Topline Tea Co. (P) Ltd.

About Tea

• Tea means the plant Camellia Sinensis as well as all verities of the product, commercially known as tea, made from the leaves of the plant Camellia Sinensis including green tea. Tea which is available in the market is in fact ‘Made Tea’. Green leaves plucked from the tea bushes/ plants are manufacture into ‘Made Tea’ or ‘Tea’ in the tea factories through a series of manufacturing process.
  Made Tea or Tea manufacture from green tea leaves is generally classified into two types viz. Black Tea and Green Tea. Green Tea is different from Black Tea since fermentation of green leaves is arrested in manufacturing green tea. Again Black Tea is of two types viz. Orthodox Tea and CTC Tea. Orthodox Teas are manufactured with the help of orthodox roller in the process of rolling while CTC teas are manufactured with the help of CTC Machine/Rotovan in the rolling process. CTC stands for Crushing, Tearing and Curling.

  The Tea manufacturing or processing comprises the following phases:

  1) Withering
  2) Rolling
  3) Fermentation
  4) Drying
  5) Sorting and Grading
  

  Apart from Orthodox, CTC & Green Tea, Powder Tea which is known as instant tea is also being manufactured in India. Approximately 1000 million Kg. of made tea is produced in India in a year. Over 80% of the tea production in India is of CTC type. In the export market CTC Teas continue to be the most highly in demand.

  In India, there are three distinctly different tea growing regions. These regions are geographically separated. The three regions are Darjeeling (North Eastern India), Assam (far North-East India) and Nilgiri (South India). Apart from the above three distinct tea growing regions tea is also grow in Kerala, Karnataka. Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Sikkim, Odisha, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram & Meghalaya and in the adjacent plain areas of Dooars and Terai of West Bengal.

  Quality of Made Tea or Tea

  The quality of tea depends primarily on the nature and chemical composition of the plucked leaves of the plant belonging to the species of Camellia Sinensis which has its natural aroma. It again depends on the growing conditions, type and quality of the tea plant or bush and the kind of plucked leaf like coarseness and fineness etc. Only careful and proper processing will bring out the full potential of the green leaves. The quality of made tea varies between garden to garden and also between the teas manufactured at different times in a particular garden. The efforts of the tea manufacturer is generally aimed act to maintain the natural aroma in the made tea as far as possible.

  Types Of Tea :-

  The three major categories of teas resulting from different manufacturing process are Black Tea Green Tea and Oolong Tea. While Black Tea is widely used in India, Green tea is popular in China, Japan & Taiwan. Oolong is mainly produced in China & Taiwan. Small quantity of Green Tea & Oolong are also produced in India and Sri Lanka. Some other varieties of tea are Organic Tea, Decaffeinated Tea & Flavored Tea. The seeds of Darjeeling Tea were planted in 1841 but commercial production began only in 1852. By 1874 there were 113 Gardens in the Darjeeling district.

  Importance of following years in the Indian tea history:-

  1823 :- Birth of Indian Tea, The Assam Plant was found growing wild in either side of Brahmaputra river in the north east.
  1838 :- The first consignment of 12 boxes of Assam Tea was exported to England.
  1839 :- The first Consignment of 8 chest of Assam tea was put for auction in Calcutta.
  1881 :- The Indian Tea Association was born(ITA).