Book review 'Darjeeling': It’s divine. It’s Darjeeling.
It is like none other. A cup of Darjeeling tea. In heartwarming hues of pale gold or amber, ruddy brown or burgundy, with tastes ranging from fresh and delicate to floral, fruity and even musky, or simply vigorous and intense. Each flush or plucking cycle of this tea brings with it characters anew that remain unreplicated by any other region in the world. As Jeff Koehler puts it in his book, Darjeeling: A History of the World’s Greatest Tea, “Darjeeling has poise rather than the bounce of other Indian black teas, patience over velocity, can carry body as well as subtlety of grace. Its quiet, unadulterated elegance lingers on the palate.”
A travel and food writer, Koehler chose to live in Darjeeling and observe its tea gardens through an entire harvesting year to watch the changing seasons make their impact “and tasting those changes in the cup” in the quest of his fascination for the sheer purity and freshness of this tea. In the bargain, evidently, his wanderlust also found satiation for he has interleaved impressions of the glorious changing flushes with a vibrant narrative that brings to focus the several charms of this quaint Himalayan region and its people, even as he delves into the intriguing epic of how tea took seed here.
Koehler’s interactions with the tea industry, while being undoubtedly informative are also at times interesting portrayal of human characterisation. He goes on to describe the demeanour, with details of the attire and idiosyncrasies, of many of the tea planters he met and conversed with. Similarly, his descriptions of the simple, earthy, local tea workers: “Some minutes later, a girl with a moon-shaped face, large, dark eyes, and a white scarf looped loosely around her neck slipped quietly into the tasting room…” As a result, this book, in parts, holds the interest of a novel while being a work of insight into the subject.
There is the inevitable learning of the specialised nuances involved in Darjeeling tea processes — distinct in being crafted as orthodox rather than cut-tear-curled (CTC) in its withering, rolling, fermentation, drying and sorting. Koehler adeptly conveys the charged atmosphere at tea auctions as Darjeeling tea often commands an astronomical rise in price barometer for the gavel to fall. There are breathtaking private transactions too, as in the record sale of the celebrated “Silver Needle” white tea (a rare style of delicately processed tea made only from the buds, that originates from China) from a well-known Darjeeling tea garden at $460 or Rs 30,000 per kilo at an international tea championship event in Las Vegas in 2013. Also interesting is the author’s conjecture in the opening pages of the book: “Perhaps most tellingly, it fills, insiders whisper, the most selective, discerning teapots of all: those in Buckingham Palace.”
In keeping with its title, the author makes an incisive journey into the history of tea in Darjeeling — and the trail begins with Assam, where the first attempts of tea discovery were made in India. The early beginnings of tea drinking are attributed to China, in the south-western province of Yunnan, over 2,500 years ago, from where its popularity spread to Japan and Southeast Asia, Europe via the Portuguese, Dutch and the French and, finally, England, where tea became a near obsession. Consequently, British colonisers in early 19th century India, under the aegis of the British East India Company, advantageously grew opium in Bihar to illicitly barter it for tea from China. When this arrangement lost ground after the Opium wars, the Company finally initiated tea forays into Assam. After great struggles and experimentation, although the Assam tea leaf was well accepted, it was still felt that the China leaf was more floral and delicate, and Robert Fortune was dispatched to China to collect tea plants. This sequel to the tea epic ends with the ultimate success of smuggling about 20,000 Chinese tea plants in specially designed cases, along with tools and Chinese tea makers into Calcutta, from where some of these plants were sent to Darjeeling.
History lovers can clearly get their fill as Koehler offers some colorful details: “Arriving in Hong Kong in August 1848, Fortune travelled immediately… inland to the picturesque green tea producing areas around the Yellow Mountain region. A day out of Shanghai he had his head shaved, donned Chinese robes, and had his servant sew on a braided hair tail that hung nearly to his knees.” Koehler’s narrative is laced with choice quotes from his reservoir of reading and research. Days of the Raj in Darjeeling are brought back to life with cameos of 19th century tea planters. It is interesting to know that not all of them were English or Scottish. For instance, the German Wernicke-Stolke family of Lingia and Tumsong tea estates, or the Italian-born Louis Mandelli who managed Lebong & Minchu tea estate in 1864.
Moving out of the past, Koehler presents a picture of tea planters, tea gardens and the status of Darjeeling tea — most of which is exported — post-Independence. His prose inter-knits the responses and outlook of growers and tea merchants in this region to analyse the present state of affairs. There are, on one hand, improvements in soil conservation, pros and cons for gardens to go organic, the growing market for Darjeeling green tea, and on the other hand the problems of labour absenteeism, the bane of politics to contend with. Regardless, Koehler brings home the point that Darjeeling tea is almost celestial. A delicate “handicraft” that must survive all such hurdles. As a last word, he even offers some recipes, not only the perfect Darjeeling cuppa or various chai recipes, but goody accompaniments ranging from a local Darjeeling breakfast menu to local delights like garden momos and steaming thupka soup — and, in contrast, The Ritz of London’s tea scones. The many shades of Darjeeling Tea!
Rekha Sarin is the author of Chai: The Experience of Indian Tea
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