Tea Conundrum

Why do Indian hotels often pay more for imported wines than for the high-quality teas from India? Has anybody ever questioned the number of expensive hotels that spend a lot of money on wine stewards, wine storage, and purchasing expensive wines? The wine stewards in the West are in charge of ordering specific wines from all over the world and compiling lists of them. He is thought to have the intelligence to not only choose which ones to order, but also negotiate a good price for them. He is then considered skilled at recommending pairings that work well together.

However, it is challenging to import wines from outside into India because of the stringent government restrictions on the importation and sale of wines there. Consequently, local wine stewards have restricted access to imported varieties of the alcoholic beverage. As a result, no matter where they are in the country, visitors are exposed to almost the same wines.

However, why do Indian hotels continue to ignore coffee and tea? The existing universal fact that there are only a few tea experts in the food and beverage sector worldwide may be used to answer the query. As a result, anyone may view finding a cup of “real” coffee at a hotel as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Why is tea not given due consideration by Indian hoteliers? In Paris or New York, where tea isn’t generally consumed, why is it simpler to find a tea menu at hotels (similar to a wine list)?

The Indians’ tea attitude is, in part, responsible for the situation. In reality, tea plantations in India are credited to the British. The tea plant was brought from China, and its cultivation began here. The Tea Board was mostly reliant on exports until about the early 1950s. As a result, the nation saw a rise in the local tea market after the government launched a campaign to convince the Indians to drink tea.

In the 1950s, the Indians were initially exposed to the tea as it is currently consumed and widely popular. The preparation of the version includes the use of a large amount of milk, sugar, and occasionally masala. Indians aren’t particularly concerned about using premium tea leaves during the preparation process because the type is “cooked” rather than created in the British or Chinese manner.

However, India is well-known throughout the world for producing some of the best teas. Similar to wine production, tea cultivation takes into account elements such as soil, microclimate, altitude, and others. Darjeeling in the Indian subcontinent area is one of the best places to see the shrub being grown. Without a doubt, Darjeeling produces some of the best tea leaves in the world. Tea leaves from other parts of the nation are also well-known. In reality, tea is regarded as one of India’s most well-known agricultural exports.

There is no doubt that the overall quality of the Indian beverage is, in many ways, superior to the best Indian wine now on the market. For example, compared to imported high-quality wines, the pricey teas from Darjeeling like Castleton, Makaibari, Margaret’s Hope, and others are significantly cheaper.

Then, why is it that Indian hoteliers continue to spend a lot of time and money on wine advisors, stewards, and imported wines that are frequently damaged or oxidized upon arrival at hotels and pose a risk to health?

Indians may appreciate the output from the West. Tea has lately caught the attention of restaurants, hotels, and stores in the West, but sadly, many Indian establishments have overlooked this effort. The latter, ideally, should keep serving the frequently oxidized types of imported wines.

In India, what happened to tea?

The age-old Crush, Tear, and Curl (CTC) method is used to process a significant portion of the tea that is consumed in India. This industrial method is typically used to teas of lower grades. However, the procedure produces teas that are well fragmented. Tea made from a similar version turns out nicely.

The only way to make a CTC tea palatable during preparation is to add a lot of milk and sugar. It is unimportant what methods are used to prepare the tea or what flavors are associated with it. Many Indians do consume this version of tea, in fact.

The majority of local tea firms in India welcomed the CTC method when it arrived in the 1950s because CTC teas are comparatively cheap. But the nation does export leaf teas, which are known to produce significantly superior flavors. Their production necessitates the use of cutting-edge techniques, such as the ‘orthodox’ method.

Indian tea is well-known worldwide, especially for its orthodox-processed versions.

In India, it is difficult for many restaurants and hotels to tell if they are using CTC teas. As a result, they are unwittingly providing room service to such clients.

Then, there are teabags. No one who truly adores tea should ever think about using teabags. Tea businesses in India are also aware of this, so they sometimes don’t mind including common tea varieties like CTC teas and others in teabags. A high-end hotel can never be genuinely considered a luxury establishment if it serves tea using tea bags. Sadly, a lot of hotels do this.

A fantastic luxury home never offers typical beverage characteristics. Then, each tea farm is linked to a unique kind of output. With wines, too, one may make comparable distinctions. As a result, visitors should be given full details about the origin, first flush, second flush, and other features of their tea selections, as well as the ability to choose their teas by plantation.

But this is not the case.

But there are joyful exceptions. R. K. Krishna Kumar, who was the head of the well-known luxury hotel company the Taj, outlawed the storage of teabags at any of the chain’s locations. As a tea enthusiast, he established a remarkable tea culture at the Taj by allowing the establishment to provide fascinating tea menus. He is credited with opening several restaurants that are well-known for their excellent teas, including the Taj Mahal Hotel’s Varq in New Delhi and the Taj Land’s End lounge. The latter is well recognized for its innovative use of teas and infusions, which are teas made entirely of herbs and tea leaves.

Then, Armando Kraenzlin, the first general manager of the Mumbai Four Seasons, was also interested in the concept of Indian tea. As a result, he was able to get the hotel’s tea from a source of exceptionally high grade. But he soon found himself in a difficult position. He chose comparable lodgings over installing kettles in the guest rooms. The practice was growing rapidly in response to visitors’ increasing preference for using tea bags to brew tea quickly in their rooms.

The reality that there was a market for high-end teabags was recognized by tea companies all over the world at the time, with the exception of those in India. As a result, Armando opted for a two-step procedure. The first phase was only purchasing premium Darjeeling tea, while the second phase was primarily about bagging it. Nevertheless, at the time, no Indian business consented to accept the order of carrying out only the second phase of the procedure. As a result, he contracted this work out to Dilmah in Sri Lanka. Consequently, it is a well-known Sri Lankan tea business that is recognized for bringing the high-end teabags to the Indian market.

When it comes to hotel operations, the choice of teabags to put in the rooms is seen as a minor consideration. In the context of luxury hotels, though, the same is not the case. Extreme attention to detail is what distinguishes this home.

Currently, perhaps a few hotel owners are concerned about the tea they provide. Instead of using teabags, which are packaged in a quite fashionable manner, many hotels may be seen. However, several outstanding hotel owners, including Biki Oberoi, created a unique tea blend just for their establishments. There are still a few unanswered concerns after that. Why do so many Indian hotels still brag about their wine expertise instead of focusing on promoting a sense of national pride in one of their well-known agricultural products and improving their guests’ experiences? In this day and age of Starbucks, why do some hotels persist in offering their visitors such bad coffee?