For many of us in India, drinking tea is more of a necessity than anything else. That one cup of chai every morning and afternoon is what winds us working dolls up to perform the rest of the day. But the joy of tea is more classy than that and the science behind it more vast, as Dilhan C Fernando, Director, Dilmah (the Ceylon-based tea brand) remind us.
In the city recently to launch the exclusive tea bar at the Radisson Blu hotel in association with Dilmah, Dilhan spoke to City Express to tell us more about the business of tea making and why it’s in fact tea that runs in his veins.
“Dilmah tea was started 25 years ago by my father Merril J Fernando. The company was started even earlier than that, in 1950. But due to political reasons, it was only officiated in 1988,” begins Dilhan, whose name in itself indicates how much the family has invested in the company.
Having grown up with tea as the mainstay, for many it would seem that taking over the reigns of the company from his father was the natural choice for Dilhan. But a father himself, he begs to differ. “There was always a choice. Despite struggling with the company, my father educated me at the best education institutes and when I was graduating, I had my fair share of offers. But I left even before the convocation, because my heart was here and I wanted to get started as soon as I can,” shares the London School of Economics graduate. And as for his heart, while the saying goes that it is where the home is, in Dilhan’s case, it is where the tea is.
The company at the moment has created about 300 odd flavours, and a has stronghold in markets like Russia, Australia, New Zealand and Poland. In an attempt to be more than just about tea drinking, the company has tried to infuse in the tea leaves more than just a variety of flavours that excite, incite, calm and soothe the patron, but also cherish the whole concept of tea drinking.
“The tea gastronomy has a lot of finer aspects to it. How you drink your and enjoy it largely depends on your mental state. There’s a tea for different moods. There are heavier teas for the start of the day, lighter teas for the end of your meals, white tea, black tea, and so on. Whether you prefer to have it with milk or alcohol, all of these affect the experience. Getting you to appreciate all these finer aspects is what Dilmah is about.”
In the business of luxury, certain of their varieties are rare to come by. Explaining, he tells us about the seasonal flush. “The seasonal flush is a very specific set of climatic conditions that brings out an excellent flavour in the tea. A chill descends on the plantation that makes all the difference. The leaves are immediately picked and packaged in a matter of a day. Nature is the artist and we are the facilitators for this sepcial brand of tea.”
The seasonal flush is in fact one of the factors that has made Dilmah tea such a brand to reckon with.
So will Dilhan’s kids follow in his footsteps as well? Smiling, the father of three says, “I will guide them, but the choice is theirs. If they don’t believe in it, when they take over the reigns they’ll mess it up. And I’d rather I give them money and let them have fun than let ruin what my father has painstakingly built. Dilmah is an ideology that must go on.”