Darjeeling
Page 31
While over the years I have visited many of the world’s tea-producing areas, none managed to seduce or intrigue me like Darjeeling—the tea itself, the hills, the industry’s history, a garden’s archaic structure, the warmth of the people. I long wondered exactly how and why the tea grown here is, simply, the finest, and why it could not be replicated elsewhere.
To find out, it took closely following an entire harvesting year and spending time on Darjeeling’s gardens during each of the year’s four flushes, from the opening first flush in March to the end of the autumn one in November, watching the tea change with the seasons—and tasting those changes in the cup.
While the book is supported by broad reading and research, the secrets of Darjeeling’s uniqueness were ultimately revealed by hanging out with industry experts in Kolkata and Delhi and, most important, with tea planters, supervisors, pluckers, and tea-factory workers on sixteen Darjeeling estates (and as an anonymous interloper on many others). Accompanying them in the fields among bushes they know intimately, checking tea fermenting on long beds, and joining the ritual of daily batch tastings, I came to appreciate the handicraft nature of Darjeeling tea. But I also learned of the deep and urgent challenges the storied industry is battling.
In researching this book in India I relied heavily on the generosity of others, quite often strangers. I was treated with surprising openness in the secluded, generally private, and often secretive world of Darjeeling tea, welcomed with chaat and biscuits, momos, and full lunches, as countless people generously shared their experience and knowledge. And, of course, tea. There were many hundreds of cups of tea not only in tasting rooms but also to leisurely drink on the verandahs of managers’ bungalows. Afterward, I was inevitably sent on my way with bulging foil packets of tea leaves from the day’s choicest batch, just fired and barely yet cooled, to sustain me between visits.
I would particularly like to thank the following, beginning with people on the estates: Jay Neogi, Krishnendu Chatterjee, and Sumit Jha (Ambootia); Sumit Kumar (Bannockburn); Parminder Singh Bhoi (Castleton); Mukul Chowdhury (Ging); Sanjay Sharma, Husna-Tara Prakash, Jenni Bolton, Darlene Khan, and staff (Glenburn); Ashok Kumar, Prem, and staff (Goomtee); Rishi Saria (Gopaldhara); B. N. Mudgal, S. K. Choudhary, and Shantanu Kejriwal (Jungpana); Shankar Lal Chaudhury (Lingia); Rajah Banerjee, Kuldip Basu, Indrey Sarki, Sanjoy Mukherjee, Nayan Lama, and Maya Chettrini and family (Makaibari); Vijay Dhancholia and Normal Chhetri (Marybong); H. R. Chaudhary (Namring); B. B. Singh and Shiv Saria (Rohini); Satish Mantri (Singbulli); Suman Das (Thurbo); and Rajesh Pareek (Tukvar).
In Darjeeling, special thanks go to Sandeep Mukherjee at the DTA; Girish Sarda, Vijay Sarda, and Sailesh Sarda at Nathmulls; Elizabeth Clarke, Tinduf-La, and staff at the Windamere Hotel; the staff of the Elgin Hotel; Shabnam Bhutia and staff at the Planters’ Club; Maya Primlani and staff at the Oxford Book & Stationery Co.; the family at Kunga’s restaurant; and R. N. Chatterjee. In Kurseong, thanks to Ravindra Kang, Laltu Purkait, and staff at the Cochrane Place Hotel. In Kolkata, thanks to Anindyo Choudhury, Sabyasachi Choudhury, Karanvir Singh Chadda, Kavi Seth at J. Thomas & Co.; Sujoy Sengupta at Chamong Tee; and Vinita Mansata at Earthcare Books. In Delhi, deep appreciation to Sanjay Kapur and assistants at Aap Ki Pasand, and Vikram Mittal and assistants at Mittal Stores. And in Munnar, Kerala, Sanjith Raju at KDHP.
A special thanks to those in India who patiently answered my many follow-up questions on the phone and by e-mail, checked details for me, and dug up statistics: Anindyo Choudhury, Vijay Dhancholia, Ravindra Kang, Vikram Mittal, Jay Neogi, Girish Sarda, Rishi Saria, and Sanjay Sharma. Much appreciated!
Outside of India, thanks to Steven Smith of Steven Smith Teamaker, Malcolm Gardner and Judith Kiely at the Rudolf Steiner Library of the Anthroposophical Society in America, Kiran Tawady of Hampstead Teas in London, and Salvador Sans at Sans & Sans in Barcelona.
For all of those friends who have shared pots of tea over the years (and all over the globe), many thanks for teaching me how much the drink can mean.
Deep appreciation goes to my agent, Doe Coover, who has been integral to this book from its inception.
At Bloomsbury USA, I wish to wholeheartedly thank George Gibson for his early enthusiasm, strong guidance, and keen editing. Also thanks to Rob Galloway, Nathaniel Knaebel, Laura Phillips, Gleni Bartels, and eagle-eyed copyeditor Steve Boldt. At Bloomsbury UK, Michael Fishwick, Oliver Holden-Rea, and Anna Simpson. At Bloomsbury India, special warm-hearted thanks to Diya Kar Hazra for her insight and enthusiasm. Also to the rest of the crew. And also to Anurima Roy, Yogesh Sharma, and the rest of the Delhi team. And those at Bloomsbury Australia.
And finally to my parents, Bill and Joanne and in-laws Tomàs and Rosa, for their help while I was researching the book. And to Eva, Alba, and Maia for their patience at my lengthy absences as I disappeared into the Darjeeling hills and then, once back home, my office.
Notes
TWO LEAVES AND A BUD
1. Main sources for details on the auction are the Fall 2003 Upton Tea Newsletter; various contemporary newspaper articles; and a piece from the July 28, 2003, issue of Outlook, J. Thomas & Co. records; and an interview with the auctioneer at the time, Kavi Seth.
2. Singh, “Makaibari Tea Estate.”
3. Statistics from J. Thomas & Co.
4. Pratt, “Darjeeling—Part 3.”
5. “2003 Makaibari Silvertips.”
6. O’Connor, “Starbucks Opens Its First Tea Bar.”
7. Indian Tea Association Web site, “Chronology.”
8. Gandhi, Key to Health, 24.
CHAPTER 1: INTO THE HILLS
1. Forster, Passage to India, 96.
2. Ali, Field Guide to the Birds of the Eastern Himalayas, xi.
3. Twain, Following the Equator, 529.
4. Hooker, Himalayan Journals, 101.
5. Ibid., 103.
6. Ghosh, Hungry Tide, 6.
7. O’Malley, Bengal District Gazetteer: Darjeeling, 73.
CHAPTER 2: JOURNEY FROM THE EAST
1. Heiss and Heiss, Story of Tea, 4.
2. Ibid., 6.
3. Ibid., 7.
4. Hohenegger, Liquid Jade, 72.
5. Fisher, Way of Tea, 64.
6. Yü, Classic of Tea, 107.
7. Ibid., 111.
8. Sōshitsu, Japanese Way of Tea, 10.
9. Ibid.
10. Watts, Way of Zen, 86.
11. Ibid., 190.
12. Ibid.
13. Okakura, Book of Tea, 1.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid., 64.
16. Ibid., 35.
17. Ibid., 11.
18. Ukers, All About Tea, 1:38.
19. Okakura, Book of Tea, 7.
20. Ukers, All About Tea, 1:23.
21. Ibid., 1:24–25.
22. Moxham, Tea, 27.
23. Wheeler, Early Records of British India, 22.
24. Illustration in Ukers, All About Tea, 2:294.
25. Ibid.
26. Cowper, Selected Poems, 40.
27. Ukers, All About Tea, 1:27.
28. Churchill, Poetical Works of Charles Churchill, 20.
29. Johnson, “Review of A Journal of Eight Days’ Journey.”
30. Illustration in Ukers, All About Tea, 2:294.
31. Pettigrew and Richardson, New Tea Companion, 12.
32. Yü, Classic of Tea, 50.
CHAPTER 3: THE COMPANY
1. “Tea,” Asiatic Journal, 775.
2. Keay, Honourable Company, 24.
3. Ibid., 25.
4. Robins, Corporation That Changed the World, 43.
5. Keay, Honourable Company, 111.
6. Ibid., 81.
7. Robins, Corporation That Changed the World, 44.
8. Keay, Honourable Company, 78.
9. Robins, Corporation That Changed the World, 46.
10. Ali, Twilight in Delhi, x.
11. Robins, Corporation That Changed the World, 68.
12. Cavendish, “Black Hol
e of Calcutta.”
13. James, Raj, 30.
14. Robins, Corporation That Changed the World, 3.
15. Ibid., 73.
16. Ibid., 143.
17. Ali, Twilight in Delhi, x.
18. Ukers, All About Tea, 1:44.
19. Ibid., 1:73.
20. Ibid., 1:99.
21. Ibid.
22. Moxham, Tea, 27.
23. Robins, Corporation That Changed the World, 109.
24. Ukers, All About Tea, 2:130.
25. “History and View of the Tea Trade,” 345.
26. “Tea,” Asiatic Journal, 775.
27. Griffiths, Tea, 96.
28. Keay, Honourable Company, 430.
29. Ibid., 431.
30. Hanes and Sanello, Opium Wars, 19.
31. Keay, Honourable Company, 431.
32. Boorstin, Discoverers, 176.
33. Chopra, Indigenous Drugs of India, 205.
34. Watt, Papaver Somniferum, 19.
35. Dormandy, Opium, 64.
36. Watt, Papaver Somniferum, 19.
37. Martin, Statistics of the Colonies, 366.
38. Fay, Opium War, 14.
39. Griffiths, Tea, 242.
40. Trocki, Opium, Empire, 32.
41. Robins, Corporation That Changed the World, 157.
42. Trocki, Opium, Empire, 71.
43. Keay, Honourable Company, 452.
44. Fay, Opium War, 18.
45. Haines and Sanello, Opium Wars, 37.
46. Ibid., 55.
47. Dormandy, Opium, 139.
48. Ukers, All About Tea, 1:7.
49. Hanes and Sanello, Opium Wars, 156.
50. Griffiths, Tea, 95.
51. Dormandy, Opium, 151.
CHAPTER 4: AN INDIAN TEA INDUSTRY
1. Barua, Urban History, 47.
2. Ukers, All About Tea, 1:135.
3. Barua, Urban History, 47.
4. Ibid.
5. Griffiths, History of the Indian Tea Industry, 36.
6. Original Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, 8.
7. Kew Gardens Web site, “About Nathaniel Wallich.”
8. Arnold, “Plant Capitalism,” 917.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., 918.
12. Ibid., 917.
13. Mann, Early History of the Tea Industry, 6.
14. Ferguson, Empire, 142.
15. Ukers, All About Tea, 1:138.
16. Griffiths, History of the Indian Tea Industry, 41.
17. Dormandy, Opium, 130.
18. Griffiths, History of the Indian Tea Industry, 40.
19. Ibid., 41.
20. Ibid.
21. “Copy of Papers Received from India,” 99.
22. Ibid.
23. Mann, Early History of the Tea Industry, 12.
24. Griffiths, History of the Indian Tea Industry, 47.
25. Ukers, All About Tea, 2:145.
26. Bruce, Account of the Manufacture, 16.
27. Griffiths, History of the Indian Tea Industry, 45.
28. Ukers, All About Tea, 2:145.
29. Moxham, Tea, 99.
30. Scott, Great Tea Venture, 160.
31. Ibid, 2:99.
32. Bruce, Account of the Manufacture, 7.
33. Ibid., 8.
34. Ibid., 15.
35. Griffith, Journals of Travels in Assam, 15.
36. Griffiths, History of the Indian Tea Industry, 51.
37. Ibid.
38. “First Public Sale of the Newly Discovered Assam Tea,” 339.
39. Ukers, All About Tea, 1:147
40. Griffiths, History of the Indian Tea Industry, 69.
41. Mann, Early History of the Tea Industry, 30.
42. Ibid., 13.
43. Ibid., 36.
44. Griffiths, History of the Indian Tea Industry, 58.
45. “Tea in India.”
46. Moxham, Tea, 114.
47. Roy, Historical Review of Growth, 168.
48. Griffiths, History of the Indian Tea Industry, 127.
49. Ibid., 129.
50. Ibid., 144.
51. Paul, Story of Tea, 67.
CHAPTER 5: CHINA LEAF
1. Dunse History Society Web site, “Robert Fortune.”
2. Rose, For All the Tea in China, 8.
3. Fortune, Journey to the Tea Countries of China, 165.
4. Ibid., 355.
5. Ibid., 414.
6. Ibid., 356.
7. Ibid.
8. Rose, For All the Tea in China, 198.
9. Harcourt, Flagships of Imperialism, 100.
10. Kipling, Land and Sea Tales, 35.
11. Keay, India Discovered, 21.
12. Fortune, Journey to the Tea Countries of China, 358.
13. Ibid., 362.
14. Ibid., 363.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid., 398.
18. Ibid.
CHAPTER 6: DARJEELING
1. Hooker, Himalayan Journals, 106.
2. Lamb, British India and Tibet, 68–69.
3. Hooker, Himalayan Journals, 113.
4. Lamb, British India and Tibet, 69.
5. Ibid., 70.
6. O’Malley, Bengal District Gazetteer: Darjeeling, 21.
7. Pinn, Darjeeling Pioneers, 35.
8. Banerjee and Banerjee, Darjeeling Tea, 4.
9. Pinn, Road of Destiny, 35.
10. Hooker, Himalayan Journals, 137.
11. Ibid., 120n.
12. Campbell, “Note on the Lepchas of Sikkim,” 383.
13. Hooker, Himalayan Journals. 121.
14. Ibid.
15. Lepcha, “Indigenous Lepchas,” 81.
16. Ibid., 78.
17. Lingdamo, “Philosophy of the Lepcha Religion,” 59.
18. Sarkar, “Lepcha Community in Darjeeling Hills.”
19. Lama, Story of Darjeeling, 49.
20. Pinn, Road of Destiny, 269.
21. Moon, British Conquest of India, 724.
22. Malleson, History of the Indian Mutiny, 84.
23. Pinn, Road of Destiny, 281.
24. Ibid., 178.
25. Darjeeling District Web site, “History.”
26. Darjeeling District Web site, “Time Capsule.”
27. Pinn, Road of Destiny, 275.
28. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 379.
29. Ibid., 391.
30. Pinn, Road of Destiny, 274.
31. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 391.
32. O’Malley, Bengal District Gazetteer: Darjeeling, 22.
33. Ibid., 32.
34. Ghosh, Tea Gardens of West Bengal, 22.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. Nest & Wings Guide to Darjeeling, 49
38. Hooker, Flora of British India, vi.
39. Lamb, British India and Tibet, 75.
40. Hooker, Himalayan Journals, 91.
41. Ibid., 92.
42. Lama, Story of Darjeeling, 40–41.
43. See the lenghty 1846 memorandum by Under Secretary to the Government of India titled “On the Connection of the Sikkim Rajah with the British Government, and Dr. Campbell’s Reports of the Rajah’s Unfriendliness,” reproduced in Fred Pinn’s The Road to Destiny (282–297), for the complete and tangled history of the transaction.
44. Darjeeling District Web site, “History.”
45. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 385.
46. Griffiths, History of the Indian Tea Industry, 88.
47. Dash, Bengal District Gazetteer, 113.
48. Ghosh, Tea Gardens of West Bengal, 27.
49. Dash, Bengal District Gazetteer, 114.
CHAPTER 7: TERROIR TO TEACUP
1. Banerjee and Banerjee, Darjeeling Tea, 323.
CHAPTER 8: A DECISION FOR THE MOUTH TO MAKE
1. Lord of Darjeeling.
2. Yü, Classic of Tea, 74.
CHAPTER 9: KNOCKING DOWN
1. Anindyo Choudhury.
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br /> 2. Kumar, Indigo Plantations and Science, 128.
3. “J. Thomas & Company Bets on Tea Bull Run.”
4. Langewiesche, “Million-Dollar Nose.”
5. Sanyal, “What I’m Today Is due to Tea.”
6. “Orthodox, CTC Varieties Quote Higher.”
7. Priyadershini, “A Tea Time Story.”
8. J. Thomas & Co. Web site, “People.”
9. Burke, Annual Register, 154.
10. Bolton, “EU Grants Darjeeling Protected Geographical Status.”
CHAPTER 10: THE RAJ IN THE HILLS ABOVE
1. Morris, Stones of Empire, 2.
2. Judd, Lion and the Tiger, 101.
3. Hastings, “How the British Did It.”
4. Dalrymple, “Plain Tales from British India.”
5. Ibid.
6. Ferguson, Empire, 39.
7. Keay, Honourable Company, 422.
8. Robins, Corporation That Changed the World, 17.
9. Dalrymple, “White Mischief.”
10. Jack, “Prince William’s Indian DNA Piques Interest.”
11. Kipling, Collected Poems, 245.
12. Allen, Plain Tales from the Raj, 46.
13. Smith, Afternoon Tea Book, 29.
14. Dalrymple, “Plain Tales from British India.”
15. Ukers, All About Tea, 2:67.
16. Scott, Day of the Scorpion, 256.
17. Sherman, “Viceroys and Indians.”
18. Kipling, Plain Tales from the Hills, 171.
19. Dalrymple, “Plain Tales from British India.”
20. Das, India Unbound, 15.
21. Morris, Heaven’s Command, 269.
22. Moorhouse, India Britannica, 145.
23. Herbert, Flora’s Empire, 61.
24. Wright, Hill Stations of India, 18.
25. Steel and Gardiner, Complete Indian Housekeeper, 190.
26. Morris, Heaven’s Command, 269.
27. Morris, Pax Britannica, 262.
28. Kipling, Collected Poems, 81.
29. Moorhouse, India Britannica, 145.
30. Ibid., 146.
31. Steel and Gardiner, Complete Indian Housekeeper, 53.
32. Lama, Story of Darjeeling, 145.
33. Sannial, History of Darjeeling, 95.
34. Hobbes, Imperial India, 67. John Oliver Hobbes was the pen name for Anglo-American novelist Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie.
35. Ibid., 70.
36. Orwell, Burmese Days, 14.