There are hundreds of individual estates in Assam and Darjeeling (and other
regions). But for most the info available is limited to a random sentence
or two in a tea dealer's catalog.

I've tried to search online for some general website (maybe a governmental
one, say) that lists the estates of a region, with some info about each. A
map would be nice, to give a feeling of the relation between estates. An
independent site that had discussion and evaluation of estates would be even
better. I also haven't seen anything dealing with individual estates on a
systematic level in any book.

This sort of info is readily available for wine (at least in books). Why
not tea? or is it?

"ggull" writes:

There are hundreds of individual estates in Assam and Darjeeling (and other
regions). But for most the info available is limited to a random sentence
or two in a tea dealer's catalog.

I've tried to search online for some general website (maybe a governmental
one, say) that lists the estates of a region, with some info about each. A
map would be nice, to give a feeling of the relation between estates. An
independent site that had discussion and evaluation of estates would be even
better. I also haven't seen anything dealing with individual estates on a
systematic level in any book.

This sort of info is readily available for wine (at least in books). Why
not tea? or is it?

This sort of info isn't readily available for Indian wines (they do
exist.) This sort of info is readily available for various sorts of
things in France, California, etc.

By the way, I'm not mocking you. I'd love to have a big map of the
Darjeeling tea gardens on my wall!

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

"ggull" wrote in message
...
There are hundreds of individual estates in Assam and Darjeeling (and
other regions). But for most the info available is limited to a random
sentence or two in a tea dealer's catalog.

I've tried to search online for some general website (maybe a governmental
one, say) that lists the estates of a region, with some info about each.
A map would be nice, to give a feeling of the relation between estates.
An independent site that had discussion and evaluation of estates would be
even better. I also haven't seen anything dealing with individual
estates on a systematic level in any book.

This sort of info is readily available for wine (at least in books). Why
not tea? or is it?


I had some sites bookmarked that listed the Assam estates but now when I
visit them they are gone (I was making up an excel spreadsheet just for my
own info). There's a page for Assam Company Limited at
http://www.assamco.com/tea.html that lists their estates (one of which is
Greenwood which I've liked tea from in the past). There's some others at
http://teaap2.indiateaportal.com/web...d=-1&include=Y

Google tea gardens directory India and that will give you some pages to
start.

Melinda, who has to get busy again with that project

"Lewis Perin" wrote ...
"ggull" writes:
.....
This sort of info is readily available for wine (at least in books). Why
not tea? or is it?

This sort of info isn't readily available for Indian wines (they do
exist.) This sort of info is readily available for various sorts of
things in France, California, etc.

Who'd 'a thunk? :-)
But wine, I imagine, is something of a sideline for India, while teas are
one of their best known exports and seem highly organized ... it's just we
don't have the secret decoder ring.


By the way, I'm not mocking you. I'd love to have a big map of the
Darjeeling tea gardens on my wall!

I didn't mean to restrict my question to India.
I'd also love to see some coherent info on the estates of Sri Lanka, or the
many varieties of China greens, or.... No books I've seen have anything
more than the vaguest of discussions, or a handfull of popular individual
estates/varieties. Tea vendors may wax fond of verbiage regarding what they
carry, but often provide little real description or comparison.

"Melinda" wrote

I had some sites bookmarked that listed the Assam estates but now when I
visit them they are gone (I was making up an excel spreadsheet just for my
own info). There's a page for Assam Company Limited at
http://www.assamco.com/tea.html that lists their estates (one of which is
Greenwood which I've liked tea from in the past). There's some others at
http://teaap2.indiateaportal.com/web...d=-1&include=Y

Thanks! This second, in particular, looks like a useful site.
For something similar to the first, see
http://single-estates.com/family_est...d74b15c05acd63
and
http://single-estates.com/select_est...nu=5&submenu=2

Google tea gardens directory India and that will give you some pages to
start.

Thanks. 'gardens' is maybe the missing term.
"some pages" -- some 29,000 of them! That should keep me occupied for an
afternoon or two ;-).

Melinda, who has to get busy again with that project

hola,

i'm making a site with this kind of info, at least this was the idea
to begin with that, to have information about shops, vendors,
producers, etc [even products, labels, etc, but in a second part]
involved in the world of tea, and with this objective information
contributed by people who want to participate and me from other sites,
books, places i know, etc to have a place and the opportunity to talk,
discuss about them. that will be the subjective part of this site, the
comments, written by people who visit the site.

i know groups like this one is a better place to discuss, you 'know'
the people you are talking with, and is, let's say, more free to use,
and participate... but a site like the one i'm proposing, is a database
with well sorted information. there are more sites like this one, i
mean web databases, and i think will be a very powerful and useful tool
in internet... we can discuss about it, of course...

i don't want to be the center of the place, i do this as a personal
project, but i'd like it could be useful. as you see is in one of those
free hostings sites with ads, but at the moment i can't pay for an
ad-free site.

i'm also interested in know places to buy tea or tea ware whenever i
plan a journey. i'd also liked to have information about producers, and
visit their installations if i ever travel to india or china, for
example, as people do in wineries here in spain or in many other wine
producers countries. and this is one of the reasons to begin with a
site like that. maybe is a complex way to obtain information, but i
think is a good way to share what we know, and not only me being the
one that benefits.

regards from madrid, spain
bonifacio barrio hijosa
http://worldoftea.webcindario.com/
... site in progress


ggull wrote:
There are hundreds of individual estates in Assam and Darjeeling (and other
regions). But for most the info available is limited to a random sentence
or two in a tea dealer's catalog.

I've tried to search online for some general website (maybe a governmental
one, say) that lists the estates of a region, with some info about each. A
map would be nice, to give a feeling of the relation between estates. An
independent site that had discussion and evaluation of estates would be even
better. I also haven't seen anything dealing with individual estates on a
systematic level in any book.

This sort of info is readily available for wine (at least in books). Why
not tea? or is it?

A truly wonderful idea - but I tried adding new data and the site is
extremely slow to respond would not accept the update.

Nigel at Teacraft


bbh2o wrote:
hola,

i'm making a site with this kind of info, at least this was the idea
to begin with that, to have information about shops, vendors,
producers, etc [even products, labels, etc, but in a second part]
involved in the world of tea, and with this objective information
contributed by people who want to participate and me from other sites,
books, places i know, etc to have a place and the opportunity to talk,
discuss about them. that will be the subjective part of this site, the
comments, written by people who visit the site.

i know groups like this one is a better place to discuss, you 'know'
the people you are talking with, and is, let's say, more free to use,
and participate... but a site like the one i'm proposing, is a database
with well sorted information. there are more sites like this one, i
mean web databases, and i think will be a very powerful and useful tool
in internet... we can discuss about it, of course...

i don't want to be the center of the place, i do this as a personal
project, but i'd like it could be useful. as you see is in one of those
free hostings sites with ads, but at the moment i can't pay for an
ad-free site.

i'm also interested in know places to buy tea or tea ware whenever i
plan a journey. i'd also liked to have information about producers, and
visit their installations if i ever travel to india or china, for
example, as people do in wineries here in spain or in many other wine
producers countries. and this is one of the reasons to begin with a
site like that. maybe is a complex way to obtain information, but i
think is a good way to share what we know, and not only me being the
one that benefits.

regards from madrid, spain
bonifacio barrio hijosa
http://worldoftea.webcindario.com/
... site in progress


ggull wrote:
There are hundreds of individual estates in Assam and Darjeeling (and other
regions). But for most the info available is limited to a random sentence
or two in a tea dealer's catalog.

I've tried to search online for some general website (maybe a governmental
one, say) that lists the estates of a region, with some info about each. A
map would be nice, to give a feeling of the relation between estates. An
independent site that had discussion and evaluation of estates would be even
better. I also haven't seen anything dealing with individual estates on a
systematic level in any book.

This sort of info is readily available for wine (at least in books). Why
not tea? or is it?

well, i'm very sorry to read that... because i'm afraid is not
on my hand to improve the speed of the site, i could make an advice on
the form page and give my own mail address to send the info by e-mail
, delete NOSPAM. before sending me a
message]

regards from madrid, spain
bonifacio barrio hijosa
http://worldoftea.webcindario.com/
... site in progress

writes:

This sort of info is readily available for wine (at least in books). Why
not tea? or is it?

Here´s a link to a small map of the Darjeeling tea estates. Together
with a magnifying glass and a little guessing I found it fairly useable
during some treks through the area.

http://www.teekampagne.de/de-de/7_0.html

That's what I've been looking for; thanks so much!

PS: I´d rather be affiliated with Nescafe than with those guys.

Please elaborate on this.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

Lew,
so called "Campaign teas" especially FF & SF Darjeelings clearly
dominate the german market in those sectors and have been discussed at
great length among tea lovers and professionals over here.

See:
http://germany.indymedia.org/2005/11/134178.shtml
http://www.projektwerkstatt.de/aes/teekamp.html

(in german) for a little insight.

Let me add a few quotes from one of their own webpages,
http://www.teekampagne.de/de-de/1_0.html

some describing their own teas in terms like: "highest quality", "we
sell excellent quality", ...
Over the years I drank quite a few cups of their teas and would not
describe them as being of the "highest" or "excellent" quality, I think
of them as rather inferior, below average stuff. I tend to compare them
to DJs I can easily get in Darjeeling for around 150-300 Rp (~4-7
US$/kg) as opposed to above mediocre stuff which starts at around
600-700 Rp/kg retail.

Another disconcerting statement from that page : "Wenn Sie den besten
Tee der Welt, Darjeeling, kaufen können, warum dann noch andere Tees
trinken? - in english" If you can buy the best tea in the world,
Darjeeling, why drink any other tea ? [sic!] leave me pondering how I
possibly can enjoy any of those "inferiour" teas like those coming from
Assam, Ceylon or China.

And so on, yadda yadda ...

My statement you´re referring to however is based on personal issues I
have with "campaigns" or "projects" of that sort which start out
politically motivated and change into something 100% capitalistic. As
usual I don´t intend to hold anybody back from making his/her own
experiences with their products.

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46']

I haven't read this one so I can't say for sure, but it seems like it would be along the general lines of what you're looking for.

The gunpowder gardens: Travels through India and China in search of tea
by Jason Goodwin

Thanks,
Bill

Tea Guy Speaks
http://wileng.blogspot.com/

Tea Industry News
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teaindustrynews/