November 10, 2005

Being the third-largest tea-drinking nation, we are one of the world's biggest importers, with 108,000 tons of tea being imported costing around 300 million dollars a year. More than 30,000 tons are also allegedly smuggled, writes Maryam Murtaza Sadriwala

T ea…a way of aiding men to return to their sources, a moment in the rhythm of the day when prince and peasant shared the same thoughts and same happiness while preparing to return to their respective fates. Lu Yu — Ch'a Ching (The first definitive book on tea) (733-804 C.E.)

A morning is totally incomplete without that particular aroma that wafts into one's nose; that comforting smell that stimulates one to the very core and makes every cell perk up. Tea usually does that to most people.

Some adamantly refuse to begin their day without a cup of it as the sun peeks from over the horizon; others enjoy it every other hour for that spur it provides for getting on with the diurnal routine of life. Students sip it in styrofoam cups bent over bulky books in a noisy cafeteria; people at the workplace ring for it every hour on the hour; the dhaabas are usually crowded to the hilt at certain times of the day because the surrounding labourers throng it for a cup of that strong brew; housewives sip it to simply unwind from their harried, chaotic domestic muddles. In a nutshell it is omnipresent as no other drink, having a global produce of three million tonnes.

Being a nation that consumes 0.95 kg of tea per annum per person, it is needless to say we Pakistanis take our tea seriously. "For me, tea is my breakfast," says Fateh Khan, the gatekeeper at a posh country club. "It's all I can afford to have in the morning and that one cup has to keep me going until my lunch break." He, like millions of others, refuses to compromise on his tea.

Being the third-largest tea-drinking nation, we are one of the world's largest importers, where 108,000 tons of tea is imported legally for approximately $300m (£195m) a year in hard currency. Apart from this, more than 30,000 tons are allegedly smuggled from Afghanistan to appease the 140,000 ton consumption here.

At present, more than 40 countries in the world grow tea, with Asian countries producing 90 percent of the world's total output. All tea bushes in other countries have their origin directly or indirectly in China. The words for tea leaves or tea as a drink in many countries are derivatives from the Chinese character cha. The Russians call it cha'i, similar to what Pakistanis do, which sounds like chaye (tea leaves) as it is pronounced in northern China, and the English word "tea" sounds similar to the pronunciation of its counterpart in Xiamen.

The story of tea began in ancient China over 5,000 years ago. According to legend, the emperor Shen Nung was a skilled ruler, creative scientist and patron of the arts. His far-sighted edicts required, among other things, that all drinking water be boiled as a hygienic precaution. One summer day while visiting a distant region of his realm, he and the court stopped to rest. In accordance with his ruling, the servants began to boil water for the court to drink. Dried leaves from the nearby bush fell into the boiling water, and a brown liquid was infused into it. As a scientist, the emperor was interested in the new liquid, drank some, and found it very refreshing. Voila! Tea was created.

Soon, tea consumption permeated throughout the Chinese culture, seeping into every section of the society. In 800 A.D. Lu Yu wrote the first definitive book on tea, Ch'a Ching, codifying the umpteen methods of tea cultivation and preparation in ancient China. The vast definitive nature of his work projected him into near sainthood in his own lifetime.

It was Buddhist priests who carried with them the first tea seeds to imperial Japan where tea was elevated to an art form and "tea ceremonies" were carried out. Hearn, a historian, writes most aptly, "The tea ceremony requires years of training and practice to graduate in art...yet the whole of this art, as to its detail, signifies no more than the making and serving of a cup of tea. The supremely important matter is that the act be performed in the most perfect, most polite, most graceful, most charming manner possible."

Soon the Japanese tea ceremonies were converted into boisterous and highly embellished "tea tournaments" held among the wealthy where nobles competed among each other for rich prizes in naming various tea blends, thus losing its spiritual nature.

The first European to personally encounter tea and write about this drink, which had taken China and Japan by storm, was the Portuguese Jesuit, Father Jasper de Cruz, in 1560. Portugal, with her technologically advanced navy, had been successful in gaining the first right of trade with China.

Entering Europe, tea was at first a delicacy enjoyed by the elite, and in Hague a pound of tea cost over $100. Initially available to the public with such rare and new delights such as ginger and sugar, it wasn't until 1675 that one could find it on shelves in common food shops throughout Holland.

Punctuated by the debate of the pros and cons of this new beverage indulged by the scholars and ignored by the commoners, tea became part of the way of life in Europe. The social critic Marie de Rabutin-Chantal first mentioned the adding of milk to tea in 1680.

Great Britain was the last of the three great sea-faring nations to break into the Chinese and East Indian trade routes and thus the first samples of tea reached England between 1652 and 1654. King Charles II had grown up in the Dutch capital and had a Portuguese bride; both countries were confirmed tea drinkers. In no time it replaced ale as the national drink of England.

The John Company which later merged with the East India Company in the mid 1700s enjoyed an unprecedented monopoly over trade and commerce in China and India; the reason for its staggering power being their trade of tea.

The English had two main meals — breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was ale, bread and beef. Dinner was a long, massive meal at the end of the day. It was Anna, the Duchess of Bedford, who complained of experiencing a "sinking feeling" in the late afternoon and eagerly took to the European tea service format, inviting friends to join her for an additional afternoon meal at five o'clock in her castle where the guests partook of an assortment of tiny cakes, sandwiches, sweets, and, of course, the magic beverage — tea.

'Afternoon tea' quickly became the rage with other London social hostesses. But what is surprising is that the ‘cuppa’ culture started off so late in London, today which is dubbed the tea capital of the world, where the average Briton drinks five cups a day. About 168 million cups of tea are drunk each day in the UK. Talk about addiction!

Even coffeehouses started specializing in tea but continued to be called 'coffeehouses' because coffee was introduced in England some years before tea. Exclusively for men, they were dubbed ‘Penny Universities’ where a penny could get you a piping hot pot of tea and a copy of the newspaper, which would help you get in a conversation with the sharpest wits of the day. So much was the free flow of conversation and variation of views that an attempt was made to ban these coffeehouses.

It was again the ambitious trading Dutch who were responsible for bringing in tea to America by the mid-1600s. The miniscule Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam (later New York) consumed more tea at that time than all of England put together. Because of the wars fought by England to free colonies of the French influence and stabilize trade, Parliament felt justified in heavily taxing the American colonies for the costs of war, and this included the tea tax in 1767. England thought that the American woman's passion for tea was her weakness but this proved to be a major miscalculation. The men of Boston, dressed as Indians threw hundreds of pounds of tea into the harbour: The Boston Tea Party.

By the 1800s the Scottish botanist Robert Fortune, sneaked into mainland China and got his hands on some guarded tea seeds and made notes on tea cultivation. This started a chain of experiments by the Crown of growing tea in India and after years of trial and error, fortunes made and lost, the English tea plantations in India and other parts of Asia began to flourish.

The cultivation of tea is a finely detailed process. A new tea plant must grow for five years before its leaves can be picked and, at 30 years of age, it will be too old to be productive. The stem of the old plant must then be cut off to force new stems to grow out of the roots in the coming year. By repeated rehabilitation in this way, a plant may serve for about l00 years. For the fertilization of tea gardens, soybean cakes or other varieties of organic manure are generally used. Chemical fertilizers are seldom used. When pests are discovered, the affected plants are removed to prevent their spread, and also to avoid the use of pesticides.

Experts believe that a country needs a minimum of 10 years to become a tea-growing nation and Pakistan, as such, is still in transition. Until recently, there was no history of tea cultivation in Pakistan, which depends largely on Kenya and then Sri Lanka and India to satisfy its tea-drinking habits. But in an attempt to save money, the country recently established National Tea Research Institute (NTRI) to persuade farmers to change their habits.

The institute has set up Pakistan's first tea factory in Shinkiari, 90 km north of Islamabad. The Chinese-built plant was inaugurated by President Pervez Musharraf and produces a modest quantity of eight million kilograms of black tea, which is peanuts by international standards, but a big leap forward for NTRI.

The institute claims that the main incentive is to save the country's foreign reserves. Experts explain that the country's climate is not conducive for tea production as a tea plant requires an altitude of 4000-5000 feet and two to four hours of rain, daily. Apart from highly fertile soil, it also needs sloping fields so that rainwater can drain.

The tea that is imported from various countries is then used to experiment for a variety of tea blends by tea experts. It is fascinating to note that the same soil cannot produce the same tea leaves with the exact taste. Experts do have their recipes for blends but there is always a subtle variation in taste, which the ordinary tea drinker is unable to decipher.

According to a survey conducted by a leading tea brand, die-hard tea drinkers are very particular about the kind of tea they drink. "I have been making my own tea for decades now," says 50-year-old Shahida, mother of two and grandmother of three, primly. "I prefer it strong, and have been loyal to one particular brand for years. I need to brew it for at least 20 minutes and then add just a wee bit of milk and my artificial sweetener," she explains. "It helps me begin my day and there's nothing like a lousy cup of tea to put me in a sour mood," she finishes. Needless to say her daughters-in-law steer clear of offering to make her a cup of tea.

Research also reveals that even though male members of the family might be purchasing the grocery personally, it is certainly the housewife who is the key decision-maker regarding which brand to pick off the shelf. Tea is also a commodity that is purchased frequently, mostly weekly. Seventy percent of tea buyers consume packet tea, while sachets are consumed by another 25 percent.

"When I first got married, I was astonished by the amount of tea my in-laws drank," confides Tabassum, mother of two. "Every time I headed in the direction of the kitchen I would hear a holler demanding tea. I used to end up making a minimum of 20 cups a day, without exaggeration." She came up with a solution to appease her in-laws’ craze as well as relieve herself from her strenuous routine.

"Now I make tea in bulk thrice a day and fill it in a gigantic thermos which can hold six steaming cups of tea and put it on the dining table for all to drink to their heart's content."

The modern emerging tea trend that one sees in our society is the use of tea bags. "I've always liked my tea strong, something which hits me between the eyes," says Zahida, a primary class teacher for the past seven years. "But the school I teach at serves tea bags. It was difficult to get accustomed to, initially, but I've learnt that dipping two tea bags in my mug of steaming water produces the desired result."

There are many other working individuals like her who have accepted the tea bag as a part of their corporate lives.

It was the year 1908 when Thomas Sullivan of New York developed the concept of "bagged tea". He had been carefully wrapping each sample delivered to restaurants for their consideration when he realized the restaurants were brewing the samples "in the bags" to avoid the mess of tea leaves in the kitchens.

However, tea bag consumption in Pakistan is still negligible, comprising barely five percent of the total tea market. Idris Hatim, export manager at a leading tea company explains, "Tea bags consume less milk but are admittedly expensive. One more reason for their unpopularity may be that the average Pakistani still prefers strong tea and has yet to acquire a taste for them."

Idris, who thoroughly savours his tea bag at work, says that people need to be educated on how to use a tea bag effectively. "The tea bag needs to stay in hot water for two whole minutes to ensure its proper infusion and only then should the milk be poured. If the milk is poured earlier it forms a film and prevents the tea infusion."

Hatim is, however, confident that the tea bag is steadily gaining popularity. "In today's rat-raced era when male and female members of the family are working and people are pressed for time, tea bag consumption has nowhere to go but up." Nevertheless, 99 percent of tea in Pakistan is prepared by brewing out of which 73 percent is brewed in a pateele (metallic vessel).

Tea is not just confined to the black leaves. Research on emerging tea trends shows a preference for green tea after meals at weddings and even at dinners for friends and family at home. "I feel lighter if I have a small cup of green tea with a dash of lemon after I've had a hearty meal," says 55-year-old Shabbir, a businessman and heart patient.

It was Buddhist priests from China and India, and Japanese envoys dispatched to China who brought green tea to Japan in the 8th century. The list which expounds the advantages of green tea is a lengthy one. The main component of green tea, catechins have a proven effect on the reduction of cancer rates. Mortality rates from cancer are low in Japan and especially low in Shizuoka where the consumption of green tea is highest. The catechins also restrict the build-up of blood cholesterol, and impedes the action of chemicals that cause blood pressure.

Catechins and polysaccharides in green tea have been shown to play a key role in blood sugar reduction, helping in the treatment of diabetes. Powerful antioxidizing agents such as vitamin E and vitamin C found in green tea, restrain the ageing process. Green tea contains caffeine, a strong stimulant, but the advantage this beverage has over coffee is that when caffeine combines with catechin it produces a rather milder, more natural, effect. It also kills certain bacteria thus becoming a treatment of diarrhea.

Thus scientists are also starting to prove what the Chinese have been shouting from the rooftops for thousands of years: tea has potential health benefits.

It contains powerful antioxidants that occur naturally in fruit and vegetables. The oxygen we breathe in undergoes a natural process in our body in which harmful free radicals are a by-product. These can damage cell components and may be implicated in causing cancer and heart disease. Antioxidants present in the body protect cells from damage by these free radicals, and this response is strengthened by the antioxidants provided by tea.

Tea is also said to boast of two minerals: manganese, which is essential for bone growth and health (six cups of tea provide 45 percent of the daily requirement) and potassium which aids normal heartbeat, regulates fluid levels in cells and allows nerves and muscles to respond correctly (six cups of tea provide 75 per cent of the daily requirement).

Tea, depending on where it is grown, is a rich source of natural fluoride aiding oral health. A study in 1991 showed that tea drinking may be able to prevent tooth decay in children. It also reduces plaque, which is one of the main causes of tooth decay. Medically, a tea leaf contains 20 to 30 percent of the chemical tannic acid, known for its anti-inflammatory and germicidal properties. It also contains an alkaloid (five percent, mainly caffeine), a stimulant for the nerve centre and the process of metabolism. Tea with the aromatics in it may help digest meat and fat. The drink is also rich in various vitamins and, for smokers, it helps to discharge nicotine out of the system.

However, tannin is generally used in tanneries to harden leather and when taken internally in excess it produces a similar effect upon the mucous lining of the stomach and intestine, impairing digestion, and affects the secretion of gastric juice, causing indigestion or constipation and dyspepsia. It is said that in England innumerable women suffer from various ailments on account of their habit of drinking tea that contains tannin. Strong tea taken just before bedtime will give rise to occasional insomnia. Constant drinking of over-strong tea may induce heart and blood-pressure disorders in some people, reduce the milk of a breast-feeding mother, and discolour the teeth of young people, turning them brown.

Today there is an assortment of teas to suit every palate ranging from flavoured to herbal to iced tea. The year 1904 saw Richard Blechynden, a tea plantation owner at America's first World Fair, the St. Louis World Fair, handing out free tea samples. However, the heat wave made people ignore his hot tea so he dumped a load of ice into the brewed tea and served the hit of the fair — the first "iced tea".

The average Pakistani, who according to survey drinks three cups a day, does so for a myriad of reasons and motives. Researchers point out different 'tea moments' or 'need states' in which one reason for a cup of tea is to release fatigue and recharge oneself. Also, tea is a drink which galvanizes connectivity, being a popular social drink and brings families together. In these fast-paced times, families might have forgotten to partake meals together but they certainly can sit themselves down for a cup in the mornings or as the sun sets.

According to a research in 2002, conducted on consumer habits and trends of the Pakistan tea market, the use of tea in the home is, for breakfast 94 percent, evening 70 percent, after dinner 29 percent and before breakfast 22 percent.

Tea, today, is also made synonymous with vitality and often thought to be the harbinger of good, carefree times with one's pals. "Whenever I recall my university days, the first image that flashes through my mind is that of me and my friends sipping steaming tea under the shade of some tree dotting our campus, whispering secrets and confiding our dreams," says 26-year-old Rida, an advertising executive, reminiscently.

Today major tea companies in Pakistan are facing the dilemma of infringement. Tea companies complain that samples of their tea are taken and mixed with the black covering of channas or loose tea and then counterfeit packs of this adulterated tea are being sold in the market either under the name of a big tea brand or with a slight change in name. Tea companies have come together to combat this vice by hiring professionals who follow and check such underhand dealings, investigate reports of similar infringement and conduct raids.

The different social strata making up the intricate, vivid, tea-drinking collage of our society, have given tea its own key role, its own unique usage. For the rural population and the working class it is not merely a drink but part of their basic food intake, especially at breakfast for the energy rush it brings. For the semi-urbanite and white-collar worker it is an essential beverage, an integral part of breakfast, a stimulant during the day and the chief hospitality drink. For the urban professional or businessman this important beverage is a bedfellow in the form of bed tea, a part and parcel of breakfast and a social lubricant.

However, one will also find a handful who can't stand the sight of tea. "I don't know what all the fuss is about," exclaims 18-year-old Sultana. "I've tasted tea once in my entire life and it did absolutely nothing for me. I can't stand the murky colour, that typical smell… " As far as recharging herself is concerned she prefers a strong cup of coffee any day.

For an overwhelming majority, however, tea continues to be a part of the staple diet. There's a popular proverb, "Rather go without salt for three days than without tea for a single day." Certainly, there's a little dollop of magic strained in every cup.