Assam Tea

I found this at my local Indian store. It’s $5 for 1 lb. It’s just your run of the mill Assam, malty and strong. I bought it for the intent to make chai blends, and it works just perfect. I might try the Taj Mahal brand next time. But this brand was just fine. It’s CTC, grainy little bits, it reminds of nigella seeds but courser. I’ve worked in a couple Indian restaurants, and never knew Assam leaves were normal, I was so used to these little pellets like this tea.

India is amongst the largest tea producers and users globally. As an analyst, I have been tracking the tea markets and was looking for sources of authentic information which shall help me get an idea about the dynamics of this industry. A lot of resources on the internet gave information of the quality of teas and their prices. However, not much information was available for the value chain of tea in India from the manufacturers to distributors to the end consumer. While browsing the internet, I came across the website www.assamteasellers.in.

Initially, I thought the website was only a marketing website that sold tea from tea producers to end consumers directly. However, on closely studying the website, I found that the website was a goldmine of information regarding tea and tea business in India. On the website, I learnt the different kinds of tea available in the Indian market; learnt to distinguish between different teas; got knowledge about the values and prices of teas of various types.

The website is an ideal place to search for information for a businessman wanting to start a tea business. All the costs right from the cost of tea, discounts on various volumes, transportation cost, storage costs, taxation and duties are provided in a detailed manner on the website. Using the information on the website, I could estimate the price of tea in various Indian states, understand the costing of various Assam based tea companies and could help me do profitability analysis. This helped me arrive at the top Assam based companies in India.

The website is one of the most transparent places to buy tea from. The prices of various types of tea are listed on the website along with the volume discount applicable if any. The website therefore provides a level playing field for various businessmen to compete in their respective markets.

One other aspect of the website I found interesting is the availability of articles written by experts in the field of tea. This page provides insights on different aspects of tea and tea business. This page was especially useful to me for calculating the monthly profitability in tea business for small as well as large sellers of tea. Information on packaging of tea is provided in this section by experts in the packing industry in a lucid and detailed manner.

Apart from commercial aspects of tea, the website provides the ways to prepare blends of different ingredients with tea to create specific flavours. There are detailed business cases made for opening a tea business on the website that can appeal to an entrepreneur.

Another distinct aspect of the website is that all the information is available in various Indian languages like Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, etc. that makes it convenient for non-English speaking people to learn more about the tea business. In addition, the website publishes images of tea plantations and gardens in different parts of Assam.

In my opinion, assamteasellers.in does provide a great service to the tea industry by disseminating relevant and action based information for tea businessmen as well as analysts like myself.