Trouble brewing in the Himalayas hits darjeeling crop

BRITISH tea connoisseurs may soon be forced to switch to lesser brews because of a looming shortage of darjeeling, after political unrest in India’s Himalayan foothills resulted in “the worst season ever” for the prized crop.

Known as “the champagne of teas”, darjeeling is valued highly for its delicate taste. The summer harvest or “flush” is the most favoured by tea lovers for its distinct muscatel flavour.

It is also among the world’s most expensive teas, with some summer darjeeling flushes averaging around £300 per lb.

But this year the tea industry has been hit badly by strikes and demonstrations demanding a separate homeland for the majority Gurkha population.

The continuing unrest came at the start of the summer harvest in darjeeling’s 87 tea gardens, which account for more than half the 18.62 million tons of tea produced annually and 40 per cent of overall sales.

“The continuing troubles in and around darjeeling are responsible for the loss of over half the region’s tea production this season, which has been the worst ever,” said Kaushik Bhattacharya of the Darjeeling Tea and Management Association.

Even if the political unrest were to stop and the 120,000 workers returned to pluck and process the tea leaves, it would be weeks before the harvest could begin again, Mr Bhattacharya said.

More than 35 per cent of darjeeling tea, a large proportion of which is grown organically, is exported to the UK, and the remainder to Europe and the US.

Meanwhile, trouble is brewing for the traditional cuppa after Tesco announced it was scrapping 16 different types of builder’s brew in favour of trendy herbal alternatives. A spokesman said they had “removed a lot of duplication” from their range of teas and had looked at trends towards fruit infused, healthier teas.