Overview
Assam is the veritable tea chest of India; over 800 tea gardens spread over the north-eastern state have ensured that tea continues to be its treasure. The never-ending beds of lush green tea bushes lined along several highways crisscrossing the state, particularly in Upper Assam, are a breathtaking sight. As you drive further into Upper Assam, the aroma of tea leaves doesn’t let you forget that you are in the tea country!
Thousands of hands pick tea leaves day after day; hundreds work at the factories each day — all ensuring Assam tea retains its quality and thereby its prestige in the world market. In Guwahati stands Asia’s largest tea auction centre.
Over the decades, several micro cultures have developed around these gardens, some contributing substantially to the state’s rural economy. If weekly bazaars around the gardens are an indication of such micro cultures, so is the lilt of the ethereal Jhumur dance of Saah Janagusti, the Tea Tribe, the backbone of Assam Tea.
Want to do a trail through the tea gardens of Upper Assam? Want to taste the best of the brew at an afternoon tea ceremony overlooking the bushes?
Do you want to live like the sahibs did in one of the venerable tea garden bungalows? Want to find out how tea is produced from the leaves? Check out how tea testing is done?
Listen to stories about the birth of Assam Tea?
Want to match steps with the dancers of Jhumur?
Are you the type to sign up for that early morning walk through the tea bushes where dews on the leaves would touch your skin and make you alive?
Or, you just want to sit down on a long verandah, sipping tea and reading a book where the chirping of the birds is the only noise?