The 119th meeting of the Assam Branch of Indian Tea Association was held at Thakurbari, Tezpur. This meet is an occasion for introspection and revelry. The tea industry has spawned its own culture, which is a cross between the stylish British élan and Indian hospitality. Tea people (the managers and their wives and children) continue to be the repository of both cultures carrying them forward with an equanimity which is both admirable and enviable. At a time when the global economic meltdown is threatening to send people's lives into a tailspin, the tea industry has already come out of its own recession. The industry has worked its way through the tortuous maze and now emerged on top.

Undoubtedly the tea fraternity has learnt valuable lessons in adversity, which it has not
considered important enough to document. Indeed, over the centuries since tea was first grown in Assam, those who have managed the tea gardens and produced that vital component which gives us our morning cuppa, have amassed a wealth of learning. This social capital has unfortunately not been institutionalised. All one reads about concerning the tea industry are related to labour strife and industrial relations. Undoubtedly, these are important social upheavals and have their space in the annals of the history of tea in Assam. But is that all there is to it?

Brand value

Over the years, tea has generated financial capital; it has generated employment for thousands and above all a brand name, "Assam Tea". The history of the tea industry is also a history of its planters, its managers, their lives, their experiences and much more. This compendium of experiences include managing labour conflicts, understanding complex human relations, facing the formidable challenge of militancy at its height, losing out to colleagues and friends in these wars of attrition, but, above all, the personal struggles and the dreams and aspirations of those who over the years have contributed towards making the tea industry what it is today.

Much has been written about the commerce ministry's attempts to provide special funds for rejuvenating the tea plantations. The special tea protection fund, a scheme initiated some two years ago, appears to have its downside and fewer takers. It would be too conjectural to go into the nitty-gritty of what makes the special tea protection fund an expensive proposition. This sparring game is perhaps best executed between the tea industry and the commerce ministry without any referee. Both sides understand each other too well to require a devil's advocate.

This article aims to look at the social capital that has been generated over the years in the tea industry. Social capital is the sum total of human experiences and their spontaneous responses to situations, which over a period of time become learned responses for others. Tea planters are constantly challenged by labour problems. How do they resolve these problems? Individual managers must be doing it in a way they know best. But over a period of time these individual responses to problems and challenges become the institutional memory of the tea industry. This institutional memory bank is an important piece of historical document. Does the tea industry in Assam have one or several such documents? If there are any, then very few people seem to know of them and fewer still have read them.

Oral tradition

There is a wealth of oral tradition in the tea industry dating back to the days of the British and thereafter. When oral tradition is not documented there is loss of institutional memory and also loss of time and resources because people have to reinvent the wheel time and again. Social capital generated over time can actually be synergised to become a catalyst for change. But perhaps one is asking too much from the tea industry. After all, the industry is not just about machinery and products! It is more to do with human beings who struggle to keep their lives and that of their labour force together. Tea
managers could well ask why they should be investing their time in proactive social mobilisation. Why should they create advocacy groups within the labour community to access government schemes? Are they not doing enough? Have they not generated enough wealth and foreign exchange? Where is the time and energy for further social action?

Each of these questions is legitimate. But an industry is a complex wheel within a
wheel. It is ironical that some of the roads leading to the tea gardens in Tezpur are the worst ones one has come across. You would have thought an industry that adds value to the exchequer deserves better. But governments seem to believe otherwise. In fact, until some years ago the tea labourers were not considered part of the general population when assessing the social needs of people residing in and around the gardens. The labourers were perhaps considered the responsibility of respective gardens. There is a serious dichotomy here. Schemes meant for the poor should reach people across the
board.

Hopefully, this has been resolved and the tea population now has access to social sector schemes such as the total sanitation scheme, the national rural health mission
scheme, the Rajiv Gandhi rural water supply mission and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, among others,

Yes, the tea industry is a history of people and their endeavours. Hence, social interface is oxygen to them. But is the social interface restricted to club life? What about the offsprings of the tea community? What sort of social life do they experience? Is it coincidental or by design that a tea planter's/manager's offspring hardly chooses to step into his parent's shoes? Why?

Social skills

If we talk of social capital, then we must also talk of social, skills which make up that social capital. Daniel Goleman lists them as (1) interpersonal relations (2) communication skills (3) analytical skills (4) problem solving skills (5) decision-making ability (6) life skills which essentially means how to live life and to just "be" rather than be thinking about what to do all the time. Tea people all have kids, some grown-up, others in their adolescence. They live lives that are deeply wired. In fact, we all are. There are wires everywhere connecting us to gadgets but we are less and less connected to one another. Kids with iPods have learnt to navigate around people and to avoid them because they are wired to their favourite songs. We have all entered the age of social autism. This social insulation means that we are unable to learn from each other. Social capital is, therefore, eroding even as we are losing our social skills.

But even so the tea community is still a very connected fraternity. They continue to share their ups and downs, their joys and sorrow. In a sense, they represent what psychologists call the "group mind", which is any day more intelligent than the individual mind. Harvard professor Howard Gardener says the 21st century is all about the group mind. "There are too many people who know too many things and lesser individuals who know everything. When people share information they create new information."

The 21st century is also about defining people apart from their work. It is about an identity that transcends their profession. The reason many people fear to retire from their jobs is because they fear a loss of identity. There are several tea garden managers who have retired and find a vibrant life beyond tea. Surely they can share their experiences. I was enamoured by the fact that the tea industry today attracts even academics into its fold. This enriches the tea experience. Satyakam Hazarika, who just stepped down as president of the Assam Branch of Indian Tea Association, is a mathematics scholar and his wife a former lecturer in physics. Truly, the tea scenario has changed. And that, in itself, is an achievement that merits documentation

Secondly, one must consider the sense of smell when discussing what makes up flavor perception. One’s sense of smell, or odor, is one’s reaction to the stimulus of volatile components found in the tea which we consume. When one is swallowing tea there are volatile components present. It is these volatiles that evaporate up into the nasal cavity (retro-nasally) and stimulate the nerve endings in the
olfactory bulb region. The fact that we are also smelling food as we are tasting it is the reason why we cannot “flavor” things well when we have a cold. It is also the reason why it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to discern the difference between an apple and a potato when we tightly hold our nose and chew them separately. The texture is similar and that is all that we seem to perceive.

Besides these two sensory perceptions, the physical aspects of tea come very much into play:

1. Mouth feel: Astringency (dryness) and slipperiness (that reaction which follows immediately after astringency in a very good tea).
2. Temperature: Affects the relative volatility of the odorants and therefore, the flavor.
3. The tea preparation system as it affects the solubility and the corresponding vapor pressure of each volative. What does this mean? Tea should be made in a lidded vessel to contain the volatile and vital aromatics it contains, not in an open cup. And, further, the teapot or lidded cup should be appropriate in every respect to the tea which is being infused inside of it.
4. The condition (physical, mental, overall health, age, etc.) of those partaking of tea is of major concern since these conditions will effect flavor acuity.

One theory of flavor perception, although somewhat antiquated, is Amoore 5 Stereochemical Theory. It is an old theory but it remains a good model for explaining many aspects of flavor perception. It treats volatiles as jigsaw pieces that can fit into various receptor “holes” in the nerve endings of the olfactory bulb. The shapes of these “holes” can be categorized into different groups. These groups correspond to specific odor types, the so-called simplest or most basic odors in nature (which I have put into 10 groupings). The theory states that all flavors can be described as combinations of these simplest odors. More recent theories postulate a model of odor perception which makes the analogy between odor perception and the similarity of chemical action of an enzyme on a substrate or one layer of receptors lying under another on the nerve endings and that the odor molecules penetrate down through these layers thus prompting many subtle flavor changes.

In either of the above models, the odor (flavor) molecules (also called odorovectors) generally have a particular molecular shape. Sulfur, as an example, is identifiable all over the world but cultural food flavors are not. However, some molecules are quite elastic and can conform to many shapes (multi-odorovectors) while other molecules are quite rigid and conform only to certain odor (flavor) shapes and thus only certain receptors (vanilla, e.g.).

When a molecule fits into a specific “jigsaw slot”, the nerve ending which corresponds to that receptor site is then stimulated. The nerve ending then sends a message to the brain. At the EXACT instant that the flavor is perceived by the brain, the flavor becomes characteristic of that “fit”. Thus
all Darjeelings fit a certain flavor patter for immediate identification by the brain (if one has cupped a number of Darjeelings for the brain to build up an identity databank).

Some molecules can fit into more than one site and therefore, the molecules of the mixture will stimulate a number of different nerve endings at different sites, and at different levels, all at once. Since no flavor profile can be discerned by the brain, it literally gives up on an identity search and selects one which it can identify (in other words, the brain guesses). We now have a blend, and in our case, a tea blend.

A chemical (in tea, an enzyme or an essential oil or a combination thereof) which has the property of being able to stimulate differently-shaped sites at once is said to be a secondary aromatic compound (call it “after taste” if you like). The analogy here is that primary odorants or flavorants are like letters of the alphabet, and the secondary odorants or flavorants are like syllables. I like that description it almost sounds as though tea talks to one as it allows itself to be drunk (as I’m sure it does).

The flavor system the nose and tongue is one of the most sensitive of all of our senses and, perhaps because of this, the most easily fatigued. When a Tea Master has been cupping tea for a long period of time on a project that requires crucial flavor judgment, he (she) might wash out his (her) mouth with water or chew on an unsalted cracker in order to aid in his (her) perception, but when nerve endings are fully desensitized by overstimulation these are just temporary aids not cures. Only time will help and usually somewhere between forty and fifty hours are needed to restore flavor acuity and judgment.

Perception of tea depends a lot upon the system used to prepare the tea since the method of preparation preserves or destroys the aromatic compounds. Below is a sequence of steps in the flavor release of tea compounds:

1. Solubility or dispersibility of the tea in the saliva in the mouth.
2. The subsequent solubility of taste components of the tea which are perceived by taste buds.
3. Evaporation (retro-nasally remember) of the volatile portion of the tea.
4. Perception of these volatiles via stimulation of nerve endings in the olfactory bulb region.

(Believe me, all of this happens within milliseconds. This is why, as many of you have witnessed, I need take just one sip of a freshly and correctly infused tea and I am able to form a judgment on that tea immediately.)

Each molecule of a flavor aromatic has a particular size and weight. The larger the molecule (or the more atoms the molecule has in it) the lesser the rate of evaporation they are heavier. The smaller the molecule (or the less atoms the molecule has in it) the more the rate of evaporation they are lighter. Light compounds are generally perceived as top notes. Heavy compounds are generally perceived
as base notes. In between are simply hundreds of nuances.

Volatilization or degree of evaporation (retro-nasally) is dependent on many factors. The temperature of the tea and the surface area of the cup or spoon changes both volatility and evaporation rate. If I cup a tea using a cup with a surface diameter of 9 cm and an exact tea cupper’s spoon and at a temperature of 200 degrees, and if you, at home, use a cup with a surface diameter of 7 or 11 cm,
a tablespoon and at a temperature of 130 degrees, are we then cupping the same tea? Obviously, we are not. Can you understand how the dynamics of the flavor profile will change?

Volatile flavor components can be generated in a number of ways. Fermentation causes one type of flavor, as esters, as well as alcohols, and trace sulfur and other components are formed. Oxidation is another avenue of flavor component generation. Heating, cooking or browning causes yet other flavor components to be generated. Pickling or brine bathing creates others. Included in these mechanisms are caramelization, and Maillard Browning. Browning, regardless of the process, forms a host of complex compounds including (but not limited to) pyrazines, thiazolines, pyrolles, and aldehydes. Some flavors of food are formed by the food itself, for instance, the seeds of a raspberry leach their woody oils into the pulp of the fruit. This compound, ionone, is injected into the fruit by the seeds and this is what gives raspberries their unique “raspberry” flavor. Some flavors of teas are formed by the tea itself. The flavor components unique to a specific tea are generated by a combination of polyphenols and essential oils. Again I repeat: there is a flavor profile for all Darjeelings, etc.

I have only touched on the complexity of the flavor system (tongue and nose). It becomes obvious to someone who must use and rely on this flavor system every day how important it is to know the crucial factors which affect flavors and one’s perception of them. In other words, the system influences the flavor. It must be emphasized that I, as a Tea Master, must work with a specific tea in a specifically defined system of tasting in order to evaluate that tea. I, or anyone, must only compare Assams to Assams, Darjeelings to Darjeelings, Keemuns to Keemuns, etc. If I do not approach Tea
Tasting (cupping) using this approach, the whole process of flavor submission and evaluation becomes nothing more than a throw of the dice.

Within the flavor detection studies I have done through the years, I have found 10 families of primary flavor compounds. Some of these pertain to tea, others do not. I, however, must know and be familiar with all of them. The order of the descriptive terms that follow go from light or top notes to heavy or base notes. I also point out that I do not publish these flavor groupings for your or anyone’s approval THEY SIMPLY WORK FOR ME.

The acid group is the first category. Characterized by the organic acids, this blend is a homologous series of C-1 (formic acid) to C-12 (dodeconoic or lauric acid). Organic acids are responsible, in part, for the aroma of dairy products: Cheeses, yogurt, etc. They also play a major role in giving lift (top note) to fruit flavors and wine for example. Acetic acid is probably the most familiar compound in this group, being the active flavorant of vinegar.

The ester group is next (again represented by a homologous series of ethyl esters). This series is responsible for the sweet, fruity aromas found for example in apple, wine, as well as the characterizing compounds in cognac. As compounds in the series evaporate, the heavier, waxier compounds remain. Note the confusion when describing a product as sweet. The tongue perceives one kind of sweetness (sugar). But, we will also see that besides this, the estery character, there are other aroma-sweet types. It is, therefore, far more accurate to describe a flavor for example as sugary-sweet or estery-sweet.

Oftentimes, the estery characteristic is described as perfumy. This is a misnomer. Perfumyness is really attributable to the presence of the pungent/floral compounds (see later). Greenness is an odor characteristic of the green-colored or the unripened foods. Chemically, the green odors can be associated with the presence of at least one (or more) double-bound, (or a triple-bound, or any combination of the two). This chemical unsaturation, as it is called, can be present alone, or in association with a combination of an alcohol, ester, or aldehyde group. The heavier (high molecular weight) compounds smell fatty. As a group, these chemicals are found in food products which could be described as either green and/or fatty. Chemically, therefore, greenness and fattiness are closely
related. The compounds in the Green odor mixture, are responsible for the odor of leaves, green bananas, etc.

The next odor class is known as the Aromatic Terpenoids (Terpenes). Terpenes arecombination of a chemical compound known as isopentene. Found in most essential oils, to a greater or lesser extent, the terpenes can range in flavor from citrus-like, piney, and terpentine, to minty, musty or camphor-like. These compounds could also be considered sweet. Therefore, the description sweet
terpene or sweet-citrus is more appropriate. The peroxide breakdown products of terpenes are responsible for the spoiled citrus oil off-notes. Folding of citrus oils allays this instability problem.One-hundred pounds of an oil is concentrated ten times by distilling off 90 pounds of terpenes. This resultant ten pounds is known as a ten-fold oil, and by virtue of the removal of this, a significant amount of terpenes, the resultant ten-fold oil is a more stable, more soluble and more potent flavor. The terpenes are known for their juicy citrus flavor vs. the aldehydes (discussed later) which represent flavors characteristics of citrus rind.

Aromatic Sweet and Spicy compounds are responsible for the aromas of the spices as the name implies. Although similar in structure to the terpenoids, these differ chemically, in that they usually contain one or more complex oxygenated (oxygen containing) molecular groups. Note again, the confusion with the terminology sweet. As stated before, sweet-fruity, sweet-spicy (both olfactory) and sugary-sweet (tongue) are descriptions which are far more appropriate. When we encounter this blend, it is the first time that we are smelling a true flavor blend. Notice when smelling this blend that the flavor profile will not change too much during the evaporation of the blend off of the blotter. This is typical of a well-rounded, sophisticated (or tightly blended) flavor profile. A sophisticated (adult) type of flavor - in this case, a Benedictine-type flavor, is the opposite of a more loosely blended, less sophisticated, children-oriented mix. A flavor which is a simple mixture, one with off-notes, and flavor peaks and valleys or a flavor which does not perform well in a specific system, is called a disjointed flavor (see diagram - flavor curve). Remember, depending on the systems and processing conditions, it is not unlikely that a well-blended flavor profile can become disjointed when used in
a different systems or when processed differently. The flavorist can often compensate for this effect once the final flavored product is tasted and these discrepancies are then perceived and the problem is able to be identified.

Pungent floral odors are the bases of more perfume fragrances and make up the background and trace natural nuances of most flavors. These are truly the perfumy odors. Contained also herein are the aliphatic aldehydes responsible for the rindy citrus characters. Because of their strength and their
association with clean smells when used at low levels, these compounds are often used in soaps and detergents. Also included are acyclic monoterpene alcohols.

Sugars are cyclized polyalcohols, e.g., compounds with many alcohol groups (an oxygen and hydrogen). Upon heating, sugars can either break down themselves or react with other components in a system (amino acids, proteins, etc. - Maillard Reaction) to form a host of products. Typically, the sugars found in food systems form brown-type aromas when they are heated, browned, toasted, etc. The Maillard Reaction, a reaction between sugars and amino acids (or proteins) is an example of what is called non-enzymatic browning. ENZYMATIC BROWNING or table browning is when a banana or apple is bruised and then, the fruit then turns brown at the point of impact. This is a self-induced enzymatic breakdown. Compounds which impart a brown flavor include: ethyl vanillin,
ethyl maltol, pyrazines, thiazoles, furans.

Besides being a normal ingredient in vanilla, vanillin can also be formed when lignin, the binding stuff of wood and a by-product of the paper industry is oxidized or burned. This is why often when someone enters a lab that has been using vanillin, comments like 'I smell wood burning' are typical. Maltol (a malt-like compound) is another of the brown compounds formed through fermentation and Maillard Browning.

An extension of the brown category is a subgroup - the phenols. When compounds are more drastically oxidized, or burned, they can form simpler phenols. The flavor of these compounds (some describe them as black flavors) include the char-like, road tar-like or smoky-flavor characteristics.

The brown group imparts a SWEET brown flavor, again cautioning against the term sweet as used alone. When dipped into the blend that is representative of this group, the blotter first smells like TOASTED coconut, marshmallow, cotton candy, or vanilla, and then the blotter begins to smell smoky and burnt.

Woodiness is a dry, heavy characteristic and is obviously typical of the odor of wood. These compounds are related to the aromatic terpenoids in structure. However, they are usually more complex molecules and are typically larger in molecular weight. Berries are usually distinguished from the other fruits; citrus, grapes, melons, and pit-fruits, by virtue of the trace woody nuances (pitty, seedy flavors) contained therein. When dipped into this mixture, the blotter smells first like raspberry due to the presence of ionone. After a short time the profile changes to a cedar-like odor. This is due to the presence of cedrol, the active constituent in oil of Cedarwood.

The Lactonic group can impart a creamy, milky, even coconutty odor. These compounds are very important factors in dairy flavors, and important as flavorants in certain fruits like peach and apricot (also the tropical fruits like papaya, passionfruit, and mango). When dipped into this blend, the blotter first smells like creamy butter, WHITE MEAT coconut, then peach. Lactones are extremely
strong compounds and need to be used judiciously.

The sulfury group contains compounds whose odors vary from those similar to sewer gas and rotting vegetables to animal-like odors. Although these compounds are definitely repulsive at higher levels, when used at the trace levels at which they are found in nature, they are very important in defining a certain otherwise unattainable naturalness of character. This is also a group where we can conveniently include the odors of the musks, as well as the odors described as meaty and animal-like.

When dipped into this blend, the blotter will first smell like onion and garlic, and then like a mixture of potato and vegetable. These compounds can typically come from internal enzyme conversion of precursors that are contained in the food itself (mustard, onion). They also can be formed via a breakdown or a reaction of sulfur containing amino acids like cysteine, (eggs) and methionine(potatoes).

• Regular administration of low dose of black tea extracts (0.002-0.2%) significantly reduced the total cholesterol levels in rats.
• Normal rates of black tea extracts significantly reduced the trigycerides levels.
• The level of HDL (high density lipids) was increased though not significantly.
• The levels of VLDL (very high density lipids) and LDL (low density lipids) showed a slight decrease but the effect was not significant.

Thus the results indicated that chronic administration of black tea is capable of reducing the total cholesterol and triglyceride levels in healthy animals. The flavonoids in tea prevent oxidation
of LDL cholesterol.

In another study effect of black tea consumption on diabetes mellitus was evaluated. Consumption of black and green tea could not only prevent the experimentally induced diabetes but was also found to be effective in curing diabetes induced by streptozotocin in rats.

The effect of black tea consumption on liver function was examined by monitoring the levels of SGOT (serum glutamic oxolacetic transaminase) and SGPT (serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase) in experimental hepatoxicity induced rats. Results indicated that consumption of black or green tea had no adverse effect on liver function in the experimental animals.

The influence of tea on muscular function was studied by examining the effect of hot water brew of black or green tea on the mammalian skeletomotor apparatus. Black tea extract produced a concentration dependent facilitation of muscle contraction induced by nerve stimulation.

The effect of tea consumption on experimentally induced gastric ulcer in rats was also carried out. Tea extracts was most effective in preventing ulcers induced by aspirin, indomethacine, cold resistant stress and reserpine.

Further studies on health aspects of tea are in progress…….