Nilhat House: Tasting the cup that cheers

A practice and a necessity adopted by his tribe ever for the reason that first tea public sale right here at Kolkata’s Nilhat Home on 11, R N Mukherjee Highway, precisely 161 years in the past on December 27, 1861.

“In a nutshell, you must take a look at how the (tea) leaf seems to be, how the infusion seems to be, after which the way it tastes … how brisk the cup is, how a lot flavour there’s to the cup, how is the ‘physique’ in it,” stated Sapru as he defined in layman’s phrases the mysteries of tea tasting by a uncommon breed of women and men in formal ties and blue workshop aprons.

J. Thomas & Co Pvt Ltd Director Arijit Dasgupta tastes tea at Nilhat Home. (PTI Picture/Swapan Mahapatra)

Nilhat, the world’s oldest and largest surviving tea public sale centre (the older London tea public sale shut store 24 years in the past), is situated a brief stroll from Kolkata’s bustling central enterprise district of Dalhousie and was named after the indigo (Nil) that was offered at this mart (hat) earlier than tea took over.

A lot of the 1,000-odd North Indian tea gardens, situated largely in Bengal and Assam, take part within the auctions right here, with broking corporations appearing because the “bridge between purchaser and vendor.” J Thomas & Co accounts for the biggest chunk of round 40 per cent of the roughly 550 million kgs of tea auctioned within the nation at numerous public sale centres.

“Tea high quality fluctuates due to quite a lot of elements, and due to this fact every pattern must be tasted and its high quality assessed,” stated Arijit Dasgupta, Director at J Thomas & Co.

Tasters need to maintain their palates clear, however “it’s a fantasy that they don’t seem to be allowed to drink,” stated Sapru.

Tea tasters through the years have developed their very own language: ‘Bakey’ means an disagreeable style as a result of the tea was dried at too excessive a temperature; ‘Brisk’ means a stay style to the liquor; ‘Even’ means the tea leaves are equal sized; ‘Chesty’ is a taint attributable to unseasoned tea chests; ‘Muscatel’, a flavour or aroma much like that of Muscat grapes, typically present in second flush Darjeeling tea.

Tea arrives from the gardens to warehouses the place they’re initially inspected after which catalogued after tea tasting and auctioned. Practically half of India’s tea crop is offered at auctions and the remaining are contracted by non-public gross sales.

Public sale consumers get a listing, a pattern for his or her impartial analysis together with brokers’ valuation “and through an public sale, it’s competitors between consumers that results in worth discovery,” defined Dasgupta, who fell in love with tea quickly after he joined a number of a long time in the past as a graduate administration trainee along with his employee-owned agency.

Employees combine tea leaves with scorching water for its liquor throughout tea tasting at Nilhat Home. (PTI Picture/Swapan Mahapatra)

Earlier, auctions occurred in one in every of two halls at Nilhat Home, with consumers bidding for the teas on supply. Nevertheless, e-auctions have been launched in 2009, ending the romance and rivalry which marked these gross sales, although high-value Darjeeling teas continued to be auctioned bodily on the ten-storey constructing until 2016, with a gavel deciding the customer and the ultimate worth.

“Now every week we have now e-auctions, and the customer has a two-week window to make the fee,” stated Dasgupta.

The consumers sit in anonymity of their places of work and bid with a click on of their mouse, however J Thomas’s auctioneers “nonetheless proceed to sit down within the outdated public sale corridor” formally dressed, “to conduct the auctions as they all the time did.” Most consumers are for the home Indian market, however brokers representing overseas consumers snap up a lot of the coveted Darjeeling and orthodox tea from Assam’s gardens.

“Now we have roughly 4 tea seasons – first flush in March-April, second flush in Might-June, Monsoon through the wet season when the standard isn’t that nice and Autumnal after that,” defined Sanjay Mukherjee, a tea guide specialising in exports.

Darjeeling district of Bengal nestled within the Himalayan foothills produces simply 7-8 million kgs of tea however sturdy demand for the leaf, typically referred to as the champagne of teas, from everywhere in the world retains costs excessive.

Employees combine tea liquor with milk throughout tea tasting at Nilhat Home. (PTI Picture/Swapan Mahapatra)

A PTI report on tea auctions at the start of the month confirmed that whereas CTC (Crush, tear and curl mechanically) tea offered at a median worth of Rs 192 a kg, orthodox tea (unfastened leaf processed semi-manually) offered at a median of Rs 262 a kg, whereas Darjeeling tea (additionally unfastened lengthy leaf however grown solely in Darjeeling district) averaged Rs 360 a kg, with a 3rd of it promoting for over Rs 500 a kg.

In September 2014, a kilo of tea from the Makibari tea property offered for a file of Rs 1.12 lakh, setting a file of kinds.
Totally different markets demand completely different sorts of teas. Dasgupta stated, “Japan likes high-value first flush, very delicate, floral varieties … they’re prepared to pay a premium for that.” Germans like orthodox teas.

“The UK is extra of a tea bag market, they need high-grade certification however are worth aware,” he added.

India’s home market has completely different wants for its teas – masala tea is most well-liked in western India, and Kashmir likes green tea with native infusions. Whereas milk tea is the de rigueur in most components of the nation, besides among the many higher crust of society in Kolkata itself, the place just like the Nilhat tasters, folks want their cuppa black with out milk and infrequently with out sugar.

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