Established in 2018 by siblings Aijulie, Boilal, Jemshe, and Julie Gangte, Forest Pick sources and retails wild tea from the hills adjoining the Churachandpur district in southern Manipur. Unlike most conventional tea plantations—where tea trees are pruned to be short bushes and treated with pesticides—wild tea trees grow up to 15 and 20 metres in height without any chemical intervention. Forest Pick sources tea from local communities who harvest it by hand, and then process it at their facilities in Chiengkonpang, Santing, and Thanlon villages. Their offerings include an array of smoked, black, green, oolong, and white teas. They also retail teas flavoured with native ingredients like galangal, hibiscus, lemon basil, and litsea (a berry-like fruit).
While wild tea has been part of Manipur’s topography for hundreds of years, it was rarely ever sold commercially. Local communities in the region typically rely on slash-and-burn agriculture—wherein patches of forest are cut down and burned, resulting in a nutrient-rich top layer that acts as fertiliser for crops—as their primary source of income. The agriculture cycle lasts for three to four years, after which families move on to the next plot of land. This continuous chopping and burning has reduced forest cover. Moreover, the Gangte siblings found that these earnings are not enough to sustain a family. They established Forest Pick to offer an alternative source of income to local communities.
At present, Forest Pick sources tea from 10 tea pickers from across eight villages in Manipur: Aina, K. Joar, Maumuol, Pangen, Phaizang, Saichang, Santing, and Thanlon. They also train local villagers on various processing techniques for the different types of tea available.
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 do so.
The information below offers you a snapshot of where Forest Pick stands on these parameters. We have put this together based on several rounds of conversations with Boilal Gangte. Click on a piece of the pie below to find out more.
Why We Love Forest Pick
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Picking tea leaves by hand: The tea budding season in Manipur typically begins in April, continuing until October. The ideal tea picking standard is two leaves and a bud. However, picking of the leaves also depends on the type of tea. For instance, white tea leaves need to be picked when they are young and small, but black and oolong tea leaves can be a little more mature at the time of picking. Tea leaves and buds are tender, and can easily break. This is why they need to be carefully plucked by hand. In order to maintain quality, Forest Pick ensures that all tea leaves are plucked at the right time and by hand. Once plucked, they check for unwanted stems in the batch, as well as length and maturity of tea leaves.
- Processing for maximum flavour and quality: Once plucked, the tea leaves are rested and then rolled by hand. The production process is different for each type of tea. For instance, green tea leaves are rolled tighter than black tea leaves. Forest Pick oxidises their black tea—by spreading out the leaves on bamboo racks overnight—and dries the leaves in the sun the next day. This helps develop sweet and fruity flavours of the tea. Unlike black and oolong tea, green tea—which is milder in flavour and aroma—is immediately dried in a dryer to avoid oxidation. Once the tea leaves are dry, they go through another round of sorting for stems and deformed rolling.
- Embracing the natural forest system: Wild tea grows in forests at an elevation of about 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level, surrounded by native plants like wild banana and bamboo. To protect the biodiversity of the region, Forest Pick ensures that the tea pickers do not use any external chemical inputs. They also make sure that the tea saplings grow naturally, with minimum maintenance—such as removing weeds or pruning them ever so slightly, all done by hand.
How have local communities adapted to picking wild tea leaves in recent years? How has it benefited them?
“Picking wild tea leaves from the forest was always part of the community in small, limited ways, but never in any commercial sense. Learning how to pick wild teas comes naturally even to those who may not have done it before. Locals who are now involved are benefitting immensely. For some, it has become their main stream of income, replacing their dependence on jhoom cultivation. However, for most of them—particularly women—it is an additional source of income and a part-time activity from their daily household chores.”
—Boilal Gangte, Co-founder of Forest Pick
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If you would like to learn more about Forest Pick, 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.
At The Locavore, we strive to keep the practices of a producer transparent and honest across all forms of partnerships.
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