Indian tea culture

India is the second largest producer of tea in the world after China, including the famous Assam tea and Darjeeling tea. According to the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, there are plans to officially recognise tea as the “National Drink” in 2013. Tea is also the 'State Drink' of Assam. According to the ASSOCHAM report released in December, 2011, India, as the world’s largest consumer of tea uses nearly 30 percent of the global output. Despite the consumption, India is also the largest exporter of tea after China.

The practice of Ayurveda has resulted in a long-standing tradition of herbal teas. Traditional Indian kitchens have long utilised the medicinal benefits offered by various plants and spices such as holy basil (Tulsi), cardamom (Elaichi), pepper (Kali Mirch), liquorice (Mulethi), mint (Pudina), etc., and traditionally, teas made with these plant leaves or spices have been in use for centuries for maladies ranging from the serious to the trifling. Tea is also mixed with these traditional herbs. The taste of chai (sweet and milky) helps disguise the stronger and more bitter flavours of some of the medicinal additives, while other, more pleasant flavours such as cardamom and ginger add a pleasing flavour and aroma to the tea along with health benefits.

Consumption of tea in India was first clearly documented in the Ramayana (750-500 BCE). For the next thousand years, documentation of tea in India was lost in history. Records re-emerge during the first century CE, with stories of the Buddhist monks Bodhidharma and Gan Lu, and their involvement with tea. Research shows that tea is indigenous to eastern and northern India, and was cultivated and consumed there for thousands of years. Commercial production of tea in India did not begin until the arrival of the British East India Company, at which point large tracts of land were converted for mass tea production.

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