Tea Party!

Tea (production and consumption) is huge in Bangladesh. A few days ago, we were invited to the 'tea auction', which consists of about 100 men bidding in an old, stuffy room. The tea is auctioned off to distributors. The auctioneers are middlemen; they bought the tea from producers in Bangladesh.


To give you an idea of the amount of tea we're dealing with here-- every time the auctioneer hit his gavel (about every 30 seconds) a metric ton of tea was sold. I can't even visualize a metric ton of tea.

How do potential buyers determine which teas to bid on? There is a tasting room upstairs, where the "elite" buyers come for weekly tastings. Not part of the tea trade's higher echelons? You are allowed to come in and just sniff the teas. This room had over 800 (yes, 800!) different types of tea out for sampling. We got to try a few.






All "real" teas come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. Processing the tea leaves in different ways makes the different types of tea (black, green, oolong, and white). Factors such as weather, length of growing season, soil, and age all affect the flavor of individual teas (Introduction to Wines, anyone?).

A couple decades ago, the tea business in Bangladesh was mainly exports. Now, around 80% of the tea stays in the country, and the other 20% is exported to Pakistan. This year, however, domestic sales are expected to increase even more. It is (hopefully) an election year in Bangladesh, so men will frequent roadside tea stalls to talk politics.