends and relatives about my experience out here. If I could I would even write a book on my Makaibari experience, so it could reach out to more people across the world,” says Gaumet.
Obviously, Rajah Banerjee, without compromising on the status, has found a way to mix luxury with the ordinary. Here’s to that cuppa.
Source: http://www.mydigitalfc.com/good-living/sippin%E2%80%99-luxury-889