Experience tea in your own way

The wait for a complete tea experience where one can taste the tea before buying it is finally over.

This is interesting and puzzling to hear in a state which produces more than 50 percent of tea in the country and having a complete tea experience is still very difficult to get.

Welcome to the Namhah Tea Experience Store at G S Road in Guwahati. Namhah tea brand is four year old and this is the first retail shop.

"This is a one of a kind store where one can taste the tea before buying. This concept of tea experience comes from Europe where once can taste the tea before buying. We want to recreate the similar tea experience in Assam too" Ankit Baid of Namhah Tea told Business North East during a conversation.

He said the store also has a dedicated Tea Tasting and Tea Ceremony room in the mezzanine floor where tea ceremony and tasting can be done. " This is to get the customers the complete tea experience" he said.

The shop not only has authentic Assam tea but Pu-erh to Japanese matcha and not to forget the elegant teawares which makes tea experience complete.

"Our main aim is to get the best teas from the best estates of india for our customers" he said.

Pu-erh tea (also commonly known as 'puer,' 'pu'er,' 'po lei' and 'bolay' tea, and known as 'dark tea' or 'black tea' in China) is a semi-rare type of tea that is made in Yunnan, China.

On the other hand Matcha, which literally means "powdered tea," is from Japan and is drunk as tea or used as an ingredient in recipes. Its health benefits exceeds that of other green teas - it has 137 times more antioxidants - because matcha drinkers ingest the whole leaf and not just the brewed water.

However there is a way by which matcha is made and the shop has that set. A whisk used for matcha tea preparation. The matcha whisk is crucial since it will aid in the uniform mixing of the matcha powder and hot water. If the matcha powder is not whisked up properly it will clump, which is not something you want to have happen.

" This is the only shop where one can get Japanese matcha" he said.

There is a tea section dedicated to small tea growers for creating awareness about the tea grown by our small tea growers. Small tea growers today produce more than half of tea in the country and are bringing out handmade teas which have been liked by customers both at home and at abroad.

Apart from regular tea the shop has flavoured teas which are popular among the younger population. There is the Kashmiri Kahwa too.

There is Wine Tea, Detox Tea, Mango Tea, Strawberry tea, Rose Oolong Tea and Peach Tea for the GenNext.

And to make the experience fulfilling, there are those beautiful tea accessories which are an integral part of the correct brewing of tea. This is not only the entourage, the attributes of the tea ceremony, they have a completely functional purpose.

"They make the brewing process itself not only comfortable, but also more in-depth, meaningful" a tea expert says.

And if you were thinking of shipping the tea for your friends, you dont have to visit a courier shop to do it. "Customers can also ship the tea from the store itself to anywhere in the country or abroad to make it a hassle-free experience" Ankit said.

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