#memory
International Tea Day.
21st May is International Tea Day.
I grew up in a village named Chettuthode near Kanjirapally in Kerala.
Our house was situated in a coffee plantation. There were both Arabica and Robusta varieties of coffee plants.
Rubber was yet to become the main cultivation. The climate was suitable for coffee and tea. I remember the tea factories in nearby places like Anakallu and Thidanadu.
We had only coffee in our house. The beans were dried, roasted and ground at home. The workers would take home the skin to be boiled and the water used as a beverage.
Tea was available only in tea shops and hotels.
I came to know about the varieties of tea only when, as a young civil engineer, I was posted in the Chukha Hydel Project Bhutan in 1979.
Tea planters were often companions in the train journey from Calcutta to Alipur Duar. I met a tea taster for the first time in life and was wonderstruck at his description of how tea is tasted and graded.
We had a liaison office and guest house in the border town of Phuntsholing. Lt.Col. (rtd) T J Jacob ( brother of the famous journalist and editor, TJS George) was in charge.
I would stay with him whenever I was down from Chukha, high up in the mountains. Col. Jacob belonged to the Gurkha Regiment and had decided to spend the rest of his life in the hills.
His cook was a Gurkha boy. Once he himself prepared a special tea and offered it to me. To his query about the quality of the tea, I honestly answered that I preferred coffee and the tea tasted like tea . He was furious and told me I will never again offer tea to uneducated boys like me. Daisy aunty rescued me saying, don’t bother about the Colonel.
The tea had come from a boutique tea estate Oodlabari and cost a fortune of Rs 36000 per kilogram.
Only later I came to know about the special small tea estates in Assam whose climate and soil resulted in the production of exclusive teas. The teas were fully exported and fetched fancy prices in the auctions.
Back in Kerala, I had close relatives like Joseph Kattookaran and Abraham Tharakan with the reputed firm of tea auctioneers, J Thomas.
I have my good friend in Rotary, WC, Wadakkethalakkal Cheriyan Thomas.
I admire those who can appreciate the delicacies of various teas. I still remain a coffee man and prefer the decoction, though Sasikala often gives me instant coffee. I was mighty pleased when everyone appreciated the coffee brought back from Bali and gifted it to the family members.
Best wishes on Tea Day
– Joy Kallivayalil.
p s : The tea incident turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Col Jacob would thereafter invite me to have a drink with him in the evenings, in spite of the fact that I was still quite young, and a bachelor too.
