Here comes white tea

Bijay Sankar Bora in Guwahati

Care for tea — white tea, straight from Assam’s Brahmaputra and Barak Valley regions? It is the costliest among all varieties of specialty tea: the average price is around Rs 10,000 per kg. Known for health properties, white tea comes from unopened tea buds rich in anti-oxidants helping in boosting cardiovascular health, lowering cholesterol and helping in weight reduction. 

When you think of Assam tea, you usually refer to the CTC variety that gives strong flavour. Growing orthodox variety of tea has been an age-old practice in Assam tea estates. In recent years, a few planters and tea manufacturers have taken to producing specialty tea varieties such as green, red and white tea as these varieties are sold at very high prices in the domestic as well as in the global market. This is at a time when the prices of conventional varieties have not shown much upswing in tune with the steep rise in cost of production. So, white tea offers the planters an opportunity to earn extra. But it takes efforts. 

White tea production began in Assam — the land of the brew — about five years back. Around 50 enterprising tea planters in the state tried to experiment beyond the usual CTC variety. Dinesh Bihani, secretary of tea buyer’s association in Guwahati Tea Auction Centre, says the planters were out to tap the global market of high-end tea users who prefer white tea for its health benefits.

“The cost of manufacturing white tea averages Rs 2,000 per kg. The process requires expertise right from plucking suitable unopened buds from the tea gardens,” Bihani said.

Planters in Assam produce around 10,000 kg of white tea per year. They sold the product directly to high-end users within and outside the country. The Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC), the largest CTC tea auction center in the country, started a programme to encourage selling of the specialty tea varieties through auction. It met with some success.

“The brew made from tea plant Camellia sinensis is light and delicate with a slightly sweet flavour. The unopened tea buds have lots of constituents that are beneficial for human health,” says Ramen Gogoi, a researcher in Tea Research Station (TRS) of the Tea Research Association (TRA) at Tocklai in Jorhat, the eastern Assam tea town. The TRS provides training to planters in manufacturing specialty tea varieties.

“Tea plantation in one acre yields about 1,200 unopened tea buds required for white tea manufacturing. These buds can produce only two kg of white tea while such one acre of plantation can produce 1,200 kg of green tea leaves. At least four expert tea pluckers are needed per acre to collect these buds,” says Gogoi. “Sri Lanka has been the leader in white tea production.” 

Across the entire North-East, white tea production is limited to a few pockets of Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. Tara tea estate in Meghalaya, which sells white tea under the La Kyrsiew brand, has received an “overwhelming” response from its customers. The garden makes only 20-30kg of white tea out of its total production of 2,200kg a year.

The record price for white tea at GTAC is held by Donyi Polo tea estate of Arunachal Pradesh. White tea from the garden was sold at Rs 12,001 a kg at the auction in September last year.