YI – Young India – is a branch of the CII – Confederation of Indian Industry – meant to develop leadership qualities in budding entrepreneurs. We recently opened a branch in our tea city and I attended one of their meetings on e-fugen alonside enterprising future generations. It was simply a mind boggling experience to see these young kids bringing out business ideas and this is where I found the solution to India’s fledging tea industry.
India is the diabetic capital of the world – the highest number of diabetes patients by any count – simply because we are a sugar producing country. We are hooked to sugar because milk was our staple drink and both are good partners. Every occasion was an opportunity, and combinations were aplenty to suit the occasions like any other soft or hard drinks of the world.
The British added a dash of tea to it to take care of their excess production of the stuff on Indian soil, which was the unwanted byproduct of their much-wanted pirated Chinese crop, which at one time was as high as 75% of the total volume of imports. And thus was the milk tea culture born in India.
A simple change of scene from CTC to Pu’er will take care of both the Indian body as well as all the present ills of Indian tea industry. If you consider the swath of tea-growing area of present day Yunnan it extends to our tea town of Siliguri which is handling or centering one billion kilos of tea annually from Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Nepal, Darjeeling, Sikkim and Bangladesh.
I read only yesterday that the discovery of a 35 million year old fossil in Pu’er recently proved the nativity of tea in this area and simultaneously sugar was equally native to our land. Pu’er tea breaks down sugar in the human body as no other food can, and was considered medicine not long ago.
Along with BCIM – Bangladesh, China, India & Myanmar – we have BBIN – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India & Nepal – and our main crop is tea. Let us work on this idea to solve many of our local, regional, national and international problems highlighted by the BBC recently about the present status of the tea industry, whose problems are snowballing fast.
Change is the way of nature, and research institutions are a tool in the hands of business and industry to safeguard the health of society and save it from many angles – economically, commercially and technically.
Let us further this thought in various forums since what tea is for apart from pleasure – a medicine and the second cheapest beverage on Mother Earth.
Coming from a sugar addiction myself through Coca cola, I very much appreciate the need to switch to tea without anything added. My first enjoyment of green tea was in a blend with lemongrass, which helped to disguise the burned tea leaves that I was overheating and over steeping. Once I became comfortable with green tea, I learned how to properly brew the tea and then became a lover of orthodox teas. As you know, if brewed properly, green tea is delicious and sweet. Yes, Pu’er can help with sugar consumption but I think the key will be to help people readjust their pallets. Sugar is VERY bad for everyone. It contributes to obesity as well as numerous other ills such as diabetes. Getting people to shift away from sugar will the ultimate solution. I believe as you do that tea can hold the key for this. I applaud you for working with the younger generation of entrepreneurs. They have the skills and enthusiasm to impact considerable change. It’s a new world my friend.
I had a good read with this one
we added sugar to everything possible except chilli and salt and taught China too how to drink milk tea which of course can not be drunk until and unless mixed with sugar.
tea has never killed anybody but sugar has and that is what is dangerous and that is what has to be taken care of.