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 Darjeeling Tea Premier's Tea select their Darjeeling and Darjeeling Green Tea from only the highest quality raw tea which is then processed and packaged in their state of the art tea plant in Kolkata. In For a tea to be labelled as a Darjeeling Tea it must be grown in the hilly areas around the darjeeling district in the provincial area of West Bengal in India. The Tea Board of India specifies exactly which areas are permitted to call their tea Darjeeling and in order for a company to display the Darjeeling logo they must conform to certain prescribed procedures laid down by the Tea Board. Even so, the quantity of tea sold as Darjeeling is reputedly several times higher than the quantity actually produced by the Darjeeling region. Only by sourcing from reputable sources can you be sure of obtaining true Darjeeling tea. Situated in the northern part of West Bengal, Darjeeling Tea is grown at altitudes of between 750 and 2000 metres. There are around 80-90 tea gardens which can produce Darjeeling Tea and total annual production is approx 10,000 tonnes. It is the quality and flavour of the Darjeeling Tea which makes it so highly prized and regarded by many as 'The Champagne of Teas' and the finest tea available in the world. This unique flavour and relatively low production volume ensures the price of Darjeeling tea is high. The flavour is said to be like a 'Muscatel Wine' and is most prominent from the 'Spring Flush' pickings. The first Tea plants or seeds arrived in Darjeeling around the mid 1840's where they were brought from China by the british. The seeds were cultivated and very quickly tea gardens were established. By the turn of the century Darjeeling had already established itself as a major tea growing region with an increase in population from hundreds to over 100,000 people. Today, the children enjoy a free government education and the pluckers and tea workers enjoy many of the same benefits as a worker in the UK such as maternity leave, creche facilities, medical and housing provided by the tea gardens. We get lots of questions like - Do we do a 'Fairtrade' tea? Although you won't find the 'Fairtrade logo' on our products, what does fair trade really mean. Most people take it to mean that the farmers get a fair price for their produce or that the farm workers are treated fairly and with respect, that they have access to a reasonable level of facilities and that they have a reasonable quality of life. As we have already mentioned the tea plantation workers enjoy all of these benefits and the certifications awarded by the Tea Board of India for the various regions are your guarantee that the tea gardens where Premier's Tea buy their tea from is complying with their obligations to their workforce. In the 1960's the Indian Government introduced legislation called the 'Plantation Labour Act' which lays down in law the obligations of the Tea Garden owners to their workforce. The Tea Gardens are regularly inspected to enforce the legislation and should any garden be failing the Indian Government will either force the owners to provide the facilities or provide those facilities and charge the cost to the tea garden owners. Either way, the workforce will benefit. With respect to price, the producers are guaranteed a fair basic price for their produce under the fairtrade organisation. Premier's Tea only use teas which meet a standard high enough to be included in their product range. As with all aspects of life. This quality comes at a price and you can rest assured that this price for quality will always be higher than any basic price which might be set by a fairtrade system. We feel that this benefits the consumer and the tea growers. The grower is constantly encouraged by the promise of higher returns from their crops if they can improve the quality of the produce on offer and the consumer is always getting the best quality product. With a fairtrade system that sets a base price, the farmers may get paid fairly, but that doesn't mean the best product is received by the consumer. |
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E Thorpe and Sons - 3 Laburnam Rd, Winnersh, Wokingham, RG41 5XL - 01189 792582 - email: