Tea culture Assam tea is known for its robust taste and dark colour, and Nilgiri tea is dark, intensely aromatic and flavoured. Assam produces the largest quantity of Tea in India, mostly of the CTC variety, and is one of the biggest suppliers of major international brands such as Lipton and Tetley. The Tetley Brand, formerly British owned and one of the largest, is now owned by the Indian Tata Tea Limited company. On April 21, 2012 the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission (India), Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said that tea would be declared as national drink by April 2013. Speaking on the
Tea production in the United States Tea production in the United States "Camellia sinensis" can be grown in warmer parts of the United States and currently the US mainland has a relatively large plantation with full mechanization in Charleston, South Carolina, and numerous small number of commercial tea gardens and smaller artisan operations that currently pick tea by hand. Many smaller sites are looking to mechanize, at least partially, within the next 5 years. Some growers feel that tea production is not viable without some mechanization, but there is evidence that unmechanized tea production is viable, albeit with lower net profit margins. Most domestically grown teas