Wafting Aroma, Health and Style

Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world, and the second most popular drink after water.

- Swarnendu Biswas

 

According to a report by ReportLinker, the widely consumed varieties of tea are black, green, oolong, and white teas, out of which black tea accounts for more than 60 percent of the global tea production and consumption, followed by green tea. Myriad lesser known types of this beverage such as yellow tea, pu-erh tea and blended teas are also there.

India’s association with tea is a long one. The consumption of tea in India was first documented in the Ramayana, though the country began experiencing commercial tea cultivation only during the British colonial rule, in the first half of the nineteenth century.

India’s Favourite Brew

During early 1820s, the British East India Company commenced large scale tea cultivation in the state of Assam. However, in the colonial era, tea drinking didn’t assume to be a nationwide habit. In India, tea garnered widespread nationwide popularity as a recreational drink during 1950s, in which the advertising campaign by the India Tea Board played an important role.

There is no denying the fact that despite the onslaught of coffee café culture across urban India during the recent years, tea is still the most popular beverage of India. Almost 90 percent of Indian households consume this healthy, aromatic and perennially popular beverage. In India, often the day begins with tea; the drink is also an integral part of our business discussions and social parleys. One of the reasons for the enduring popularity of teas in India could be that most of the teas are highly affordable, which is a major marketing factor for a by and large price-sensitive economy like that of India’s.