“We want to do good, not just for ourselves, but for our customers and for our tea growers,” Pranab explained to us a few months ago. When we heard about how he and his brother, Pallab aspired to develop organic tea in their village in Assam, we knew we had to learn more about their story.
A few weeks later we were sipping tea with Pallab and his family in the village of Panchnoi where we learned about how they developed organic tea farming practices and were looking to bring the rich taste of organic Assamese tea to the world.
Here are a few of the interesting facts we learned during the time we spent in the farm.
1. It’s a family-affair: Organic farming runs in the family. It seems brothers Pranab and Pallab were destined to start Assamica Agro, an organic tea company. Their grandfather was also an organic farmer. Many of the organic practices followed today come from the wisdom and teachings of their forefather.
2. If you teach a man to fish…well, you know the rest. Starting 5 years ago, their farm Kanoka tea estate became the first organic tea garden in the village of Panchnoi. And ever since then, Pallab has been sharing organic farming practices with other small tea growers in the community. He’s as passionate about organic farming for his own family as he is about educating other farmers so they can also become organic tea growers. Their community is taking steps to becoming more sustainable, one tea plant at a time. Their farm Kanoka tea estate has received fully certified organic status as per NPOP and NOP standards in March 2016.
3. A Labor of Love: To watch Pallab work in the garden is to see that his first love is the land and the healthy foods that can come from it.
On most farms, you’ll find that those who own the tea garden aren’t the ones who till the soil, milk the cows, or plant the seedlings. Pallab, does it all. Not because he needs to, he does it because he wants to. Every morning at 7am you’ll find him milking this cows, which he’ll do again in the evening.
4. My Cup of Tea: And finally, if you haven’t tasted their green tea or black tea, don’t miss out.
We were hooked after our first sip. Assamica Agro organic teas became a necessity in our thermos as we moved around India. You won’t find anything better, but maybe we’re a little biased.