Travels in a Teacup

p.10

“Department staff totalled ten and we were kept busy all the year round but from a tasting angle, one really had to spend a whole year at the counter before gaining continuity, basically due to the changing seasons and the tea produced every day. The second year round, though, basic knowledge had been gained of the individual estate’s production and as time passed further, tea tasters could begin to recognize each estate by their leaf and liquor qualities. Tea production in South India is unique, embracing districts in three states, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala with tea, (now replanted with rubber) then growing in a depression on Kundai Estate, Kerala, below sea level, to over 8,000 ft on the highest tea estate in the world, Kolukkumalai Estate, Tamil Nadu. Consequently the quality of tea varies considerably, each elevation and district reflecting distinct characteristics, and influenced, too, by the seasonal weather patterns.”

p.12

“All parties had their memories but Christmas 1961 was probably one of the most enjoyable, when it was agreed that Father Christmas should arrive on an elephant as a surprise for everyone really. However, the elephant arrived two hours early but the Lipton manager kindly offered parking space in the bungalow garden. The mahout promptly went to sleep but the elephant was quite overcome with his luxurious surroundings, fixing his eye on a papaya tree and starting with the leaves he worked slowly downwards eating everything until the thickness of the lower trunk was not worth any further effort. However, all was not lost for he left a very generous deposit to enrich the garden and the triumphal procession set off for the club, preceded by the elderly town fire engine. Father Christmas, a leading shipping manager, became increasingly agitated atop the elephant as he began plodding up the drive, realising that clearance under the portico would be very tight indeed but nothing was stopping the elephant, including the crowd gathered for the Christmas party. At ten yards there was no turning back, Father Christmas slid half way down the elephant’s flank, clutching the sack of toys and as soon as they emerged through the portico, eager hands were ready to push Father Christmas back to his perch and restore his dignity.”

p.50

“It was during this first secondment that I spent, probably, my most enjoyable business day ever. The Coonoor tea auctions had started, catering for tea producers who wished to sell mainly secondary grades locally – rather than truck them down to Cochin, two hundred miles away. Armed with orders, one from Vancouver, Cicely, Malcolm and I stayed on the Terramia estate and I drove in early, through beautiful tea clad hills to be in attendance at 0900 hours. The auctions were held on Saturdays in the men’s bar of the Coonoor club, the auctioneer conducting proceedings behind the bar with all the buyers on stools or chairs. I secured my quantities below prices that the overseas buyers were prepared to pay, the tea market being easier that morning, cross checked purchases with the brokers to ensure prices, quantities and tea details were absolutely correct before the brokers issued their contracts and then walked along the lane to join the family and our host for a curry lunch in a beautiful bungalow garden. Interestingly enough, two weeks later, I was asked to report to the customs who suspected a case of under invoicing but evidence that all the teas involved in the Canadian shipment were secondary grades ex Coonoor, satisfied the authorities – no such teas were available at similar prices in the Cochin auctions.”

p.62

“…I had a long hard think when I was approached by one of the three, first hand tea Brokers, and after due consideration became a tea broker myself.

Their office was in Middlesex Street and we used to pick our way through the rubbish that had blown along from Petticoat Lane on a Monday morning. Little did I know, but a few years later our son Malcolm would work for this company, not as a taster, but as an accountant. At present though I had my introductions to tea broking including selling as an auctioneer from the box in the London Auction, probably one of the very few people who had ever bought and sold tea in the same room. As a buyer, I had bought whilst with Harrisons and Crosfield when there was a boom in prices, caused by supply and demand and a packer in Montreal had asked us to obtain supplies in London. I secured some teas at over £3.00 per pound, then a record price in London and the boom encouraged Garland of the Daily Telegraph to produce a cartoon entitled ‘Storm in a tea cup’ featuring a minister, Roy Hattersley, being tossed around in a large cup of tea. Keen to obtain the original, I telephoned the newspaper and was connected straight through to the man himself. I was promised the cartoon free of charge, provided the Minister himself did not request it within ten day and later received a