An Assamese Duo Is Elevating The Instant Tea Narrative Dip By Dip
Seeds of a revolution can be planted even during a mundane chore. Two Assamese childhood-friends ¡ª Upamanyu Borkakoty, and Anshuman Bharali, who have minted the world's first 'bag-less' tea bag, should know it the best. Besides this patent-pending innovation combining the true whole-leaf and a bud nuance with convenience ¡ª a pairing hitherto unachieved, brewing the first cup ¡ª each unit can be reused up to four more times ¡ª unfolds its own drama....Read More
Seeds of a revolution can be planted even during a mundane chore. Two Assamese childhood-friends ¡ª Upamanyu Borkakoty, and Anshuman Bharali, who have minted the world's first 'bag-less' tea bag, should know it the best.
Besides this patent-pending innovation combining the true whole-leaf and a bud nuance with convenience ¡ª a pairing hitherto unachieved, brewing the first cup ¡ª each unit can be reused up to four more times ¡ª unfolds its own drama.
As the hot-water leisurely opens up the leaves to seduce out a greenish-golden temper, the vegetal notes perfume the immediate air; this exotic light-bodied refresher concludes with a smooth herbaceous linger. That will be the Dirty Detox ¡ª their green tea, simply because that's how it all started, towards the end of 2014.
Are Those Actual Tea Leaves?
Sudipto Mullick
On that quotidian errand for regular groceries, Borkakoty, came across an organic tea-farmer, peddling his produce to the grocer. Native of Sivasagar, the city-head quarter of the eponymous district, situated around 360 kilometres northeast of Guwahati, the capital of Assam, he, till then had never seen any loose whole-leaf teas.
Impatience to brew them synced with his intrigue as he acquired a bunch of those fronds. ¡°It was a revelation. So far I had tasted only store varieties which are laced with an overpowering tannic-astringency. This was more flavoursome, smoother, and remarkably exponentially refreshing¡±, opined Borkakoty. A quick scrutiny of the package divulged the farmers contact.
Sudipto Mullick
Borkakoty, 32, a Marketing major from IMT, Ghaziabad dialled in his CA-pursuant business-associate, Bharali, 35, to undertake an about 120-km jouncy ride to Borhat, now in the eastern part of Charaideo district, within that week, to meet the farmer. Given to exploring alternative opportunities as their joint-venture optical business was stagnating, both thought, ¡°it was worth a try. Being Assamese, tea-sector was always on our mind, but we did not know exactly what we wanted to do. This was a good opportunity to understand boutique teas and their micro-factory producers¡±.
Also read: Not Your Normal Chai! Tea Stall In Kolkata Is Selling Special Cup Of Chai At Rs 1,000
Learning Leads To Theory
Sudipto Mullick
Having then radiated out to such small-batch tea-harvesters, sometimes covering 400-500 Km in a single journey, which stretched them till the end of 2015, they realised that most of these small scale farmers had revolted against the pesticide usage but were clueless about its larger market prospects. So, it was with the sole aim of integrating only the small-scale (those with less than 3 hectares of land) tea croppers that they developed a direct-to-consumer online platform in November 2016, dealing with limited-edition high-quality rare single-origin whole-leaf tea. Their disposition towards academics ¡ª a research-oriented approach, reflected in naming their venture as The Tea Leaf Theory.
Sudipto Mullick
From the very beginning the propensity of these two, both of whom had represented their district in school table-tennis, was towards creating exotic teas. Meanwhile, another happenstance ¡ª an encounter with Ramen Gogoi, a Tea Taster with Tocklai Tea Research Institute (TRA) had prepped them on the aesthetic aspects of the beverage. Starting off with 7-8 select firms, it quickly dawned upon them that, compared to similar international samples, their grades were miserable. However, since bulk orders majorly from Europe and North America, were floating in, they changed tracks to a purely B2B model by mid-2017.
Surge in Shanghai
Sudipto Mullick
On an about week-long 2017 visit to Shanghai for an optical exhibition, they managed to squeeze in a purposeful stroll through the street market. Collecting Chinese and Taiwanese tea-samples like candies, these Holy Home School buddies shopped for 70000 INR worth of black, green, white, and oolong teas, including those needling at Rs 20-25 thousand per kg.
Sudipto Mullick
Charged up with this exhilarating experience, they immediately established their first exclusive experimentation station. Navigating business niggles, they turned in a decent profit for the first time by end-2018, pivoted from the optical profession, and yoked a Darjeeling station to their portfolio.
Un-Bagging The Problem
Sudipto Mullick
Retail market was always in their mind yet as Bharali justified, ¡°the retail-market for this kind of teas is very small and it has its own machinery and marketing requirements. With our resources even if we forced ahead with retail, shutting it down would have been an eventuality¡±. Snatching the sentiment, Borkakoty intrejected, ¡°So we thought, why not do a product that will be completely different from the rest? Indian market is more about commercial tea. We wanted to take speciality tea to the main consumption category¡±. Tea-bags were a natural progression, but it has two major flaws. While packing and transporting, howsoever one packs in whole-leaves, it will break thereby altering the authentic flavour profile. Secondly, tea-bags are convenient but it also releases a barrage of trojan micro-&-nano-plastics that can harm the gastro-intestinal microbiota.
Bag-less Revolution
Sudipto Mullick
The Chinese exposure had brought 'tea-coins' in their awareness. Meanwhile, after about one and half year of tinkering, they had settled on the compression techniques with their food-grade stainless steel compression chambers. Borkakoty, in his penchant for experimentation, had relished the purity of semi-processed teas and was trying to figure out a way to capture its essence in the boxed offering. Then in one hot 2019 mid-August past-midnight, the ebullient idea that took roots in 2018, fructified. He administered the patent-pending compaction on a pinch of 13 to 18 semi-processed two whole-leaves and buds measured out to 2 grams, after stringing it with a 100% raw, natural, pure and BRC/IoP compliant thread. He had his definitive bag-less tea-bag revolution. For once, an emperor with no clothes ¡ª if you will ¡ª was not shorn of its royalty ¡ª rather only much the richer.
Also read: The Viral Chaiwala From Pakistan Just Opened His Own Cafe. Can You Guess Its Name?
Happiest Tea-Brand
Sudipto Mullick
Weaving a new entity around this fresh invention, and to separate it from their wholesale-trade, they registered it as 'Woolah'. Why Woolah? ¡°Woolah means happiness in Assamese. We want it to be the happiest tea-brand in the world¡±, chorused the partners.
Shaping congenial delight came at a price. One of the trial batches that they had pressed displayed procedural deficiency prompting that lot worth 1.5L INR to be converted into a heap of broken-orthodox tea. Afterall, their latest offerings labelled as TRUEDIPS, had to adhere to its naming.
As such, their rigour had garnered one of the highest rated tea-assessment platforms of North America by 2019 and a rank in the 2020 Great Taste Awards, UK.
One-Second Tea
Sudipto Mullick
Contrary to being smug, they are out to devise a true-flavour tea that can be concocted in a second! Tall claim, innit? ¡°It's actually patent-pending¡±, discloses Borkakoty, sheepishly. Incidentally, they're in the look out for a modest investor to semi-automate the process. ¡°Not only we'll retain our existing all-female workforce (for Woolah), we'll rather increase their employment three-four folds¡±, assures, Bharali.
New Dip Narrative
Sudipto Mullick
Pride and assurance in their own specialties have seeped into their habit with each curating their personal cache Previously, only a social tea-drinker, Borkakoty, now downs 4-5 cups a day. Bharali, an avid tea-enthusiast has maintained his number but weaned-off milk-tea.
Both belief, it won't be before long that people will habitually wake up to these new narrative of dips.