Treat Your Taste Buds to These Gourmet Tea Blends, Brought To You Directly From the Tea Estates of the North-east

19/07/2021 Newest

Gourmet food items are the latest trend, and for a good reason - they make us delve deeper into how food items are prepared, what additions we can make to make it more interesting, and provide us with an even rich experience of consuming food. While searching for genuine brands that offer gourmet food items, we stumbled upon this company which delivers some of the best gourmet tea blends you may have ever tasted to your doorstep!

Table of contents

The Rising Consumption of Tea
Danta Herbs Brings You the Freshest Tea You've Ever Tasted!
Q & A with Vishal Parik: Sowing the Seeds of Danta Herbs
How Danta Herbs Ensures That They Serve You With Only The Finest Quality Tea
Product Recommendations: Three Gourmet Tea Blends You Can Order From Danta Herbs
Danta Herbs' Future Plans & Some Bonus Recommendations

The Rising Consumption of Tea

It appears that not only the Indians and British but the entire world is falling in love with this fragrant beverage - the consumption of tea worldwide is set to increase from over 6.6 billion kg in 2021 to 7.7 billion kg in 2025. Given this tremendous growth, it is natural that more experimentations are being done with this thousand years old beverage (Yes! The origins of tea dates back to as early as 2737 BC and is believed to have originated in China) to make it even more delightful, refreshing and healthier to the consumers.

Gourmet Tea Blends in India

If there is one thing we can all agree about India, it is that India has given the world some of the tastiest foods ever known to our taste buds. Indians love food, and today there is a rising trend of gourmet food items, as we have started to delve deeper into the origins of foods, the textures, the ingredients, etc., to take the experience of having a meal to a wholly different level. Tea has been one of the recent additions to the list of gourmet food items; if you haven’t tried gourmet tea blends yet, it is time to treat your taste buds with one!

Danta Herbs Brings You the Freshest Tea You've Ever Tasted!

Source Danta Herbs

Danta, which literally translates to “peace,” is also the metaphoric idea behind Danta Herbs, which brings you some of the freshest and most authentic tea from select tea estates. We interviewed co-founder Vishal Parik bring you the story behind this incredible idea, which he turned into a successful business with his wife Tripti Parik. Here’s how they turned this idea into reality.

Being located at the source, being able to buy the tea at the peak season is what sets us apart. What's even better is we only use raw and real ingredients to curate our blends making it naturally flavourful and super healthy.

- Vishal Parik

Q & A with Vishal Parik: Sowing the Seeds of Danta Herbs

Source Danta Herbs

Q. Tell us about yourself and your background.
I have studied civil engineering and am a self taught e-commerce geek, but I grew up around the tea gardens of Darjeeling in Siliguri, so tea has always surrounded me. My wife is an MBA with a background in marketing. She is really passionate about tea, and after we got married, we wanted to start something together. Since she had always been fascinated with tea, I had strong connections with the tea industry, and we were surrounded by it; doing something in this segment seemed like a good choice.

Q. What led you to create Danta Herbs?
I studied in Darjeeling and also have a lot of relatives in the tea industry which gave me great exposure to tea gardens, which for any other person doesn't come easily. Siliguri is surrounded by beautiful tea gardens and is also a very important centre for India's tea industry with a dedicated tea auction centre. My reach to tea, combined with Tripti's interest in flavours and blends, made us start Danta. She has always enjoyed exploring tea and when she first came here she was fascinated by the quality of tea available in local markets. Tripti also discovered the high quality teas which are available in Siliguri so easily, whereas her relatives and friends from back home buy them from abroad when they travel. And this fact really struck us - to imagine buying Darjeeling tea from outside India. She had never found this kind of tea anywhere in India. What is often sold here is of a lower grade. I was not much of a flavoured tea person like Tripti is, the moment she made me try a few flavoured teas which were available in the market, I noticed that all of them are blended with flavours and oils which really disappointed me. It was not like I was having tea, it was more like someone had sprayed perfume on my tea.

Because I as a person never like to take medicine until and unless it's absolutely necessary, I believe in making my body fight naturally and build immunity through food, fruits and herbs, which are provided by mother nature. Hence we were sure that Danta Teas would be blended with natural and raw ingredients to not only give good taste but great health benefits. The purpose of any herb, spice, fruit and flower which we use in blending is to enhance the taste of tea and not overshadow the actual taste of the tea itself.

Q. How did you go about setting it up?
Between 2017 and 2018 we visited hundreds of tea gardens in India and Nepal. We learned the art of blending, understanding grades and types of tea, region, flavours. By personally visiting them, we established a direct working relationship with them. Our tea is procured at the peak season, which ensures we get the top quality. Tea is harvested throughout the year but the best quality is only during specific seasons. Apart from that, we have our own plant based, unique and super food tea blends. We have 50 plus artisanal tea blends in-house that we have created ourselves. Due to our reach and direct contact with top-quality tea gardens, combined with rich Indian herbs, spices, flowers etc it takes a mere seven days for us to get deliveries as opposed to several months, as is the case for most tea makers. Our cold storage facility, combined with vacuum packing and dehumidified processing technique, then ensures that this freshness is maintained till the time the tea reaches the consumer by keeping the teas away from moisture, air, temperature and humidity.

Q. That sounds like a very intense travel itinerary!
For my wife and I, visiting so many tea farms was a travel experience for sure. But where we are located, most of these farms are very close, many of them can be reached within 30 minutes to an hour. From our location, reaching the world's best tea growing region, Darjeeling, is just 30 mins away. With our location, Siliguri being the bottleneck of India that connects the northeast tea regions like Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim etc., it takes 40 minutes to get to Nepal, 20 minutes to Bangladesh. Hence the supply chain is very efficient and ensures speedy deliveries.

How Danta Herbs Ensures That They Serve You With Only The Finest Quality Tea

Source dantaherbs.com

Q. What is your production process and how do you introduce new products?
We do not add flavours; instead, we get flavours from real ingredients which also provide health benefits. There are over 75 ingredients that we play with to create our tea blends. The production process varies from single-origin teas to artisanal tea blends.

Q. How do you ensure quality?
Preparing tea blends with special ingredients makes them enjoyable as well as healthy. Whereas ninety percent of tea makers use flavouring, we make blends using only real ingredients. We use cold storage, which the others don’t do. We also have state-of-the-art cleaning and vacuum packaging facility. The quality of the tea is maintained by controlling four important parameters - air, moisture, temperature, and humidity.

Q. What makes Danta Tea products unique from other tea brands in India?
That we source directly from farms at peak season, use real ingredients for flavour, have unique wellness teas that cover the entire body - from cleanse and detox, digestion, skin and glow, immunity, peace and calm, to relaxation, better sleep, and weight management. These teas contain 8 to 10 proven Ayurvedic ingredients, and the feedback from our customers that they are flavourful and enjoyable to drink has been an overwhelming experience.

Q. What are some challenges you face, and how have the lockdowns affected you?
Being in a location like this, reachability to the customer is low. While it is excellent to source the tea, getting it to the customer is more challenging. If the buyer is close to you, it is easy. We have found e-commerce is a good platform to get visibility. The pandemic has affected everyone and further tested our reachability concerns. HoReCa and export industries were greatly affected, as well as other platforms we use such as exhibitions. But the tea industry has bounced back and is expected to have a fast recovery.

Product Recommendations: Three Gourmet Tea Blends You Can Order From Danta Herbs

Vishal mentioned that Kashmiri Kahwa is their fastest-selling tea blend, and they also have chamomile and lavender based Peace and Calm Wellness tea which is the need of the hour, what with all the stress and overthinking of the past year. They also have an immunity tea, Defend and Protect, and an Ayurvedic kahwa Immunity Booster tea. All these are wellness teas, but at the same time, they there are enjoyable to drink and will refresh you.

Kashmiri Kahwa

Source dantaherbs.com

The leaves bear a beautiful aroma of saffron with a mix of cardamom and clove that shines. The blend is mixed with well-rolled long blackish-green leaves along with cardamom, almond, clove, rose, and saffron. Their loose pack is available at Rs. 499.

Peace and Calm Wellness Tea

Source Danta Herbs

This is a blend of proven Ayurvedic ingredients that calm the senses, help you declutter the mind and soothe frayed nerves. From the first taste of refreshing lemon balm, tulsi and lemongrass, to the calming scents of chamomile and lavender, this blend is all about the senses, forcing you to leave worries behind, if only momentarily. The 50 g loose tea pack costs Rs. 349.

Defend & Protect Wellness Tea

Source dantaherbs.com

This brew can activate your body’s capacity to fight against sickness. Your body’s inherent protection mechanism can be given a boost through the antibacterial properties of moringa, and immune-boosting effects of liquorice amongst other herbs and spices. The dry leaves come with the lifted aroma of ginger and liquorice with a mix of sweet citrus notes. The appearance is a charm with orange, yellow and green evenly mixed leaves. The 100 gm pack of loose tea is priced at Rs. 599.

Danta Herbs' Future Plans & Some Bonus Recommendations

Source www.dantaherbs.com

Q. What do you hope to achieve with your unique approach to tea production and delivery?
Being located at the source, being able to buy the tea at the peak season is what sets us apart. And through e commerce we can provide quality and the freshest tea to our customers at the fastest way, hence maintaining the freshness with our state of the art facility This is a valley and the climate is quite similar to Nepal and the other close by tea regions. The Himalayan range has similar climatic conditions which is favourable to the tea manufacturing process and very critical as well. Weather plays a very important role in tea, so most teas are harvested during the second flush; only 2% is picked during the first flush between March and April. Even daily weather conditions can play a big role in the flavour profile. Danta hopes to achieve that the tea consumers start understanding the difference between good quality and bad quality tea, that they start consuming tea not only as a beverage but also as lifestyle. Since we are at the source, we can be at the tea farm within 15 minutes to a couple of hours and get the tea at the perfect time at very competitive prices. That, combined with our state of the art cleaning, packing, and storage methods, ensures that the tea retains its freshness and flavour when it reaches the consumer.

Q. What’s next for your brand?
We have a very large catalogue of tea gifts, tea bags and loose teas, and we also curate exclusive blends for our buyers that are not on the website as we cannot add everything. In addition to that, we have seasonal products for a short time, so we are not looking to expand our product line. We have a restaurant in Bangalore, Green Theory, where we tested our teas and now we are confident in them. We have an export market as well, and we want to focus on selling our tea now, in India and overseas both in the B2B and B2C market including private labelling, and sell to other tea brands as well.

Q. Which products would you recommend to someone who wants to expand their tea palate from the traditional milk or masala tea and wants to try Danta products?
I believe every individual has unique taste buds, and it shouldn’t be a case where someone has to leave the milk tea that they enjoy and switch to a ‘healthy tea’. At Danta Herbs, we have a very wide range of products, from chocolate tea to herbal blends, that can match individual preferences. We strive to provide something that is enjoyable to you, no matter what your taste. I would advise tea drinkers to pick a tea that they enjoy drinking; its health benefits can be secondary. Tea is also meant to hydrate as it is mostly water. Our teas have flavours to make them enjoyable, and these flavours come from natural ingredients, which also make them healthy.

Q. Please give us some tips on what kind of teas make the best gifting choice?
We often give sweets, dry fruit, or chocolate as gifts, all of which are either very perishable or unhealthy. Tea is a healthier option; it has great variety, a shelf life of over a year, can be drunk by people of all age groups, irrespective of their health conditions, and can also be offered as a refreshing beverage to visitors to our home. So it has a wide range of applications and is the best gift of health.

From our editorial team

When is the Best Time to Have Tea?

The answer to this question isn't a straightforward one! A lot of people like to start their mornings with a cup of tea as it helps them kickstart the day full of energy. Others like having tea 10-15 minutes after their meals. The same goes for these gourmet tea blends as well; drink whenever it suits you the most.