Historical, Scientific and Medicinal Facts

Tea or Chai is one of the cheapest beverages humans consume. Its consumption as a beverage has been considered a health promoting habit since time immemorial. Tea plant Camellia sinensis has been cultivated for thousands of years and its leaves have been used for medicinal purposes. Tea is used as a popular beverage worldwide and its ingredients are now finding medicinal benefits.

India is the second largest producer of tea in the world after China. Our teas include the famous Assam and Darjeeling tea. In 2013 the Planning Commission of India (Now called the Niti Aayog) had planned to officially recognise tea as the Indian “National Drink” in 2013. According to the ASSOCHAM report released in December 2011, India is the world’s largest consumer of tea, consuming nearly 30% of global output. India is also the second-largest exporter of tea, after China.

Traditional tea made from Camellia sinensis comes as Black tea, Green tea, Oolong tea, White tea and Yellow tea. The differences are basically in the age of the leaves and its processing. Black tea being the fully fermented tea, with a robust flavour and dark colour, while the green tea is a lightly fermented tea with a light delicate and grassy flavour. Herbal teas are not teas in true sense, though they have medicinal benefits, like drinks from Basil leaves (Tulsi), Chamomile, Cardamom (Elaichi), liquorice (Mulethi), mint (Pudina), etc. The traditional tea is often mixed with these traditional herbs.

In our country the taste of chai (sweet and milky) helps disguise the stronger and more bitter flavours of some of the medicinal additives, while others such as cardamom, clove and ginger add a pleasing flavour and aroma to the tea along with health benefits. Two of the commonly consumed teas in Kashmir are “Noon Chai” and “Kahwa”. Noon Chai is known for its distinct pink colour and flavour and salty taste. It is a preparation from black tea leaves, milk, baking soda and often cardamom. Whereas Kahwa is made from green tea leaves (fresh or roasted Oolong tea leaves) with cinnamon. Cardamom, cloves, grounded almonds and sugar.

Historical Aspects

Tea cultivation in India has somewhat ambiguous origins. Though the extent of the popularity of tea in ancient India is unknown, it is known that the tea plant was a wild plant in India that was indeed brewed by local inhabitants of different regions notably the Singpho and Khamiti tribes (In today’s Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar). It is believed that the Camellia sinensis plant grew native in these regions. According to Frederick R. Dannaway, in the essay “Tea as Soma”, tea was perhaps better known as “Soma” in ancient Indian history.

Many of the original myths for tea are found in Chinese mythology, and the first verifiable records for tea consumption also point towards China. The next recorded reference to tea in India after the 12^th century dates to 1598, when a Dutch traveller and explorer, Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, noted in a book that the leaves of the Assam tea plant were used by Indians as a vegetable, eaten with garlic and oil, and as a drink. It is also then documented that the Assamese nobleman, Maniram Dutta Baruah (also known as Maniram Dewan), showed British surveyors existing fields used for tea cultivation and wild tea plants growing in the Assamese jungle.

In the early 1820s, the British East India Company began large-scale production of tea in Assam, of a tea variety traditionally brewed by the Singpho tribe. In 1826, the British East India Company took over the region from the Ahom kings through the Treaty of Yandabo. In 1837, the first English tea garden was established at Chabua in Upper Assam; in 1840, the Assam Tea Company began the commercial production of tea in the region, run by indentured servitude of the local inhabitants. Beginning in the 1850s, the tea industry rapidly expanded, consuming vast tracts of land for tea plantations. By the start of the 20th century, Assam became the leading tea-producing region in the world.

According to National Sample Survey Organisation data, India consumes 15 times more tea than coffee. Tea is made both at home and outside. Outside the home, tea is most commonly and easily found at the tea stalls that are ubiquitous in most streets in India. Post the success of coffee chains of Barista and Cafe Coffee Day, the tea stall has become a part of the urban landscape with several tea themed cafe chains taking root in metro cities in recent years. Tea is now a cultural institution, even celebrated as in the recent art exhibition titled “Chai Wallah and other stories” by the artist Vijay Gille. The 2014 general elections also saw the election of Mr Narendra Modi who worked for his father’s tea stall as a child and this became a big rallying point. The phrase “Chai-Pani” literally meaning, tea and water, is used to offer welcome drinks and facilitate guests in houses of India.

According to the historian Lizzi Collingham, the taste for tea was developed in India through a dedicated push on the part of the producers of tea, once tea production in India gained momentum. Initially, free samples of tea were offered from horse-drawn carts belonging to various companies. As early as 1907, Brooke Bond, an English tea company started experimenting with a fleet of horse-drawn vans for distributing teas. The British tradition of taking tea with a little milk and sugar was introduced along with the samples. Lipton is a brand named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton who started an eponymous grocery retail business in England in 1871. The brand was used for various consumer goods sold in Lipton stores, including tea from 1890 for which the brand is now best known. In fact, in Kashmir Lipton chai is synonymous with the chai of all brands. When a guest comes, he is given the choice of Noon chai, Lipton Chai or Kahwa.

Unlike the British cup of tea, tea in India is not served in a set where the leaves are steeped separately. Typically, tea in India is consumed with both milk and sugar but the tea leaves are not prepared separately by being steeped. Instead, the tea leaves are boiled along with additions and then boiled again after the addition of milk and sugar. Sometimes the tea leaves themselves are used as flavouring. In many parts of the country, the most special tea is one where the tea leaves are boiled solely in milk.

Medical Benefits of Tea

It is increasingly appreciated that tea contains polyphenols and other components that may reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis and diabetes. More recently, the beneficial properties associated with daily consumption of green tea are getting better recognized. Particularly interesting are the studies which report that green tea reduces the risk of cancer, which is the major cause of mortality throughout the world.

It has become increasingly clear that tea acts as a chemo preventive agent against a wide range of cancers. To evaluate the efficacy of tea against cancer, clinical trials are being conducted. Encouraging data from many trials are available and results from many ongoing trials are awaited. Large scale well-controlled human clinical trials are necessary to establish the health promoting effects of tea consumption. The current data and literature suggest that 1 to 4 cups of tea per day are good for cardiovascular health and its anti-inflammatory benefits. Green tea is high in anti-oxidants, black tea has moderate caffeine while Oolong tea (Chinese tea varieties and teas from Palampur in Himachal Pradesh) is a balanced beverage.

 Prof Upendra Kaul, a Prominent Cardiologist, Recipient of Padma Shri and DR B C Roy Award.