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Tea Plantation Laborers Find Life

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Tea Plantation Laborers Find Life

Gospel for Asia
For Immediate Release

These tea garden laborers harvest a plantation owner’s crop.

WEST BENGAL, INDIA (ANS) -- A whole village of Dalit (“Untouchable”) laborers was impacted when students from a Gospel for Asia Bible college in West Bengal, India, started visiting them on weekends. This Dalit village is in an area with many tea plantations.

A river flowing from the Himalayas wraps itself around the Toorsa tea plantation, known for its beauty. But the people working in the plantation see a different picture.

Low-caste tribals and Nepalese immigrants make up a task force of low-paid plantation laborers. The desperate circumstances have driven many to alcoholism and drugs. Most of the laborers are illiterate and unable to hold anything but manual labor jobs—if they have a job at all.

But the people working in the plantation see a different picture. The desperate circumstances have driven many to alcoholism and drugs.

In January, GFA Bible college staff and students heard that no one in the village knew Christ, so they started conducting weekend outreaches. Through open-air meetings and door-to-door evangelism, five families received salvation, and now 25 people regularly come to worship services. Many more are also showing interest in the Gospel.

The students ask that you please pray for them and that many more people in this Dalit community would receive Jesus. Also pray that as more lives are transformed by the Gospel, the Lord will deliver the villagers from their addictions and provide for their futures.

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Learn more about West Bengal

Learn more about Bible colleges

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Gospel for Asia is a mission organization involved in evangelism and church planting in Asia's unreached regions. Currently Gospel for Asia supports more than 16,000 church planters in 10 countries.

Harney & Sons: Hot Cinnamon Spice Black Tea

I received this little beauty for a birthday gift just awhile back.

As I have stated before, I'm not much of one for flavored teas, there are only two or three that I can think of that I do like. This tea adds to my disliking of flavored teas. I do like a tea that has a cinnamon flavor to it sometimes. Sometimes I just add one stick of cinnamon to a cup of hot tea while it steeps for a bit. But sad to say in this tea I can not taste any tea at all! All I can taste is the cinnamon oil added to this tea plus with all of the broken cinnamon stick pieces added to the tea (maybe for looks).

Looking at the side of the tin there is a "PRODUCTION:" label (ingredients) that says that there is in the blended black tea three kinds of cinnamon (maybe the broken pieces of cinnamon stick and two kinds of cinnamon oils), orange peel and sweet cloves.

Now having taste buds of a master chef, I can honestly say that I don't taste any orange peel or sweet clove (both of which I use in making my holiday hams). And also sad to say that the after taste of this tea lasts for hours and is to overpowering for other things you may eat or drink in those hours later.

If you use any kind of YiXing teapot, DO NOT USE THIS TEA! You will ruin the pot forever!

But I must say a nice word or two about Harney & Sons' Teas, their selection of Black Teas are among some of the best you can buy, so I would not write off these people for good quality tea, but I have not tried their Green or White Teas as of yet.

More reviews coming soon.

Sorry for the absence.

Darjeeling #1 from Adagio Teas

Here is a little beauty I ordered from Adagio Teas recently. It's called Darjeeling #1 and it's one of the strongest Darjeeling Teas I've ever enjoyed.

It's surprising how strong this tea is with it's muscatel flavor after steeping the tea and seeing how light in color it is in the cup, and it's highly aromatic and pleasing to the taste with a light after taste.

This black tea is a first-flush offering from the Risheehat estate in the Darjeeling District of India. I will be ordering more when I run out of this shipment of Darjeeling #1 from Adagio Teas.

I've been sick for about a week now

I've been sick with a bad cough and a high temperature. My best saving grace has been using Pu Erh Teas with honey in the cuppa for a kick.

I know about the Medicinal value of Pu Erh Teas, so I take advantage of the tea often.

I am most certain this is nothing new under the sun...

Just for a different taste when I get low on any tea I have I toss the almost empty tea into a tea tin marked "Mixed Tea". I do this with my black, green and white teas, and each tin marked "Black Mixed Tea", "Green Mixed Tea" and "White Mixed Tea" appropriately.

I love my black teas, and I'm drinking more and more white teas all of the time. So just now I made two pots of tea, one from the "Black Mixed Tea" and the other from the "White Mixed Tea", then I combined the two finished teas into one pot to make a mixture of black and white tea. What a new taste experience! I'm enjoying the combination of the well know taste of black tea with the settle and almost nutty taste of the white tea in one cup!

Makaibari Estate Organic FTGFOP1S Autumnal

This tea I bought from Upton Teas back in June of 2006 called Makaibari Estate Organic FTGFOP1S Autumnal (FTGFOP1 = Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, grade 1) is what I am enjoying right this moment Gongfu style with my Yixing Tea pot. This tea is a Darjeeling Tea, and is also one of my favorites. This cup has a deep floral, sweet and nutty flavor, but not much of a muscatel flavor that is associated with Darjeeling Teas. Because of the "autumnal label" this tea was harvested late in the harvesting year. I find all First Flush teas (Darjeeling or otherwise) to be the teas with bet best flavor. First Flush means the first harvested tea in the tea harvesting season.

Darjeeling Green Tea

Another tea I bought from Tfactors Teas was Darjeeling Green Tea - Gopaldhara Tea Estate, Darjeeling. I love Green Teas, but sad to say many less than premium Green Teas have a "grassy taste". In this tea I do taste a bit of a grassy taste in this tea at first, but glad to say that grassy taste goes away after a few sips because the after taste lingers for a bit, so the finish on this tea is not clean ("clean finish" means little or no after taste). The after taste is what makes this tea enjoyable, but I doubt I'd buy more of this tea after I run out.

But remember the health benefits Green Tea offers, and if you like Green Teas, don't pass this one up for it is better than most I've had, and at $8.61 for four ounces - it's truly a great deal.

Darjeeling Premium

Well, as I've stated before my favorite teas are from the Darjeeling province of India. The teas that are grown in Darjeeling are grown at a very high elevation around 750 - 2000 meters in century old Tea Gardens. So these teas are usually the best teas you can get (in my opinion).

I bought this Darjeeling Black Tea from TFactor Teas a few weeks back, and it has a simple name of "Darjeeling Premium".

I drink Black, Green and White Darjeeling Teas all of the time (every day), so my taste for a good quality Darjeeling is very discerning.

This Darjeeling Premium Tea has the signature muscatel aftertaste (most likely the reason Darjeeling Teas are my favorite) like most Darjeeling Teas have. This tea is a bit stronger than most Darjeeling Teas, but is still suitable to drink any time of the day.

Now as I finish up this little blog note on Darjeeling Premium, I'm off to go steep myself another cup!