Tasting Tea in Munnar, India

Test Yourself on Tea

Sipping a cup of steaming hot tea did you ever consider where the tea leaves that flavor your beverage came from or how they grew?  It is amazing how so many every day activities such as drinking a cup of tea occur without thought or consideration, as if tea bags grew on trees. In fact, tea bags do not grow on trees but tea leaves grow on sturdy plants that look like miniature trees.

On our recent trip to Munnar in Southern India, we entered the world of tea. Slow travel affords the opportunity to immerse in cultures and experiences.  This time it was tea! Munnar, a hill station established by the British to afford a cool escape from the sultry weather of coastal Kerala, continues to draw  tourists from all over India and the world seeking and finding a temperate climate and world class scenery.  Walking in the undulating hills of tea estates planted by the British in the 19^th Century, these emerald fields are still producing tea today.  The tea gardens in their immaculate and orderly formations of tea plants, are a treat for the eye and a respite for the soul.

All About Tea

Walking through the gardens we realized how little we actually knew about tea and took this wonderful opportunity to immerse ourselves in tea horticulture and tea tasting.  Visiting the Tea Museum that was founded in 2005 by Tata Tea, we learned about the history of tea cultivation in the Munnar region. We were treated to a guided tea lesson in the adjacent factory.  Did you know, for example, that all varieties of tea, whether black, white, or green grow from the same plant?  What distinguishes the various types of tea is how it is processed. All tea is hand picked and in the case of white tea- only the buds are picked, while green tea includes both tea buds and leaves. Black tea is comprised only of leaves. We began to understand  why the tea bushes look so well tended and trimmed.  The tea plants themselves are quite old.  The tea buds and leaves are harvested exclusively from the very top of the plant.  The plant gets a haircut every three months or so and thus the manicured well tended gardens.

After walking through the tea gardens, learning about the history of tea, and watching the leaves undergo processing in the factory, it was now time to taste some tea and understand the subtle differences of the various varieties.  Some of the variables that come to play in both quality, flavor and price include the altitudes at which the tea is grown, the amount and kinds of pesticides used, and of course the processing that occurs after the tea buds or leaves have been hand picked.

Tea Tasting in Kaivalyam Wellness Retreat

In the lovely dining room of the Kaivalyam Wellness Retreat in the Munnar district, our host, Harish, carefully puts a teaspoon of six different teas into six bowls.  I wonder how we will actually taste the tea, but no worries, Harish has it all figured out.  First he explains how the various teas are harvested from the same plant, and then processed.  This proved to be a wonderful review for all we had earned earlier in the day at the tea factory.  Then he proceeded to describe the various tastes we might experience in different parts of our tongue and mouth.  This sounded suspiciously like a wine tasting.  In fact, experts in tea tasting have well developed palates and equally well developed vocabularies for describing the various tastes: citrusy, floral, raspberry, green, fresh, smoky, roasted and more.  As a novice taster it was not always easy for me to identify the tastes.  I tended to the, “I like” or “I don’t like” kind of review.

Savoring Slow Travel in a Cup of Tea

By the end of our stay in Munnar we had amassed many different varieties of tea to bring home both for gifts and for ourselves.  As I put the finishing touches on this post, I am sipping a cup of rose flavored green tea and am immediately transported back to the rolling green hills of Munnar, and the feeling of peace and wellbeing that is a hallmark of slowly travelling through this region of the world. .