A Siliguri-based tea expert has showcased world-class Darjeeling tea in the Chinese tea market as he represented India in an interactive session held in the Beijing Film City on 2 November.

Rajiv Lochan, popularly known as Lao Luo in China tea circles, was one of the 32- member Indian team that went there to attend the session.

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Though the actual source of Darjeeling tea was China a long time ago, Indian tea experts, including Mr Lochan, have established that the same Chinese tea with better quality has gone back to China after 160 years.

The audience there was delighted when Mr Lochan said: “I am the person who brought Chinese tea back to China after 160 years. I also want to take Chinese tea to the world in the future.”

Mr Lochan confidently said that Indian black tea, especially from Darjeeling plantations located at Gidda Pahar on the banks of the River Mahanadi, ranked well and beat the glory of Chinese tea during tasting.

Notably, the key issue for interaction was the “rootseeking journey” of Indian classic black tea and study and exploration of the source of Darjeeling black tea.

“In the process of deep exploration of the source of Darjeeling black tea, after many field comparisons and tasting, we confirm that the Lapsang souchong, which is originally from the mountainous Wuyi region in the province of Fujian in China, is the ancestor of black tea,” an official source said.

In connection with the Indian black tea and its ancestor, Zhengshan, small black tea in China, the chairman of Zhengshan Tea Co Ltd, Jaing Yuanxun, said: “I feel like this tea, in the black tea category, I am currently exposed to, in addition to the Zhengshan small top-grade black tea, in the field of kungfu black tea, is the best I have ever come across. At the same time, I also have the feeling that, as you (Mr Lochan) said, the tea contains the essence and aroma of Wuyi tea, as well as the roots of the Zhengshan seed in it. Though it has been away for hundreds of years, its Chinese flavour is still intact.”

To explain the beginning of the Darjeeling tea dynasty, Mr Lochan, during interaction, pointed out: “Robert Fortune came to China from India to look for the ingredients to make black tea in 1942. He travelled from Hong Kong to Fujian, Zhejiang and Anhui. But he found it impossible to take Chinese tea with him, so he thought of a way to collect all kinds of tea-picking tools on his way and to make tea. “He also looked for a lot of tea making tools and craftsmen and he brought these people and objects back to India. This is the source of our Darjeeling tea and beginning of the Darjeeling dynasty.”