Jokai Fearless Tea: Where Women are the Pulse of the Garden

Jokai Fearless Tea is a tea company that goes beyond the cup, with a focus on quality produce, community-building initiatives, and overall development in today’s domestic Indian tea market. Based in the gardens of Assam and Bengal, they aim to break the barrier between mere tea drinking and what it takes to bring good quality tea to cups. Their products—ranging from kadak chais to green teas and orthodox black teas—are representative of indigenous knowledge of growing tea in the East and Northeast.

Tea plucking, usually practised by women, is a training passed down by mothers to daughters. Women, it is believed, have nimble fingers essential for the delicate efficiency with which the leaves are required to be plucked. A sister company of the larger Jokai Tea Company which was established in 1872 British India, Jokai Fearless Tea has been founded by Aditya Shah, who comes with generational experience in the tea industry. His passion matches his experience: he visits the gardens every month, tracing evident changes in the ecology and soil conditions of the region.

A drone shot of the world-renowned Hattialli Tea Estate in Dibrugarh, Assam. 'Hattialli’ means 'elephant’s way’, and is named for the large population of Indian Elephants that used to weave their way through the tea gardens as part of their migratory patterns.

Lalita is a generational tea plucker and excels at identifying and plucking ripe tea leaves,generally the top two leaves and bud. This method of plucking has been proven by the Tocklai Research Association (TRA) to optimise the quality, yield, and long term viability of the tea bush.

Why We Love Jokai Fearless Tea

Focus on traceability – The teas procured from each of the seven gardens are carefully segregated and processed in a manner that places the grower of the region at the forefront. As a part of their ethos, they bring back value to the estates and stakeholders of the region, tracing the tea to where it is grown and who grows it.
Access to menstrual healthcare – Jokai Fearless Tea works towards facilitating menstrual healthcare awareness to the women farmers of their tea gardens. In providing biodegradable sanitary napkins made of corn husk, they incentivise the farmers in non-monetary ways; a ground survey by Jokai Fearless Tea shows that farmers see this as sustainable support.
Quality of produce – The teas represent the nuanced flavours of the gardens, supplemented with brewing guidelines for each individual product as instructed on their website along with the degree of concentration, depending on the roast and which estate the tea is sourced from.
Tea Tales and Recipes – Beyond their direct work with tea, they highlight stories and the journey that tea has had to travel in India. The brand is working towards creating an archive of what it takes to make a cup of good, honest tea on their Instagram page, as are they through a section on their website—Tea Tales and Recipes. With a post on the Tea Board introducing “paisa chai” in the 1950s to popularising what chai is for many Indians today, this section is a lovely read.

Note from the Producer

“At the heart of it all, we are a collection of farmers and creators. We spend our days and dreams obsessing over new and innovative ways to continually improve the quality of our tea. We want to showcase the art and science of growing tea so that consumers can connect with the actual grower community, which until now has been relegated to the back-burner in lieu of fancy marketing and deep discounted commoditisation. Give us a shot, try our tea, drop me an email and I’d be happy to take you around our Jokai tea farms in Assam to show what makes our tea Fearless.”

— Aditya Shah, Founder, Jokai Fearless Tea

Pictured here is the tea nursery of Panitola Tea Estate in the town of Panitola in the Tinsukia district of Assam. Tea nurseries are essential for the long-term viability of any tea estate. At Panitola, every year, between 1 and 2% of the total tea garden land is uprooted and replanted with new tea bushes to balance the yield loss of older tea bushes and those lost to floods or droughts. Cuttings from ‘mother bushes’ are taken, and via a process of vegetative propagation, grown into saplings which are then planted in the main tea garden. A flourishing, well-cared for nursery is a sight to behold.

The Locavore Bite

TL Bite offers a glimpse into how a partner producer runs their operations, and reflects their core principles and values. The idea is to provide insights into their practices and highlight their positive efforts descriptively. We have identified seven key areas of assessment – origin and source of ingredients, composition and integrity of the products, workforce policies, production practices, community-related initiatives, approach towards preserving or celebrating traditional knowledge and the materials used in packaging. While this assessment may not be entirely comprehensive, we hope it helps you make an informed decision about why you might want to support them, and the ways in which to.

The information below offers you a snapshot of where Jokai Fearless Tea stands on these parameters. We have put this together based on several rounds of conversation with Aditya Shah and Mayuri Ghosh, of Jokai Fearless Tea. Click on a piece of the pie below to find out more.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Jokai Fearless Tea, read our interview with them here.

Roselle Hibiscus Cinnamon Green Tea

The Roselle Hibiscus Cinnamon green tea is a medium-bodied tart tea made of hibiscus flowers, spiced with cinnamon and cloves. Blended with their Hattialli Green Tea, this composition is high in Vitamin C and is a personal favourite for us at The Locavore.

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Gold Blend 1872

The Gold Blend 1872 is a fairly strong bodied tea with a smooth finish—freshly plucked leaves from the gardens of Assam. Created in a specific blend ratio of the orthodox and green Darjeeling leaves, this tea is rich in aroma and flavour.

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How to Buy

If you would like to learn more about Jokai Fearless Tea, or try their products, check out their website. If you’re interested in supporting them in other ways, please contact us at connect@thelocavore.in.

This is a paid partnership with Jokai Fearless Tea. We strive to keep the practices of a producer transparent and honest across all forms of partnerships.