Two Sides Of The Same Coin

From its cultivation on elevated sites to its important role as a food pairing beverage, tea shares many similarities with wine.

- Lin Weiwen

Terroir isn’t exclusive to wine anymore. In recent years, the concept has been promoted by whisky makers and even gin distillers, sparking debate about whether these spirit producers are just bandying the sexy ‘T’ word as a marketing term.

Avid tea drinkers, however, would make a strong case for terroir in tea. Even a casual observer would notice that tea plantations, like vineyards, are grown at different elevations. Would a single tea type planted at different altitudes yield distinct flavours, much like how a cool climate varietal wine from a hilltop would sing a different tune from its sibling down in the valley?

Indeed, tea and wine have much in common.

“The personality of a tea is determined by environmental factors affecting the juices within the tea leaf, and thereby the flavour, aroma, and texture in tea,” says Dilhan C. Fernando, chief executive officer of Dilmah, a leading tea producer in Sri Lanka and one of the world’s biggest independent tea companies.

“The environmental influences on tea—the characteristics of terroir—are so significant that the light muscatel notes found in Darjeeling tea would be entirely different if the same tea bush were planted, grown and harvested in our Craighead estate,” says Dilhan, adding that climate conditions, quality of sunlight, slope aspect and mineral content in the soil are some of the factors contributing to the terroir in tea.

Applying wine concepts