Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, next only to water and well ahead of coffee,beer, wine and carbonated soft drinks of world. Tea beverage is an infusion of the dried leaves of Camellia sinesis,a member of Theaceae family. It is an evergreen shrub or tree that can grow to a height of 30feet, but is usually clipped to a height of 2.5feet in cultivation. Darjeeling situated in the foothills of the Himalayas range 6700ft above sea level is world renowned for its tea.
‘Two leaves and a bud’, “two leaves and a bud” through this movement the tea workers in Darjeeling pluck and fill their ‘doko’ (basket). In the strict sense of Tea terminology Darjeeling’s black tea is typically termed as Black Orthodox Tea. As the term “Orthodox” suggest the old semi mechanical manufacturing process. Plucking and Trough loading are done manually but the other process is done through machines.Utmost care is given while making Darjeeling black tea as it fetches notable amount of money from the national and international market. That is why Darjeeling tea is also termed as “Green Gold”.”Where there is tea, there is hope.”
Written by Farhut Zia
