All For A Cuppa!

ALL FOR A CUPPA!

Tea Tourism In India

By Shilpi Shukla Alexander

Ek garam chai ki pyaali (a cup of hot tea) is what pulls those with refined tastes and polished pursuits to India.

The silky sunrays kiss your forehead, the cool breeze caresses your hair and the fragranced air infuses your spirit with prana (life force). Walk out of your room, holding your bespoke hot cuppa and sit in the verandah of this old colonial building set amidst lush tea estates. Watch tea-pickers plucking the newest leaves and tossing them into the wicker baskets on their backs or witness the soft drops of the hill rain turn the landscape into a misty wonderland. Enjoy a fascinating tea tour and indulge in flavoursome tea tasting sessions. What’s more, with the world’s best range of teas available in these 500-plus plantations, have your tea custom-made. And how about planting your own tea bush to mark your visit?

Quite in tune with the wine regions of Europe and the coffee plantations of Central America, India’s tea estates, that together boast of being the largest exporter of tea in the world (with as much as 810 million kilograms being produced annually), promise a tasteful retreat for tea-connoisseurs from around the world.  These refurbished tea gardens offer exciting tours and package holidays to Assam, Darjeeling in West Bengal, Munnar in Kerala, Palampur in Himachal Pradesh and Ooty in Tamil Nadu. Given that this highly popular beverage is laden with life restoring anti-oxidants, is powerful at preventing cancers, and their herbal varieties are caffeine-free, tourists from round-the-globe have reasons aplenty to taste the heady flavour and raise their daily brews in an ode to the colonial past.

(Pls click on the given link to read my recently published article on Tea Tourism In India in a US magazine.
http://www.littleindia.com/news/154/ARTICLE/6731/2010-07-08.html)