And as a young assistant, your job is mainly
in the field. It's your responsibility to make
sure that the leaf reaches the plant properly
as you do the entire process of making fertilizer
application, pest and disease operations, and
the other operations, cultural practices that
go with it, are carried out in a timely manner.
And the leaf is harvested and sent to the factory.
Once the factory gets the leaf, it then becomes
a responsibility of the factory and the staff.
to make sure that it is manufactured in the style
that is required as per the end user. Welcome
to another show of My First Job, the podcast.
We've had 26 episodes so far, each a different
career trajectory. And today is no different.
All of us. have a morning cup of coffee. We choose
the brand we like. We have certain preferences
for how we love our coffee or tea. Today's guest
is a carnassier. He's a man with a tremendous
amount of experience in managing large tea estates,
not just in India, but in Laos and Papua New
Guinea. Ramesh Vasudevan has had a wonderful
career managing and navigating the entire process
of tea making. including tasting. So let's speak
to him and find out what happened in this wonderful
journey of his. Hi, Ramesh. Hi, Venu. Wonderful
to have you on the show. I'm sure that there
are so many experiences that you can tell us
about that will be completely new to a whole
lot of the listeners of the show. Thank you so
much, Venu. I'm not asking you for the brand,
but do you start your morning with a cup of tea?
Actually, I don't. I start with a cup of coffee.
I must be honest. And if I fit my first question,
it's not right. So actually, I do start with
a cup of coffee. I'm equally partial towards
both. I do drink my tea in the evening. I prefer
a good cup of dajiling in the evening. I start
the day with a good cup of Arabica coffee. It
charges the batteries immediately. No, the reason
I asked is because for most of us, it's just
a morning ritual. But for you, it's much more
than a ritual. It's almost, it was part of your
career. Can you start from... Let's say college,
because that's the point at which most of us
decide how we're going to embark on our careers.
That's correct, Venu. Actually, I had no clue
about the existence of plantations per se. I
studied in Ferguson College in Pune. I was very
keen on economics. The college had a very strong
economics department. I was pursuing my master's
in economics at the Gokul Institute of Politics
and Economics as well. That's when I visited
an estate down in South India. Having come onto
the estate, I was taken up with the lifestyle
and I was taken up with the absolute peace, tranquility,
the ability to go to play games in the evening.
It seemed just the lifestyle for me. The only
other similar lifestyle would have been the services.
I was very keen on joining the services too.
In fact, I did join. I did my exam, the combined
defense service exams, got through the whole
thing, but ultimately made a choice and said,
I would join plantations. So at the age of 20,
I joined a company called Malayalam Plantations.
It was a British company down south based out
of Cochrane. I had plantations in Kerala and
in Tamil Nadu. That's how I got into planting.
So what are the first things that you were doing?
When you join, what happens? What are the jobs
that you're, you know, asked to do? Yeah, the
whole process is pretty demanding because you
had to go through a written exam. You had to
make sure that there are quite a few guys who
are probably keen to get into planting. There
was a written exam and after that, there was
an extended interview where you're sent to the
plantations. The successful candidates were sent
into the plantations to spend a couple of days
in the plantations. You would be observed by
the manager of the plantations to see whether
you're capable of being a fit. for the lifestyle
there. So it was virtually, at that time, I'm
talking nearly 40 years ago, it was a 360 degree
sort of interview where you were observed from
all angles to see whether you would be a right
fit. So it was your background, it was your ability
to comprehend the requirements of the job. What
you decided was not the only important thing,
but also what others thought about you was important.
So ultimately, if the manager felt that you were
capable, You were then given the go -ahead and
sent back to the company in Cochin. And they
would then let you know whether you were successful
or not. And being successful, you're posted as
a young assistant manager to one of the plantations.
I started my career in a state called Mayfield
in the Middle Greece. My manager was a no -nonsense,
a hard taskmaster, extremely fair, extremely
firm, but extremely fair. And I learned a lot
from him because he showed me how things should
be done in a manner that is, which held no biases,
but at the same time, made sure that you did
it the right way, despite the consequences that
came your way. I want to understand as an assistant
manager, what would a normal day be like? I would
start the day, get up around 5 .30 in the morning.
By 6, I would be down at what they call the muster.
the workers of the divisions of the estates would
gather and there would be allotted work. You
then went down there and stood along with the
staff, the officers who ran the plantations and
allocated work to various workers. Then after
that, went down to the factory where the manufacturer
would be on, spend some time in the factory and
then got home for breakfast. You would then spend
time in the estate of itself. and do what was
required. Every minute of the day was busy. You
hardly had any time to, you know, actually spend
on anything else except work. It's a hard day's
work. And learning and working together was a
task by itself. So you had to learn very fast
because the workers were looking at you and saying,
well, if this young man is going to be the one
who's going to be telling me how work must be
done, let's see what he knows about it. And there
was this instance, there's a practice called
pruning, where you prune a tea bush. The bushes
in South India are basically in the age of about,
say, 100, 125 years old. And they're all massive
bushes, which have been pruned to keep them to
the level that they are. And this is a four -year
practice where you prune the bushes, be able
to point out the faults in pruning, flaws that
come into it when you went to the field. I remember
I was... given a knife and told by the manager,
please go and start pruning. And in a matter
of 15 days, I would like you to make sure that
you know you're pruning and you will finish the
task. There was, I think, 200 bushes. I'm treated.
I did that and I finished my pruning and I was
very proud about it. And my manager came up to
me and said, after 15 days, and asked me, have
you done your, have you done the task? I said,
yes. He had one located and he called the supervisor
over and asked him, what do you think about his
pruning? He looked around, he shuffled and he
looked down. He said, no, be honest. What do
you think should be done? He said, if you ask
me, I think he should be charge cheated. So it
just made me realize that it's very, very easy
to supervise people when you don't have to do
the job. It's when you actually have to do the
job and when you need to do it well that you
realize how difficult it is, how simple this
job may be. So that was a learning that stuck
with me for the rest of my life. And I still
continue to say that, you know, if you want to
ask someone to do a job, make sure that you know
how to do it. So when you first had your experience
of the estate plantation, that was like the trailer.
But the main film was quite different from what
you thought it would be about playing buildings.
But you discovered that it's a... Absolutely.
Working in a plantation is a totally different
aspect altogether. There are so many cultural
practices. There are so many things that go into
making that simple cup of tea or coffee that
we have in the morning. In a tea estate, you
have to pluck the tea leaves. Like I told you,
the bushes in South India are only 120 years
old. And you really need to pluck the tea in
the right time. You have to make sure that the
quality of the green leaf... Why is that? Why
is it that it's asked, they ask, you know, people
pluck it early in the mornings? Or is there a
time when this... It's plucked throughout the
day, but there is a particular interval of time
between the plucking of leaves. So every bush
has to be plucked every 12 days to make sure,
10 to 12 days, in order to make sure that the
quality of the green leaf is retained. It is
there that you have the thioflavins and thiorubins,
which actually impart the flavor and the strength
of these teas. So it is the duty of the field
staff to ensure that the raw material that comes
to the factory is of optimum quality. And as
a young assistant, your job is mainly in the
field. It's your responsibility to make sure
that the neat bleach is stacked properly. As
you do the entire process of making fertilizer
application, pest and disease operations, and
the other operations, cultural practices that
go with it, I carry it out in a timely manner.
And the leaf is harvested and sent to the factory.
Once the factory gets the leaf, it then becomes
a responsibility of the factory and the staff
to make sure that it is manufactured in the style
that is required as per the end user. Now, in
India, you had two different types of teas. You
had the orthodox manufacture and you had the
CTC man. The orthodox is what you get, which
is basically the older style of manufacture,
which involves the rolling tables where tea is
withered. And there's a process called withering,
wherein you remove the surface moisture as well
as the moisture from the leaf. And it is brought
to an optimum. moisture percentage, the leaf
is brought to occur moisture percentage, and
then it is rolled. And once it is rolled, it
is of this process of oxidation, what they call
fermentation that takes place, and then it is
dried. There's a process by using fire dryers.
That is the orthodox way of drying. The CTC is
called, CTC stands for crush, tear, and curl.
They're basically circular rollers which have
got teeth on them, and the leaf is passed through
the macerators, basically. So you pass the tree
leaf through it, and it macerates the tea, and
it comes out the other end. And then there's
a similar process of fermentation and drying.
Once the fermentation and drying is done, it
then goes in for grading and sorting, where you
get the different types of grades. You have the
leaf grades, and then you get the dust. The leaf
grades are of lighter liquor, and the dust grades
are stronger. This is very basic that I'm talking
about. But if you go through it in detail, there
would be a lot of other nuances which could be
thought about. That's the amazing part, I think,
of every career. The basics can be learned in
about six months to a year. The nuances take
a lifetime. Absolutely. So, there are so many
things about. So, I just wanted to understand
when you said cultural practices. Yeah, it would
depend like, say, the question disease practice,
you know. Tea is very prone to pests. You have
the sucking pests and then you have the stem,
but they have borders which are pests. So you
need to address this by using the right type
of pesticides and the right type of fungicides
and in the right dosages and in a timely manner.
You need to prune the bush. You need to make
sure that the bushes are tipped at a particular
height. You need to regulate the shade in the
tea estates. Because the shade makes a lot of
difference in the growth and the amount of the
growth of the tea plant and as well as the tea
leaf is dependent upon the shade. So in South
India, for example, we use extensive amount of
shade, but in certain other places, shade is
not used at all. Depending on how close you are
to the crater and how far away you are, it makes
a lot of difference and also your elevation.
All this makes a difference as far as the type
of need. And you would try to grow. And these
are the culture practices, Venu, that really
go into it. Basically, handling of key. So you
had a lot of walking to do on a daily basis?
It was... Yeah. One of the charm of the job was
that you were given an Enfield motorcycle. But
I didn't realize that the motorcycle was supposed
to be parked on the road and you had to do a
lot of walking after that. So, yes, there was
a lot of... There was a lot of... There was a
lot of walking to be done. The bike would be
polished and kept, and you walked everywhere.
And if, God forbid, you were caught using the
bike for anything else, except for going home
or here. So, yes, the motorcycle was there. And
it's only later on that you started using the
bike to go to various work spots. But then you
did actually have to walk a lot. Yes, extensive
work. And I can relate a very hilarious, when
you talk about walking, it was this evening.
After work, it was around 6 o 'clock in the evening.
And I still remember the master didn't have electricity.
And it was office. And I had just finished the
work in the evening. It was dusk. And I was getting
back. And the motorcycle wasn't there. But the
motorcycle was parked at the bungalow because
I was told I needed to walk. So I was walking
up. And then I took a shortcut through one of
the teepees. I took the shortcut. And I took
a bend. There was a brown bear. They had to go
at one of the anthills. I looked at the bear
and ran in the opposite direction. The bear looked
at me and ran in the opposite direction. We didn't
see each other. We hadn't met each other after
that. But I'm sure both of us cared. These sort
of adventures did come our way. And I found a
leopard cub. in one of the fields, and the forest
department is not very happy that I was keeping
it in the estate, and we had to hand it over.
We ultimately did, and I don't know what happened
to it. I hope that it survived. There were a
lot of planters, and there were a lot of lepers,
a lot of wildlife on these estates at that time.
I'm sure it's still there, but at that time,
it was still pretty wild. It was a lot. Okay.
Your early schooling and all that, was it in
an urban setting? I studied, yes. I studied in
Loyola in Coonah. And it was basically an urban
setting. But my father was an instructor at the
National Defence Academy at the NDA. And so I
was exposed to a lot of the semi -rural life
too at the NDA because the campus was out there
in Kadakwasla. Beautiful place to grow up. We
had the best of both worlds, not being in the
NDA, but living in the NDA. And then coming to
school, I did my schooling at Loyola and Pula.
Now, the reason I ask is that, you know, typically
these two worlds are almost, to put it, you know,
like a cliche, they're worlds apart. So to get
used to life in a plantation, to figure out what
this thing is, is a very different lifestyle
from what the... urban kids are used to today
so do you find that that is one of the things
where is recruitment an issue for today's plantations
or it continues to be just like before there
is a set of people who come you hit the nail
on the head or the life in the plantations is
very different there is a lot of isolation the
ability to live to to work and be isolated from
all the lights of the city is something that's
very difficult for kids who haven't really experienced
this sort of lifestyle. And it becomes even more
difficult once you get married and your spouse
is not used to this sort of life. And a lot of...
It does get difficult for the girls because living
on the plantation can be extremely lonely. I
was fortunate because Lakshmi, my wife, was a
planter's daughter. And she was able to adjust
very... What the life was like. Yeah, she knew
about the life. And though she often tells me
that never ever think that it's an excuse that
you're going to get away with. And it's made
sure that I... It's always important that we
had a break, went out, went back to places that
we could see a movie, probably go to a restaurant.
All those sort of things are very, very important.
So we were lucky, but there are certain places
where it could be very, very isolated, and especially
in the rubber estates, which are far more isolated
than tea estates. The company that I worked with,
I started my plantation career, Milan Plantations,
basically both tea and rubber plantations. The
tea estates were much more closer to town, had
much better social life because there were clubs
and, you know, one went to the club quite frequently,
many once a week. But in the rubber estates,
there were no clubs close by. And I could get
very, very lonely and doomy. So, yes. So, how
would you get past? What was your normal? Would
you get down to reading? What is it that, you
know, would happen to spend? 100%. A voracious
reader. I read a lot of books and books were
lifelike. And we went, traveled miles to borrow
books from each other. And one of the biggest
things that you could get, give as a gift to
any planter would be a set of books. How old
they may be. And often what planters did is when
they left, when they were transferred out, a
lot of them left their old books behind in the
bungalow itself so that the incoming guy could
read most of those. And these clubs also had
libraries. So it was very much, it was definitely
a life. It was much later. that the TV came and,
you know, we were able to actually afford a TV.
I still remember my first black and white 14
-inch TV, which had very grainy, you know, sort
of reception -y pictures, yes. And watching it,
watching the World Cup football, without knowing
who was scoring what goal, except for the night,
who was scoring the goal. So it was that sort
of an existence. It was a tough life. But nevertheless,
it had its own stuff. Yeah. No, and at some point,
I think it's a, not that you get used to it,
but you discover your ways around it. You discover
the compensations. Like you said, for most people,
going into forest would be a break. And for you,
getting into an urban environment would be a
break. So it's so true. So true. It's just like
a flip of the whole coin. So true. Leave for
us. We look forward to going on leave and not
going anywhere near a, you know, a health station
or anything of that sort. Be right in the middle
of Pune. My parents were in Pune. So, you come
to Pune and be right there in the middle of town.
And, you know, skin people. That was a breakthrough
for us. Yes. Great. So, how long were you at
Harrison Malayalam? And what happened next? I
was with them for 18 years. I continued to be
with them for 18 years. I started as an assistant
and I left as a manager, as a senior manager.
My last estate was an estate called Wentworth,
which was in the middle of Greece. And I left
from there. I was on that estate for almost seven
years. And I bought tea and coffee. And it was
one of the prized properties of the company.
I spent a good seven years there. We had the
good fortune of being chosen at the best estate
for the best performances. And we were recognized
by the company for this effort. And it's all
entirely due to the excellent effort of the team
that I had. Wonderful bunch of managers and workers
who went the extra mile to make sure that we
achieved our tasks and we achieved our goals
and made the sort of financial targets that was
set by the car. So how would you handle, let's
say, a lot of these people working hard, it's
hard labor, there's a lot of work to be done.
How do you keep motivational levels high? And
do you remember any particular ways, points at
which you knew that you had to... managed situations
which had cropped up suddenly? Yes, sir. We had
to have an incentive system and we had introduced
incentive systems at various levels. Right from
the worker level to institute level, there were
incentive systems that were introduced. And for
high performers, there were incentives that were
being given. For workers, depending upon the
extra number of kilos that they were plucking
or picking, there was incentives that were given
to them. So yes, you have to incentivize. Otherwise,
there is bound to be you know, a very, yeah,
you would find that standard of work would be
extremely ordinary rather than extraordinary.
So in order to get the extraordinary for people,
incentivization is absolutely essential. Okay.
So let's go to your experience in Papua New Guinea
and Laos, which I think are worlds apart from
wherever you started in Harrison's Malayalam,
new countries, new... And then we'll come to,
yeah, we'll, let's take it there. Yes. So like
I said, I worked with them, I worked with Harrison's
Malayan Plantations. Then later on, it became
Harrison's Malayan till 2000. And then I left
for New Guinea, greener pastures. And there was
this company called WR Carpenters. It's at that
time considered to be one of the better. or shall
we say, top planting companies in the world.
And they operated out of New Guinea and in the
highlands of New Guinea. New Guinea is probably
the second largest island in the world after
Australia. Divided into two parts. One part is
the Indonesian part, which is Iringaya, and the
other part is New Guinea. So it's similar people,
a country divided right in the middle by the...
so -called colonial powers, very similar to what
happened between India and Pakistan. A line was
drawn and said, okay, this part is Indonesia
and this part is New Guinea. So a partition actually
took place there. So you have this partition
that took place. And New Guinea is a wonderful
country. It's minerally extremely rich. It has
probably one of the biggest deposits of gold,
copper. It's got oil and gas. You have every
big miner in the world. operating in New Guinea.
And it also has various, produces fantastic tea,
coffee. The high -grown coffees of New Guinea
rate at the top coffees in the world. The company
that I work with, Carpenters, at one time, our
coffees were rated in the top 10 coffees in the
world. And that is a matter of great pride as
part of the company went. And the brand that
I talk about is called Sigri Coffee. And the
cup that I'm holding here is the sugary coffee
cup. A lot of memories, good memories that come
with this. So, yes. So, New Guinea was a country
that had 800 different languages. 800 different.
And warring tribes... How do people manage to
communicate? Well, there were three basic languages
that were used in New Guinea. One was... Motu,
that was used in the coastal areas and the islands.
Then you had Pidgin, Toctosan, as they were called,
that was used in the highlands and in the other
areas. And then you had English, which is a universal
language that's used everywhere. So we learned,
I had to learn Pidgin. And I learned it very
fast because if you didn't learn Pidgin, you
couldn't manage with your... So I, and, and when
I joined this company, Carpenters had this very
firm policy. You could come from any company
in the world, but when you started, you started
right at the bottom. You had to start, you had
to start from the factory. So, and like, and
they said the Indians in particular had this
enormous talent of writing wonderful CVs, you
know? So. That's a very backhanded compliment.
We take it both ways. So nevertheless, the general
manager was a tough old Scotsman who told me
that, well, if you have to start, the bottom
is where you start and then you rise upwards.
You prove yourself and you could head the company
someday. Well, I'm happy to say I started at
the bottom, but I actually headed the company
one day. And I ended up as the general manager
of WR Carpenters in a matter of 10 years. And
when I ran the company, I ran WR Carpenters.
You created a harvester there, right? You were
not mechanically inclined earlier, but how did
that happen? Yes, that's interesting. This company
was extremely, was one of the pioneers of mechanical
harvesting. Harvesting, as we know, is normally
plucked. You know, you find everywhere in the
world people pluck wheat tea with their hands.
And it was a laborious process. In New Guinea,
you didn't have the labor to pluck the tea. You
had the tea. You could grow the tea, but you
didn't have the labor to pluck it. So you had
to mechanize. And the area was flat. So therefore,
it lent itself to mechanization. So there was
already a process of mechanization that took
place and they had already introduced early harvesters
in the beginning. By the time I went there, they
were using three -man harvesters. And I was keen
on developing something that would be more mechanical,
would be track -driven. And I found an old piece
of junk lying in one of the workshops in one
of the estates. And I set about, you know...
Actually, literally taking the cobwebs off it
and pushed it out into the light up there and
then looked at it and found that it was an old
wreck that required a lot of work. So I had a
good mechanic, a bush mechanic as we call them
there, who set about doing something and we put
this whole thing together, mounted an old tractor
motor onto it, took the blades off these three
-man harvesters. assemble the whole thing. It
was a mishmash of all sort of stuff that you
could find. Put everything together and tried
it out. The first day, the engine actually fired.
That is great joy. And then the harvester actually
moved. The hydraulics moved. So it worked. And
then the blades worked. Getting the blades to
work to synchronize the speeds of the blades,
we required pulleys. We got all that going. It
was something that was I think, good. Glorious
to watch. And as it was, it was, it is a great
achievement. The board was very, very appreciative
of the, of the effort made. And we tried it out
in the field and it's actually ran much to the
pleasure of some of the supporters and much to
the pleasure of a lot of others. But it's actually,
and we then went to, we then decided that we
will go for better harvesters because we decided
that that is the way forward. And, I spent a
little bit of time in Japan. General manager,
my general manager at that time was a South African
gentleman who took me along and we went to Japan
and we spent some time there understanding how
the Japanese work on these harvests. They are
masters. The masters of tea harvesting were the
Japanese. Japanese have small garden tea estates
and are completely mechanized and they have wonderful
machines that work there. So we went there to
learn how they did it and devised a machine that
was useful for us. And they understood our requirements,
worked with us, and ultimately developed a couple
of machines that we used in New Guinea. They
bought the first five machines when I was there,
and we actually got them working. And it was
a pleasure to see these machines work because
they cut labor costs by a tremendous amount,
increased productivity, and improved quality.
So all in all, A win -win for everyone. So it
was very good. So they got these machines going
and ultimately by actually fabricating an old
harvester, I was able to get these machines back
on the estates and it went a long way in actually
mechanizing the whole craft. So that was literally
your test run. And then you figured out how to
get on for it and do it. Yes. And New Guinea
had a group, like I was mentioning before, New
Guinea had both tea and coffee. And we had the
states which in India, if you look at it, tea
and coffee don't grow next to each other. Normally,
coffees are in a different region altogether
and tea in a different region. But there, almost
every estate that carpenters had, had a coffee
division and a tea division. And so one learned
coffee along with your tea. And that was a great
learning experience for me because I didn't have
much coffee experience. But I learned a coffee
from there. And I learned the nuances of growing
coffee. Then later on, even tasting coffee. Here
in Carpenters, they had the system of, you know,
a tea tasting session would be held almost every
Thursday. And it was there that I really picked
up the art of, you know, learned how to taste
teas. Because it is essential that you tasted
not only the tea that you made, but you tasted
all the teas others made too. So it was all magic.
Can I just hold you back to, you know, sort of
get you into the flow. So when you're making
the tea, are different grades of tea made in
exactly the same way? How is it that you would
assess 10 varieties of tea, for example, or grades?
Yeah, actually, the process till your drying
is the same. Because grading actually takes place
after drying. the tea. Depending upon the size
of the granule or the leaf, it is then graded
into various types. Like you say OP, orange pickle.
BOP, broken orange pickle. Then you have FBOP,
cloudy broken orange pickle. And so on and so
forth. Depending upon the size of the grade,
you would then grade the teas accordingly. And
the dust grades would be the smallest of the
lot. So you had dust grades like dust 1. SFD,
special pine dust. It is actually the same tea,
but broken down depending upon the size of the
tea particle. And the dust teas? Smaller the
particle, the dusts are much stronger, the leaf
braids are more flavorful. So how would you assess,
what is it that when you drink tea that is made,
how do you manage to differentiate between their
minute variations, right? Or are they fairly
strong variations? There are a lot of variations.
In the tasting, there are three processes. What
you have to do when you look at a cup of tea,
this one is the appearance. Color of the liquor.
No, the tea leaf itself. You look at the tea,
you first look at the appearance of the tea.
They twist in the color, the blackish, brownish,
the twists in the tea, the amount of tips. You
look at the appearance. Then you, once it is
infused, you nose it. This is... Just a minute.
This is an infusion cup. You infuse your teas
in this for tasting. And once you taste it, you
smell it. You nose it. To see when you nose it,
you're able to get, a practiced nose will be
able to detect whether it's been fired, if it's
over -fired, under -fired, whether there's any
something different in the make and things like
that from your nose itself. Sorry, what is firing?
What does firing mean? Firing means when you're
drying your teas, you're firing your teas, you're
drying your teas at a temperature of about 120
degrees. Right? So, 120 to 150 degrees when you
fire it. If you overfire it, then you have burnt,
the teas get burnt. So, then you will find fire
in your teas. You will have a fiery taste in
your teas. A burnt taste. So, that burnt taste,
you can get out of when you do this. Spell it.
So, practice this. When he knows it. So when
he knows it, you get that straight away. And
when that's done, you're able to get an idea
as to whether it's been fired. So that itself
is an inkling as to what you're going to find
in the cup. So the next thing that you do, next
thing that you do is you take a cup. This is
a tasting cup. Okay. This is a tasting cup. So
your liquor goes into this. So your liquor goes
into this. And from here, You taste your teas.
You roll the teas in your mouth. Okay? When during
doing this process, what happens is you roll
the teas on your tongue, on both sides of the
tongue, and you're able to get the idea of whether
the teas possess the qualities they're supposed
to have. Basically, is it over -fermented? Is
it over -fired? Is it pleasant? Has it got fruity?
What sort of flavor is it? Has it got a fragrance?
Fragrance which, you know, people inside, flowery,
fragrance. There were all sort of terminology
that is used in it. But basically, that's what
it's all about. Basically, you have to have a
good nose. You have to have a good tongue and
palate in order to tongue it and to nose it and
to tongue it. Very, very important. Your palate
is very important. So, that's the nuances. So,
it only comes at practice and you should be gifted
enough to get that idea as to, how you can differentiate
between one tea. And that comes with hundreds
of tasting hundreds. So we should taste these
things every week. And I know we should taste
our own teas and others' teas also. And if you're
in the factory, you would be tasting teas day
in and day out. You'd be tasting teas to see
whether the quality is being retained. Okay.
So typically a tasting session would last for
how long? How many teas would you... It depends
on the number of cups that you put out. You probably
have about, say, 50 cups, 40 to 50 cups that
are put out. Say, 10 cups per estate and some
five estates, about 50 cups are put out. So,
like I said, there are 50 cups like this, which
are available, and you would taste each of these
cups. And the art is to pick out the best of
the lot and the poor ones. And you would say,
this is good, this is not good, not that good,
and there are certain qualities that you love.
You know, there are autumnal tea. So this is
essentially an art that makes a lot of difference
because the pricing of the tea depends on these
products. Right. Absolutely. So because if you're
able to price, if you're able to point out a
tea that is excellent, the pricing of that tea
would be exceptional in the auctions. All these
teas go to auctions and they're auctions. These
teas are auctions. So they had the tasting reports.
They were able to understand these are tasting
reports. This is what they say. So naturally,
they will be able to find out and say that they
have good quality. How blends happen? In the
sense that if you are blending certain types
of tea, how is this entire thing managed at the
back end? See, blending is essentially the process
that goes into trying to get a mixture between
quality and quantity. See, in tea, what you require
is cuppage. For the normal tea, the guy who makes
tea, the tea shop guys here, they're only the
tea shops on the roadside that we have that piece
of tea. Our dependent maximum number of cups
that I can get from one teaspoon of tea. So for
them, cuppage is important. Flavor is not important.
So strength and cuppage is important. Now, blending
is when you take flavor and you take strength
and you blend both of them together. to get the
best of both of them. So you would find that
all the packaged teas, you find the 250 gram
packets or 40 gram or 100 gram packets, like
you find the red labels and the three roses and,
you know, there's various things that you find
are all blends. There are blends of various types
of teas that are made. In fact, some of our teas
from New Guinea were coming to Cochin for blending.
They were coming all the way from New Guinea.
to South India to blend in some of the blends
that were being used by a major tea, probably
the biggest tea company in India. Because they
were wanting that particular color which the
New Guinea tea had and the Indian teas didn't
have. So all this goes into the blends. The color
of the tea, the strength of the tea, the flavor
of the tea, the cups that you can get, all that.
So all that goes into making a favorable blend.
And they have a very intricate sheet. called
the blend sheet. So in the blend sheet, the guy
who's doing the blend master will write what
is the type of tea, how much of that should be
blended, and what is the process of blending
also that has to be done. And how do you keep
this consistent? Because the crop, nature is
not something that will give you exactly the
same flavor profile each time. Climatic conditions,
all of this. So how do you maintain consistency?
based on a previous tasting. That is where quality
management comes into being. We try to maintain
to the maximum extent this consistent quality
in the tea. You have to do that. Otherwise, you
would find that there's a huge variation that
takes place. However, it is recognized for a
fact that in a place like, say, Darjeeling, the
first flush, Darjeeling, first flush and the
second flush. That is, they have three or four
types of, they have the first flush, they have
the second flush, then they have the autumnal
flush, and then they have the monsoon flush.
Now, the first flush and the second flush is
where there is maximum demand because the best
teas are made, Darjeeling teas are made at that
particular time. Whereas in Assam, it is the
second flush that is much in demand because that's
the best teas that they make. In South India,
we are fortunate that both are, we don't have
those sort of of the differences that take place.
It's more or less, we are basically a CTC sort
of a segment that we cater to, the market that
we cater to. And so we don't have that sort of
quality demands as in, say, Darjeeling or Mediasat.
So that's a difference there. And your own palate
in the last 30 -40 years of tasting, what is
it that you like and what is it that you intensely
dislike? Well, what I like about it is that tasting
a good tea is always a wonderful experience.
In the sense that the flavor that you get out
of tasting a good tea or a good coffee is something
very unique. It's like tasting good wine. It's
something very, very different. And you're very
appreciative of the fact that you're able to
identify from where this tea came from, which
of the estates it comes from. Yes, it has a different
sort of a taste. It has a different sort of a
character, which is not called in other estates.
So you're able to, that's when you are able to
say that, yes, this is the estate because it's
in a high elevation. It produces this sort of
a tea. And you're able to come to some sort of
a concrete sort of judgment on the type of quality
that a particular estate produces. That's when
you know that you're good enough to... to qualify
as someone who knows something about tea. So
that's a good part of tea. The bad part is that
you have to go very often get your teeth cleaned
because you stain your teeth a lot with the tea
tasting. That's one thing. Oh, so that's a fairly
regular practice to have your teeth... You know
what I'm saying? It stains your teeth. Often
what happens is people think that you're a smoker.
I used to smoke, but I don't smoke anymore. But
when you're tasting, It does stain your tea.
So you do have this as an issue. That was 20
minutes of wonderful education. Ramesh, thank
you, because I think it was a wonderful way of
understanding what exactly is involved in tasting.
Because we see it from the outside, but to have
an insider view and get to know exactly what
went through the process is fascinating. You
mentioned briefly that there's a difference between
coffee tasting and tea tasting. Do you want to
expand on that? Yeah, basically coffee comes
from the main two types of coffee that we grow
are the arabicas and the robustas. And arabicas
are basically the higher grown arabicas and the
robustas are grown at lower elevations. Robustas
are coffees that basically offer, which are just
drunk. by people who like a strong cup of coffee
without much flavor. Arabicas have more sort
of flavor, more flavors. And in Arabica, you
have astringency, you have better acidity in
the Arabicas on your palate as compared to the
Robustas. So in coffee tasting, you have to,
again, nosing is very, very important because
there's a tendency for the coffee bean to get
fermented. It is only in the nose that you're
able to actually make whether there's a hint
of fermentation or fermentation that has taken
place in your coffee. That could, okay. That
could lend a more undesirable taint to the coffee.
So that's one of the things that you find in...
Couple of questions, Ramesh. I think you can
see it. What's the difference between Indian
chai and green teas? Is the base leaf the same?
Well, the base leaf is the same. Indian chai...
is basically black tea. And what you find in
green tea is actually also the same leaf, but
it's a different process of manufacture. Green
tea is basically a process where there is direct
firing of the leaf after rolling. There is no
fermentation process, and it just goes directly
either steamed or fired, and the tea is made.
Whereas in Indian chai or black tea, as we know
it, there is a process of fermentation and then
firing. That's where the difference comes. Okay,
great. And do you have to sort of clear your
palate or you can just move from one cup to the
other? How does it work? Actually, before you
start, you clean your palate and then you keep
tasting. You don't have to pre -try. You don't
do it intermittently. Okay, great. So I think
from Papua New Guinea, you then moved to Laos,
which you said was another... Amazing experience.
So why don't you tell us about that? Yeah, actually,
yes. Laos is a wonderful country. It's a landlocked
country, which has the Mekong River flowing through
it. And it's in the neighborhood of Vietnam and
Cambodia, part of the old, what they called French
Indochina. A small country, a communist. It's
currently, it is a seclusive communist country
where they still, almost very similar to North
Korea in their functioning. And they are a country
that has got, they have got enormous, again,
a country that's got enormous menu resources,
country which has got a lot of natural resources
and are currently known as the battery of the
East because they have produced a lot of electricity
from hydroelectricity. hydroelectric plants on
the Mekong. So, I was, I worked to the Dirla
group, the Aditya Birla group in Laos. I was
heading a green field project in Laos, which
was involved in planting genetically modified
eucalyptus in order to raise eucalyptus for extraction
of alpha cellulose in order to make. Pulp. Arikar
Biller Group are the world's largest producers
of pulp and fiber. That is used in the manufacture
of viscose fiber. As you know, viscose is used
in shirts and dress material and stuff like that.
So they're putting out this huge plantation of
50 ,000 hectares in Laos. And I was, they asked
me whether I would be interested in heading this
project. And I was given the opportunity to do
that. And I joined them and was there for about
three years, did the project. And it was a different
experience altogether. Nothing to do with tea
or coffee, but that's where I had a great experience
as far as forestry went. Laos was the most bombed
country in the world. During the Vietnam War,
the Ho Chi Minh Trail ran through Laos. The North
Vietnamese, the canny North Vietnamese fighters
had a trail which ran through. North Vietnam.
McNamara, who was their Secretary of War at that
time, had run a parallel across the 17th parallel
and said, no North Vietnamese will ever cross
this. And he had barricaded the whole place,
dug trenches, mined the whole place. But yet
they found that the North Vietnamese were taking
a detour through Laos and coming back into South
Vietnam and playing have a good day with the
Americans as well as the South Vietnamese. So
the Americans were bombing and bombed the daylight
side of Laos. Laos. And they did that from various
air bases that they had on the island near Russia
and elsewhere. So the amount of armament that
they dropped over Laos was huge. And at one time,
every nine minutes, one bombing sortie was going
to Laos. So it was probably the most, it was
probably one of the most bombed countries in
the world. So once all this was over and 30 years
had passed, was down the line. The government
of Laos was very keen in getting fresh investments.
And the Adhika Villa group were keen on finding
land to grow their plantations. So they were
giving us, this project was started off, and
we were involved in finding new land to plant
these plantations. So we had a massive multi
-million plant nursery that was put up. very
close to the Thai border, in a place called Savannakhet,
and we were supplying plants to various parks
where government -applied laws were given us
land. One of the problems that we were finding
was that the land that was being given to us
was contaminated land. It was contaminated by
UXOs, unexploded ordnance. Now, ordnance was
basically in the form of cluster bomblets. When
a cluster bomb is let loose, it releases what
they call bomblets. Since bomb bits are this
size and they fall, there are numerous which
are spread all over the place. They may not explode
then, a lot of them explode then, but a lot of
them explode even later after coming in contact,
coming in either animals or humans, leading to,
you know, terrible injuries to people and often
death. So we were finding that this is one of
the major problems that we had and we had to
actually do the clearing of this land in a very
cautious manner and had to actually make sure
that the people were protected and we planted
out. By the time I left from there, we had planted
nearly about 20 ,000 hectares of land. Subsequently,
I'm told that the project was the December state
and sold the project to some of the Chinese in
West as the border of the store. But nevertheless,
Laos was a wonderful country, beautiful place
and worth a visit if told you ever to go that
side. Wonderful country. Okay. Wow. That's quite
a life, Ramesh. How would you, we've almost spent
an hour, so what I would like to know is, how
is it that you have, what is it that you would
like to tell young people who want to take the
beaten track or what is it that they need to
be prepared for if they're looking for a career
in plantations and forestry? Well, Plantations
and forestry is very rewarding if you are interested,
if you are keen on the outdoors, if you're keen
on making sure that you are contributing to the
environment. It's an exceedingly rewarding experience
to contribute to making sure that your carbon
footprint is being cut down by, you know, instead
of adding to the carbon footprint that we all
do in most other professions. you're reducing
it in places like the plantations. And also,
you'd have endless cups of tea and coffee to
taste. It's a great experience. Okay, I think
the tasting, there's one last question, which
the question is, is there something you are not
allowed to eat and drink if you're a tea taster
from Pearl Tewari? Well, if you want to be a
taster, it's preferred that you don't smoke.
And you must have a good palate. So it's better
that excessive consumption of alcohol also would
go a long way. So those would be the two. But
otherwise, everything else is quite normal. Great.
Thank you so much, Ramesh. Any concluding thoughts?
Anything that you wish to leave the listeners
with? Well, all I can say is, now you know. that
that first cup of coffee or tea that you have
in the morning, there's a lot of hard work that
goes into it. And there's a lot of experience
from a large number of people working in the
plantations who go into making that. Bring it.
Cheers. Thank you for taking the time. It's been
such a wonderful session listening to you and
getting to know more of this. Thank you for your
time, Ramesh. And thank you for such. Such a
vivid illustration of what life is like on a
plantation and what is it that you've got to
be prepared for if you want to take up a career
in this field. Thank you. My pleasure entirely,
Renu. Thank you for having me on the show. Wonderful.
Thank you. That was Ramesh Vasudevan. Another
different profession, that of tea tasting and
across countries. and in Laos and in Papua New
Guinea, apart from Harrison's Malayalam, which
is where he started off. This was another wonderful
journey and we'll bring more such journeys. Please
remember to subscribe. And like I said, next
time, subscribe now, hit the bell icon. And thank
you to my entire team who's been helping me with
this through Deepa and LPS Jayachandran for all
the work that they do. week after week thank
you until next time