Sri Lankan fine tea producer Dilmah launches 16 new varieties that are good enough to eat
Dilhan Fernando, son of the founder of Dilmah, Sri Lanka's best-known tea brand, is on a mission to bring Dilmah tea to the attention of the young generation.
"For more than a century, Ceylon has been to tea what France is to wine," says Fernando, who is Dilmah's marketing director.
"Tea has an amazing power, thanks to its many medicinal benefits. I don't know why the new generation doesn't take to drinking more tea. They go for fast food and alcohol. My mission is to bring our tea to their attention."
That mission brought him to Samui last weekend, where he launched 16 different Dilmah teas, all of them served at the Anantara Bophut Resort for the first time.
Fernando takes prides in being one of the world's first producer-owned tea brands. Most tea companies in India and elsewhere are owned by multinational conglomerates, he says. Dilmah is a family enterprise with the goal of making tea the traditional way.
Dilmah, he says, honours the concept of Single Origin Tea that offers tea drinkers the luxury of enjoying teas imbued with terroir. It also celebrates the individuality of tea from different regions, and estates, rejecting as deceit the multi-origin blends preferred by competitors for their lower cost.
Real tea must be artisanal, handmade and traditional (with leaves handpicked), says Fernando.
"Tea is infinite in the variety of its taste, with flavour, strength, colour and aroma delicately linked to a miracle of nature. Like the beauty of terroir in wine, real tea has its own identity, the signature of the place in which it is grown. It is the outcome of the confluence of climate, soil and the art of the tea maker," he says.
At the launch, the 16 tea varieties came in a spectrum of colours from deep burgundy to shades of honey. Colour wise, they differed in flavour, aroma, texture and strength.
For the Anantara launch, tea went beyond the pleasure of an afternoon beverage. The leaves were good for cooking too, and chef Donald Lawson introduced tea-inspired dishes for dinner at the resort's Full Moon restaurant. These dishes also appear on the resort's regular menu.
Fascinated by tea's complementary role, Lawson had to be careful with the varying periods each tea type needs for infusion. Soak it too long, and the tea gets bitter. When that happens, the tea has to be thrown away, which he did a few times. Finally he found on average soaking should not take more than 10 minutes. Lawson used only six types of tea from the 16-tea range to create a four-course dinner, which progressed from heavy to light to make sure diners were able to detect the delicate taste from the first mouthful..
"I selected ones that are fragrant and complement and fit the items in terms of flavour," he said. "Through these dishes I want to show that tea can be used not just for drinking, but part of the cooking."
The first course was called the "T Beginning" and was an interesting plate of seared US Diver scallop, edamame and crisp bacon, cauliflower puree with Silver Tip white tea in olive oil agrumato.
Next was flame grilled 60-day grain fed double lamb cutlet, sweet potato cake with Earl Grey tea, soaked raisins and merlot jus.
After two heavy courses, Lawson opted for the light mode with the third course: premium deep-water snow fish pave, pea puree, delicate Minty Green tea foam and dust.
The dessert had three gems: subtle Rose with French Vanilla poached red sensation pear, flanked by Mediterranean Mandarin infused crème brulee with hints of cinnamon and Pure Chamomile Flower jelly with decadent white chocolate ice-cream.
We washed down the dinner with a range of cocktails and mocktails. The dinner confirmed not just tea's health benefits, but its versatility and adaptability. Fernando appears to have found the right recipe to melt the hearts and tastebuds of Thailand's young generation gourmets.
