Some mushroom fell into a tea tin. And there begins the story of how Assam tea has moved from plain old black tea to white, yellow and purple to chocolate blends and more
Madhurjya Gogoi would have been selling umbrellas or insurance policies today, had it not been for an accident in the kitchen. Some mushroom paste fell out of the blender into a bin of tea leaves on the counter and dried in it. And so was concocted a pale and delectable blend of green tea and oyster mushroom. “I would have thrown the mix away but my father, the experimental optimist, decided to try it out,” says Gogoi, who now runs Assam Teehaus, which produces handmade tea “of all kinds” sourced on demand from the family garden.
Gogoi Senior believed the accidental mix was no more extreme than the bitter green brew he had been drinking after undergoing treatment for colon cancer in 1997. He was also aware of the health benefits of the tea and mushrooms that grew in his backyard in Dabohibil village in Assam’s Charaideo district…