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'Tea coin' from Assam the latest fad in Canada
Guwahati, Sep 15 (IANS) Tea coin is the latest fad in Canada - dip the coin in hot water and drink your steaming cup of tea, that too without any fears of pesticide residues. The latest value addition to the beverage is the tea coin - two grams of garden fresh organic tea packed in coin shape and then marketed in Canada. And the manufacturers of the much in demand coin are the Singphos of eastern Assam's Margherita area. The Singphos are a tribal community who are believed to have first discovered and drank tea much before the Bruce brothers, Robert and Charles, made public their discovery in 1823 of spotting tea bushes in Assam. Produced in a 15-hectare area involving about 200 local tribal people, the organic tea manufactured under the banner of Singpho Agro Products is packaged in bamboo containers that look like coins.
Another move towards better quality tea
COLOMBO: The Plantation Industries Ministry will introduce new regulations to raise the quality of green tea leaves. The new regulations are now with the Legal Draftsman. The regulations were formulated by the Ministry on the directions of Plantation Industries Minister D. M. Jayaratna, a Ministry spokesperson said. The decision to formulate new regulations, to enhance the quality of young tea leaves, was taken after considering that 30 per cent of the leaves get destroyed during transport. The leaves get ruined from the point they are plucked and loaded into lorries and are hauled up to tea factories, said ministry sources. Minister Jayaratna had instructed the Ministry Secretary, J. Abeywickrema to introduce new methods to minimize the damage caused to tea leaves.
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