The Hindu Business Line : Kochi to host tea tasting competition

Competition begins
Seven-member international jury comprises prominent tea buyers from major tea importing countries.
The competition has been successfully conducted twice earlier.

Kochi , Jan. 12

The Third Edition of the Golden Leaf India Awards: Southern Tea Competition will be organised here in March 2007.

According to Mr N. Dharmaraj, Convener, Organising Committee TGLIA: STC, the final tasting session will be held here on March 21, where a seven-member international jury comprising prominent tea buyers from major tea importing countries and from leading Indian buying companies will be evaluating the short listed teas.

This will be followed by the visit of these buyer tasters to some of the South Indian plantation districts, in the form of reverse buyer visits — a format recommended by the Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, he said.

Logos for each growing region of South India will be released on the day. This is preparatory to some of these regions being included in the GI (Geographical Indicator) list, a process actively pursued by the Tea Board of India.

Competition

The competition, a joint venture of Tea Board of India and the United Planters' Association of Southern India (UPASI), has been successfully conducted twice earlier — first one was organised in September 2005 coinciding with the 112th annual conference of UPASI and the second one was held at Dubai coinciding with the Global Dubai Tea Forum in 2006.

Both editions of the competition were well acclaimed by the international jury and there was an unanimous acknowledgement of the improved quality profile of South Indian teas, achieved on the back of industry's own steam and on the back of stringent quality control drives unleashed by the Tea Board directorate in Coonoor.

The third edition of the competition, he said "is organised to sustain the peer group competition among the producers for excellence in quality and to sustain world awareness of the quality potential of South Indian teas, which the previous two competitions had unleashed and which has since led to substantial, increase in export of quality teas from South India".

Similar format

The format and the protocol for the competition will be similar to the one followed in the second edition organised at Dubai.

Competition is open for black orthodox and CTC teas, organic Orthodox and organic CTC teas. Under Orthodox and CTC category there will be separate prizes for leaf and fanning grades, which will be region-specific, besides a special category for Bought Leaf Sector.

Regions include Anamallais, High Ranges, Nilgiris, Travancore, Wayanad and other minor regions comprising Karnataka, Nelliampathy, Madurai, Singampatti, Quilon, Thiruvananthapuram and Kanyakumari. For organic Orthodox and organic CTC there will be separate prizes for leaf and fanning grades and the competition in this segment will be for the whole of South India.

Evaluation

The process of selecting the best teas from various agro-climatic regions will be based on a multi-layer screening process using a scoring system that capture the various quality attributes of tea in an objective manner. The evaluation will be based on a scoring methodology, which assigns scores on a scale of 0 to 10 for the various quality attributes such as dry leaf appearance, infused or spent leaf appearance, liquor attributes such as colour, aroma, briskness and strength.

The result will be announced on 21 Mar itself following the final evaluation.

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