Dear tea lovers:

I will talk about something really more sensitive and more political
matter about Darjeeling tea. We might all know one thing here is- the
ratio between Darjeeling tea's demand/supply and production doesn't
match. Sales of Darjeeling tea is more then production. Recently I was
talking with some Bangladeshi tea tasters and tea brokers who works
for some British company here in Chittagong( Is the largest and only
tea auction house here), Bangladesh. I got this shocking news from
them about Darjeeling tea. Nepal, another tea producing south Asian
country resembles the same taste as Darjeeling tea. The reason-Nepal
share border with India's Darjeeling region. Such as Shylet( The main
tea growing area in Bangladesh) share border with India's Assam
region. That's why Bangladeshi tea also resembles Assam tea. Though
some people say Bangladeshi tea is medium body( It's all depend which
quality tea they tried, I have tried full body Bangladeshi tea).

Everyday via Pashupatinagar Phatak -Mirik border ( Between Nepal and
India) 4000-5000 kg of green leaf is crossing into India (illegally)
and then they process in India. After that they sell them to
Calcutta's tea auction house. For this smuggling, Nepalese teas in
being hurt. Tea board of India Launched Darjeeling logo in 1983. It is
a symbol that verifies that the packet, caddy contains 100% pure
Darjeeling. In the year 2001 Nepalese chamber requested Tea board of
India to let them use the Darjeeling CTM logo. But so far no decision.
In this way Nepal is loosing a lot of money. I don't want to talk
about politics here or want to say whose fault. But my question is we
tea lovers love to drink Darjeeling tea and pay a good amount of
money. Some of us even feel we are helping those poor tea labors. Soon
I have a plan to tell you all- how those poor labors are exploited by
tea estate owner and also foreign brokers.

But my question is-HOW MANY OF US ARE REALLY DRINKING PURE DARJEELING
TEA OR PURE NEPALESE TEA?

For my book on tea soon I am heading to Calcutta, India and I will
try to get more information on this matter.

Thanks.
Ripon
(From Bangladesh)