| Mridul
Hazarika, director of the TRA's Tocklai centre in Jorhat,
Assam, which has several tea gardens, has said: "We
brewed wine out of pure tea. Of course, we have used
some other requisite ingredients to whet the fermentation."
"The uniqueness of our product is that unlike
the Japanese tea based wine we don't mingle red wine
with the beverage. The Japanese tea based wine producers
mix the red wine in specific proportion to make the
drink. But our base would be pure tea with some added
flavors to exude the exotic aromas of Darjeeling and
Assam teas."
According to Hazarika the tea wine has been successfully
brewed, but works were afoot to fine tune and refine
its flavour at the laboratory and could take a few months
to reach the consumers.
TRA has been widely acclaimed for its research in various
fields and has relentlessly focused on the diversification
of tea. It has produced tea tablets, ready-to-drink
tea and tea biscuits which would have viable markets.
"To woo the young generation who prefers RTDs
like soft drinks, we have made this product and hope
to launch it soon commercially," Hazarika said.
Several companies, both in Indian and overseas, mainly
the European and Australian ones, have evinced interest
to manufacture and market these products commercially
and last leg negotiations are on.
Source: http://www.commodityonline.com
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