Emergence Of Tea From A Beverage To A Wellness Superfood
Anyone can drink tea without having any toxic side effects. And, in a gradually evolving scenario, it is emerging as the new superfood for health-conscious people.
New trends defining the tea industry in India
The demand for premium teas has increased and customers are displaying an active interest in the purchase of premium teas online which, in turn, is facilitating sales by providing additional product information and bolstering consumer knowledge and awareness.
Why shouldn’t Darjeeling be everyone’s cup of tea?
Some people travel for leisure, many people travel for food and some travel for both. So, it would be fair to say that there would be people who travel for the drink that many of us just can’t do without, first thing in the morning.
Golden Tips' opens its flagship tea boutique and café - Teattoria
First published on Millennium post ; contributed by Madhav Sarda, Managing Director, Golden Tips Tea
Capturing the essence of Darjeeling is a home-grown tea brand 'Golden Tips Teas', which comes with a heritage of 80+ years and four generations of tea entrepreneurship. Following the 'direct from plantation + auction model', the expertise of 'Golden Tips' lies in sourcing, packaging and marketing of premium quality single-origin teas and tea blends. Apart from the domestic market, the company exports teas to 90+ countries with Russia, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan and now China being their main international markets.
'Golden Tips' has recently opened its flagship tea boutique and cafe 'Teattoria' in Darjeeling. It offers Italian/ Continental and Oriental cuisine along with specialty teas and exotic mocktails.
"We have endeavoured to cater to domestic as well as foreign customers, especially those visiting India, through our omnichannel presence across India and of course through our online route. Our specialised tea stores, including our flagship tea boutique and café 'Teattoria' are spread across Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Gangtok and are playing a major role in popularising the finest teas of India and making them available to connoisseurs," said the managing director of 'Golden Tips'.
Choices of Darjeeling Teas
Some Pictures of café - Teattoria
Madhav Sarda: The magic of Darjeeling‘s Golden Tips
Tea. The love for this elixir made the British do some industrial reconnaissance and bring the seeds of Camellia Sinensis to the foothills of the mighty Himalayas, to Darjeeling. Darjeeling is blessed with a unique terroir with an altitude ranging between 1200 – 6000 ft above sea level.
Raise a toast to tea
Tea is one of the most loved beverages in India and across the world. People have enjoyed tea since time immemorial and consider it to be one of the most cherished parts of their native culture. Indians’ love for this super beverage has given the tea industry a loyal customer base in the country, which has resulted in fast-paced growth.
Butterfly Pea Flower (Blue Tea): A Wonder Beverage Par Excellence
'First published on the health site contributed by Madhav Sarda, Managing Director, Golden Tips Tea'
Blue Tea helps boost immunity, acts as paracetamol, and has anti-aging effects. Read on to know more about the health benefits of butterfly pea flowers.
Over the years we all have come across various types of teas like Black, Green, Masala, and White teas, but have you ever heard of Blue Tea? Seems a bit weird for tea to have that name, right? Made by infusing Butterfly Pea flowers, Blue tea (Aparajita or Neelkanth) is named after its beautiful azure blue hue. When infused in hot water with lemon in it, this flower gives the famous blue color to the beverage. This tea has a distinct floral aroma that gives it an earthy and woody flavor, similar to green tea in some ways.
This super beverage is also a caffeine-free herbal concoction packed with antioxidants and is also rich in Anthocyanins, which are compounds responsible for its unique blue color. For this reason, manufacturers also use Butterfly Pea flower in cosmetics and as a natural dye for foods, drinks, and textiles.
The flowers are also commonly brewed into an herbal tea, often alongside ingredients like lemongrass, honey, and lemon. When the acidity of the Pea flower tea changes, the color changes as well. This quality makes the butterfly pea flower a popular ingredient among mixologists for specialty cocktails. Recently, the flower made its way into the cocktail world, where it's used to make Blue Gin.
According to the Journal of Pharmacological Reports, the Butterfly Pea flower is a common ingredient in rice-based recipes, such as Nasi Kerabu in Malaysia and rice cakes in Singapore.
Empyrean Azure - Blue Tea Infusion
Choice combination of Pea Butterfly, Chamomile, Lemongrass, Moringa, Sea buckthorn and Rose petals expertly blended with Green Tea, Having a floral aroma with a vegetal sweet note to relish and to stay well-nourished.
Health Benefits: Antioxidant-rich aphrodislac qualities, help cure asthma, arthritis , Stomach ulcers, heart ailments, relieve anxiety and induce sleep, provide vitamins & nutrition and aids general health. Can also be served chilled. Milk best avoided.
Role of digital and social media in popularizing Blue Tea
Blue tea has been available in the market for long but now thanks to social media, food bloggers, and travel bloggers, these teas are very popular and are widely available for consumption at retail stores, supermarkets, and online marketplaces. They are regularly used by tea aficionados across the globe for their various health benefits too.
According to Verified Market Research, the herbal tea market was valued at $3289.67 million in 2020 and is projected to reach $4877.80 million by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 4.89 percent from 2021 to 2028. India is second only to China in terms of acceptance of teas that have been blended with spices, fruit bits, flower petals, herbs, and a whole array of botanicals.
Health Benefits of Butterfly Pea Flower Blue Tea
Some of the health benefits of Blue Tea are as follow:
Acts as a Paracetamol
Blue tea is believed to aid in bringing down a fever by dilating the blood vessels right beneath the skin. This would enable the air to cool the blood more easily.
Stress Buster
A high dosage of blue pea flowers has had beneficial anxiolytic effects in humans and has helped the body deal with stress.
Immunity booster and anti-inflammatory
The blue flowers are rich in flavonoids, which are powerful antioxidants with anti-inflammatory properties. They also help boost immunity.
Asthma healer
Blue tea can help give relief from cough, cold, and asthma, as it acts as an expectorant. In other words, helps clear the mucus from the airways, lungs, and trachea.
Boosts memory
Blue tea has garnered a lot of interest across the world and this can be attributed to the memory-boosting properties it has. Studies have shown that the Blue Pea flowers assist memory and brain function as they help increase Acetylcholine (a Neurotransmitter).
Reduces risk of cell damage
The rich color of blue tea indicates the high quantity of antioxidants in it. Antioxidants reduce the risk of cell damage, they are also known to slow down the effects of aging on skin and hair.
Anti-diabetic
Butterfly pea flowers help inhibit glucose uptake from food and thus, help treat type II diabetes. The benefits of having blue tea are not just internal in nature, they have a number of external benefits too, like for the skin and overall beauty.
Some of them are enumerated below:
- The tea is well-known for its anti-aging benefits, due to its high antioxidant content. This makes the skin shinier and younger from within.
- Blue pea flower is excellent for the hair too, as it contains Anthocyanin - a compound known to increase blood circulation in the head and therefore maintain a healthy scalp.
- The flavonoids present in blue tea may also stimulate collagen production, helping develop and maintain skin elasticity.
At Golden Tips stores, both physical and online, blue tea has emerged as one of our bestsellers. It has overtaken our previous hot-sellers and this trend is here to stay. We have introduced other flower blends too in our product portfolio like Chamomile, Hibiscus, Rose, Jasmine, Lavender but have given them an 'Indian Spin'.
