[Assam] A Book on TEA TECHNOLOGY

[Chan Mahanta]

Well written review.

cm




At 4:44 PM -0600 12/29/05, Rajen Barua wrote:
>The following review by me was recently published in Assam tribune. 
>The book is not available in the USA at present. One will have to 
>write to the publisher.
>RB
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>BOOK REVIEW
>TEA TECHNOLOGY - By Gokul Sarma, P. Eng.
>Published by Assam Review Publishing Co
>27A, Waterloo Street; Calcutta - 700069
>Phone: 248-2251
>1st Edition 30th June 2000
>ISBN No 81-901169-1-6
>Price Rs 260 or US$16.00
>------------------------------
>
>There are probably dozens of books written on the romance of the 
>tea, the tea industry or the tea culture and their historical, 
>cultural and economical impacts on various societies and 
>countries. However there has not been an up-to-date book, so far, 
>written on the tea technology, the manufacturing process of tea 
>itself.  By publishing exactly such a book, Mr. Gokul Ch Sarma of 
>Canada has indeed made history and fulfilled a long needed demand in 
>the industry. Before we go into a review of the book, it is 
>important to know how he came about writing such a book in Canada.
>
>Mr. Gokul Ch Sarma is a resident of Toronto, Canada and presently 
>works in the Telecommunication company Nortel Networks. He received 
>his Bsc Eng in Mechanical Engineering from the USA. Before coming to 
>the USA for higher studies, Mr. Sarma was in the tea industry where 
>he started his career as a trainee in Doom Dooma Tea Estate in 
>Assam. Later, he joined the Assam Agricultural University (AAU), 
>Jorhat, as an Asst Professor in the newly formed Department of Tea 
>Technology. During his six years of teaching Tea Technology at the 
>University, he spent much of his time in Tocklai Research Centre, 
>Jorhat and was engaged in developing the first ever Tea 
>Manufacturing course at University level.  During that time, he 
>traveled widely in various tea factories in Assam, Darjeeling and 
>also visited some tea gardens and factories around Caspian Sea in 
>North Iran.  Later while he was settled in Canada,  the then Vice 
>Chancellor of Assam Agricultural University, Dr. Prafulla Ch Bora 
>requested him if he would undertake to write the much needed book on 
>Tea Technology for the University level classes. And that is how he 
>got into writing the book. Besides his text material from teaching 
>Tea Technology at the AAU, Mr. Sarma acknowledges the help taken 
>from Tocklai Research Centre where he used numerous reports, 
>journals and magazines. While writing an Introduction to the book, 
>Dr Pafulla Ch Bora stated, "The teaching experience early in his 
>career has given Mr. Sarma the knowledge base to make this book a 
>worthwhile treatise, It covers all aspects of tea manufacture, tea 
>machinery and the principles of their working, tea testing for 
>assessment of qualities etc..."
>
>The book is about 230 pages long, and one does not have to be a tea 
>technocrat to see that it is a professionally well written technical 
>book on the technology of tea manufacturing. The process of tea 
>manufacturing is very sophisticated and involves various processes 
>like withering, rolling.crushing, sifting, fermentation, drying, 
>sorting/grading, storing, packing etc. All these processes have been 
>improved over time through research done by Tocklai Tea Research 
>Center in Jorhat in collaboration with various member gardens. The 
>book include all of these with latest updates and much more.  Mr. 
>Sarma also included technical information on tea characteristics and 
>common defects, the principle and process of tea testing as well as 
>application of engineering principles in designing tea factories, 
>tea garden roads etc. At the end of the book, there is also recipes 
>for preparing various types of tea.
>
>Needless to say that the book is a valuable contribution to the 
>industry. This is a thorough and complete book which will be useful 
>to many even outside the tea industry. The book has already been 
>sent to some tea producing countries outside India, where the book 
>is receiving good review and is being used a text book for training 
>tea technology.
>
>We congratulate Mr. Sarma for completing the much needed book out of 
>his busy schedule. The modern tea industry started and developed in 
>Assam in the early nineteenth century, and the first tea garden was 
>opened in Chabua in 1837. Since then Assam has been playing a major 
>role in the world tea industry and producing about one fifth of 
>world's tea. It is in Assam that we have the world's only tea 
>research centre at Tocklai.  As such we are glad to see that book on 
>Tea Technology has been written by someone from Assam.  As a way of 
>improvement for future editions, we have only one suggestion. 
>Inclusion of an introductory chapter on the process of tea 
>plantation and tea plucking would make the book more complete. We 
>are sure future editions will see further improvements. We also 
>suggest that Mr. Sarma should seek some international book publisher 
>like Penguin, Mc Grew Hill and others to get the book published so 
>that the book will get the world wide distribution.
>
>Rajen Barua, Houston, Texas
>2nd November 2005   
>
>
>
>
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