Darjeeling teas could undergo a 3-4-pronged labelling, with specific logos, given that the taste and character of each ‘D’ cuppa varies across gardens, valleys and seasons.
KOLKATA: Does Darjeeling tea need more flavour? Yes, perhaps, when it comes to quality benchmarking.
For the first time, Darjeeling teas could undergo a 3-4-pronged labelling, with specific logos, given that the taste and character of each ‘D’ cuppa varies across gardens, valleys and seasons.
The customer, in that case, could perhaps identify the quality through a platinum, gold or silver logo on the tea packs.
Also, owing to its premium status among beverages, there is a plan to do away with the “bulk” variety, a common packaging format in teas. But introducing this may need a common packaging unit. The first phase of protecting Darjeeling teas has come about with patenting it under the Geographical Indications (GI) Act.
“Quality benchmarking is something which the industry is thinking of and various options are being considered. One of them is to have some sort of labelling for Darjeeling teas,” Kaushik Basu, secretary, Darjeeling Tea Association, said.
With 87 tea estates producing almost 10 million kg of tea, some of the Darjeeling gardens have distinctive flavours—in tea parlance, a peachy note, a rosy flavour, lemony or a wild flower flavour among others. Apart from a variance in tastes of teas in different gardens, each garden produces a different flavour during four seasons as well.
Ashok Lohia, chairman, Chamong Group, said: “There is a thought on benchmarking that can be done at the consumer level — like they have in service industries. For example, tea tasters could decide and identify a platinum batch of teas, with identifiable distinct characteristics.”
“The first threshold is to check on the purity, which is being done through the GI Act. The second phase will be labelling, which may take some time.
In fact, even at the estate level, there could be labelling in different seasons,” he added.
At present, the major big groups making darjeeling tea include the Chamong Group, B K Birla Jayshree Tea, Sanjay Bansal-controlled Ambootia Group, Goodricke Group and the Duncans. Other groups with over 5-6% share include the Bansals and Vinod Mohan-controlled Tea Promoters.
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