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62 Tea & Coffee Trade Journal | www.teaandcoffee.net with the plucking following a seven day round." Per the London, England-based International Tea Committee (ITC) data, the bulk of Assam teas are manufactured as CTC tea for mainstream blends and tea bags. Their intrinsic deep malty taste notes and intense mouth feel, the rich dark brown color and their high caffeine levels are an important contribution to most of the breakfast tea blends anywhere in the world. All the major Western tea packers, Lipton, Twining, Tetley's, Yorkshire Tea from the UK, Orimi from Russia, and most of the medium-size companies, buy tea from Assam, with a focus on mainstream blends. Indi Khanna indicated that "there are factories that are 100 percent Orthodox while others are 100 percent CTC, so regardless of which flush, the same system of manufacture continues through the year. There are some factories that have a dual system of manufacture which do, towards rains and end of season, tend to go more on the CTC route." He added that there is a common misunderstanding in the Western consumer countries that CTC teas are of a lower grade than Orthodox teas. "Not so. Some CTC teas are brilliant and compare very well with good Orthodox cups." Progressing Towards Premiumization With an increasing consumer interest in fine origin teas the Orthodox Assam teas have seen demand rise, with higher prices being paid for premium second flush in the past years, which is a most appreciated market development. Whilst some 10 years ago one could find good orthodox leaf as a single origin Assam tea, nowadays you will find many Assam Single Estate teas, which are picked from single gardens. Similar to the traditional premium Darjeeling Tea Estates teas the Assam Single Estate teas also fully qualify as "terroir teas." Having several fine ortho- dox Assam Single Estate teas in their portfolio is a recognized must for most consumer market brands today. In line with the overall premiumization trends, there are now also some green teas and even white teas manufactured in Assam, by small scale high quality tea growers, who are keen to cater to niche markets with hand crafted specialty teas, small volumes and often from organic gardens. Most of the producing companies now have websites dis- playing maps, which show the location of their named estates, indicate factory and harvesting certifications thus offering full transparency and traceability, and also fostering corporate social responsibility (CSR). In spite of recurrent press reports about the poverty of the tea pickers and tea tribe villages, one should bear in mind the longstanding and continuous efforts made by the private sector for bringing food security, better health and better education to the tea village populations. This has been achieved through constant assistance with agricultural improvements such as farmers' education for multiple cropping and yield enhance- ment as well as direct financial support for building roads and infrastructure and setting up schools and hospitals in the rural areas, all coming from the private enterprises. Lauded regularly origin highlight: assam McLeod Russel is one of many companies with tea estates in Assam. The development and progress of rural and urban Assam would not have been possible with out the constant support by the big Indian families involved in tea. TEA OF EXCLUSIVE QUALITY ® ...small enough for quality ...big enough to serve you Visit us at Tea & Coffee World Cup Krakow, booth no. 404 SinAss-Tee Handel GmbH & Co. KG Bornstr. 14/15 D-28195 Bremen/Germany +49 (0) 421 3042-350 +49 (0) 421 3042-215 sales@sinass.de www.sinass.de a sister company of www.jgs.de gdg@jgs.de Your trusted partner for Global Teas & Tea Solutions Witamy na naszym stoisku!