India may finally have an indigenous answer to Long Island Iced Tea. The CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT) at Palamapur, Himachal Pradesh, claims to have a developed a brand of tea, called tea-wine, with a 7-12 per cent alcohol content by volume. That makes it much boozier than beer and to be in the same league as the conventional grape-derived wine.
Catechins are the key active ingredient in tea and said to possess antioxidants that make body cells more resilient to degradation. Freshly picked green leaves of tea contain almost 30 per cent catechin. Tea also contains theanine and caffeine that provide the kick most associate with the drink. Sanjay Kumar, Director of the CSIR-IHBT, said at a new conference that the tea-wine would be high on catechins and therefore was a “health drink.” The alcohol would be sourced from fermenting berries local to the region and four varieties of tea-wine with varying sugar content were to be developed.
‘Excise problems’The CSIR-IHBT had signed an agreement with a Mozambique-based company and expected production to begin next year. A similar agreement with an Indian company hadn’t yet seen tea-wine bottles roll out owing to “excise problems,” he said. Mr. Kumar didn’t disclose the financial terms or the names of the companies involved. “I see it as an export product,” said Mr. Kumar, “that may be popular among niche groups.” India is one of the biggest exporters of tea and despite Indians’ growing appetite for coffee, tea remains the most consumed beverage. Four in five urban Indians consume tea as opposed to 8 per cent coffee drinkers, according to a survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation.
Himachal Pradesh is known for a variety of tea called Kangra Tea that’s distinct from tea sourced from the North-east and South India.
“We are developing the tea-wine with the Kangra variety,” said Mr. Kumar, “and there is also a non-alcoholic version that’s much superior to iced tea.”
This isn’t the CSIR’s first tryst with manufacturing alcoholic beverages. In 2003, the National Botanical Research Institute, a CSIR body, announced that it had developed a ‘herbal beer’ with several medicinal properties and an alcohol content of 2-3 per cent. Though the technology was licensed to a Kanpur-based company, it’s yet to become a commercial product.
Born out of necessityHowever, tea-wine was born out of necessity and the need to develop innovative products that could weather problems in India’s tea plantations that are grappling with reduced manpower. Being a labour-intensive crop, the IHBT said in a statement, its tender apical bud and subtending two leaves needed to be picked at the right stage by trained pluckers.
Owing to labour shortage in plantations, the tea leaves weren’t being plucked at the right time, and this affected their quality and resulted in poor prices at auctions.
