Introduction
There is a rare form of tea imported from the African continent to our country. Cultivated in Kenya, it has sweet notes that present a pleasant lingering aroma. People of the country refer it as purple tea. They claim that it has similar health benefits as those given by the green tea that we have heard of. Many health experts and scientists have worked on green tea and have found many health benefits associated with it. After this new development, the focus of scholarly research seems to have shifted to a new variety of tea with loads of antioxidants. It is none other than purple tea.
Purple Tea
This rare form of tea has been found to have many medicinal properties. The people from one generation to the other have passed the information about the therapeutic effects of this tea variety. Some research has already been done on this new tea variety to bring about its other aspects. The research has found that this tea is rich in anthocyanins. This tea variety also has some measure of catechins. It has low caffeine content and hence does not have the intoxicating property. It also has a high dose of antioxidants. A class of antioxidants called anthocyanins offer the colour purple colour to this tea variety. As a result, this beverage has more earthly, brisk and rustic flavour when compared to that of the regular black tea. It also has ability to quench the feeling of thirst. It is known to cleanse the vascular system in the human body. This in turn reduces the risk of developing hypertension and cardiac arrests. The purple tea fetches a price that is three to four times that of black tea in the international market.
India to Grow Purple Tea
Soon this tea variety would be grown in India as well. Assam is most likely to emerge as the centre for purple tea cultivation in India. A senior scientist associated with <I>Tocklai</I> Tea Research Institute has said about this development. Currently, Kenya is producing this variety of tea in the world. According to this research institute, the clone <I>TRFK 306/1</I> for purple tea was originally fetched from north-eastern Indian state of Assam. The research team from this organization has also identified the wild bushes of this variety of tea in hilly forest areas of <I>Karbi Anglong</I> and <I>Cachar</I> districts in Assam. Hence, this variant of tea can easily be grown commercially in the north-eastern state of Assam.
Source by Balakrishnan Lekshminarayanan