Hi,
The best way to verify the credentials of a premium Assam CTC is to go
visit the Guwahati Tea Auction Committee site -
http://www.teaxchange.com, which handles a large volume of Assam's
yearly produce. The teas placed in the auction are sold through a
competetive bidding process for each lot of tea - with the buyer
bidding the highest price for a particular lot claiming purchase of
that lot.

Put your mouse over the 'auction' link on the top of the page, click on
the average by garden drop down link and you come to a page that
highlights garden rank by average price realized for the sale.
Typically a calender year of sale starts from Sale 14 that year and
carries on till Sale 13 next year. On the page you come to, on the top
left hand side change the sale range from sale 14 [2006] to say, sale
39[2006] and click on the filter data button. The top gardens, by
average sale price realized will come into view, with details of
quantity sold.

The figures dont lie.
sidman.

Another site is http://www.parcon-india.
The site also includes teas sold in the Kolkata auctions, and it has
the batting order for teas from assam, Dooars, and Terai.
sidman

Sorry, the previous website's address was;
http://www.assamteaxchange.com
Regs,

Hi Sidman,

Thanks for the India auction websites. They're interesting.

I couldn't find the one garden I'm especailly interested in: Ambootia
Estate. Have you ever heard of it? I think it's in Darjeeling.

old west tea


Sidman wrote:
> Sorry, the previous website's address was;
> http://www.assamteaxchange.com
> Regs,

Hi old west tea
Ambootia is in Darjeeling district. To the best of my knowledge there
is no website dealing with average prices/etc of Darjeeling Teas - this
may be because most Darjeeling teas are often sold privately, and
pretty remarkable prices some of them get too.
There's one garden in Arunachal Pradesh making organic orthodox teas -
no muscatel flavor but high grown, very good quality teas nonetheless.
Garden's name is "Gia".
sidman