Jorhat: Assam’s tea gardens are brewing something more earthy this time. Tea which has been a roaring industry in the state and is woven into the state’s fabric, is battling use of chemicals that has cast a shadow over its reputation. But not everyone is sitting silent. In a Nagadera village at Mariani, one person is growing a different tea – one that is organic, innovative, and good for health as well.

Meet Krishna Prasad Sarmah, the tea grower who has been trying his hands at experimenting with an unusual ingredient – bamboo leaves.

Sarmah who got into tea business in 1996, faced challenges about five years ago and decided to go completely organic. On a two-bigha tea garden area near his home, he planted tea bushes without using chemicals. “Before COVID struck, I had completely gone organic and experimented with green tea. For this I had to unlearn what I had learnt and also underwent training before launching my own blends,” he says.

He first began with green and orthodox teas which were sold under the names – Lipi Organic Tea and Dipi Organic Tea, after his daughters. These tea blends soon caught the taste buds of customers which included scholars from the Tocklai Tea Research Centre, students of Assam Agricultural University, and tourists who visited the nearby Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary.

With growing fad for healthy products, he started making blue tea experimenting a blend of green tea with Aparajita (butterfly pea) flowers which were grown in his own garden. The colour that came out was striking to draw attention, not to mention the delicate flavour it had. After the blue tea clicked with tea lovers, Sarmah started a daring experiment with bamboo leaf.

After trials and research, Sarmah found the bamboo brew had a refreshing flavour and potential health benefits. His trials on the tea is still on but once the testing phase gets over, he plans to launch it in the market. “People being health-conscious, they do not mind paying more for something that is good for their health and chemical-free,” he quickly adds.

And Sarmah is now planning to create something unique – a green tea infused with night-flowering jasmine blossoms. Plans are on the anvil to launch it the coming year.

For the Samrah family, churning out tea blends is everyone’s lookout. Every member of his household is involved in some part of the process, from cultivation to packaging. His teas have made name and spread their flavours beyond state and national borders. And if the bamboo-leaf blend clicks, Sarmah could be the one to lead a revolution, a new chapter in Assam’s tea history.

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