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The following review by
me was recently published in Assam tribune. The book is not available in the USA
at present. One will have to write to the publisher.
RB
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BOOK REVIEW
TEA TECHNOLOGY - By Gokul Sarma, P.
Eng.
Published by Assam Review Publishing Co
27A, Waterloo Street; Calcutta - 700069
Phone: 248-2251
1st Edition 30th June 2000
ISBN No 81-901169-1-6
Price Rs 260 or US$16.00
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There are probably dozens of books written on the romance of
the tea, the tea industry or the tea culture and
their historical, cultural and economical impacts on various societies
and countries. However there has not been an up-to-date book, so far,
written on the tea technology, the manufacturing process of tea
itself. By publishing exactly such a book, Mr. Gokul Ch Sarma of Canada
has indeed made history and fulfilled a long needed demand in the industry.
Before we go into a review of the book, it is important to know how he came
about writing such a book in Canada.
Mr. Gokul Ch Sarma is a resident of Toronto, Canada and
presently works in the Telecommunication company Nortel Networks. He
received his Bsc Eng in Mechanical Engineering from the USA. Before
coming to the USA for higher studies, Mr. Sarma was in the tea industry where he
started his career as a trainee in Doom Dooma Tea Estate in Assam.
Later, he joined the Assam Agricultural University (AAU), Jorhat, as an
Asst Professor in the newly formed Department of Tea Technology. During his six
years of teaching Tea Technology at the University, he spent much of his
time in Tocklai Research Centre, Jorhat and was engaged in developing the
first ever Tea Manufacturing course at University level. During that
time, he traveled widely in various tea factories in Assam, Darjeeling and also
visited some tea gardens and factories around Caspian Sea in North
Iran. Later while he was settled in Canada, the then Vice Chancellor
of Assam Agricultural University, Dr. Prafulla Ch Bora requested
him if he would undertake to write the much needed book on Tea Technology
for the University level classes. And that is how he got
into writing the book. Besides his text material from teaching Tea
Technology at the AAU, Mr. Sarma acknowledges the help taken from Tocklai
Research Centre where he used numerous reports, journals and magazines. While
writing an Introduction to the book, Dr Pafulla Ch Bora stated, "The teaching
experience early in his career has given Mr. Sarma the knowledge base to make
this book a worthwhile treatise, It covers all aspects of tea manufacture, tea
machinery and the principles of their working, tea testing for assessment of
qualities etc..."
The book is about 230 pages long, and one does not have to be
a tea technocrat to see that it is a professionally
well written technical book on the technology of tea
manufacturing. The process of tea manufacturing is very sophisticated and
involves various processes like withering, rolling.crushing, sifting,
fermentation, drying, sorting/grading, storing, packing etc. All these processes
have been improved over time through research done by Tocklai Tea Research
Center in Jorhat in collaboration with various member gardens. The book include
all of these with latest updates and much more. Mr. Sarma also included
technical information on tea characteristics and common defects, the principle
and process of tea testing as well as application of engineering principles in
designing tea factories, tea garden roads etc. At the end of the book, there is
also recipes for preparing various types of tea.
Needless to say that the book is a valuable contribution to
the industry. This is a thorough and complete book which will be
useful to many even outside the tea industry. The book has already been
sent to some tea producing countries outside India, where the book is
receiving good review and is being used a text book for training tea
technology.
We congratulate Mr. Sarma for completing the much needed
book out of his busy schedule. The modern tea industry started and developed in
Assam in the early nineteenth century, and the first tea garden was opened
in Chabua in 1837. Since then Assam has been playing a major role in the world
tea industry and producing about one fifth of world's tea. It is in Assam that
we have the world's only tea research centre at Tocklai. As such we are
glad to see that book on Tea Technology has been written by someone from
Assam. As a way of improvement for future editions, we have only one
suggestion. Inclusion of an introductory chapter on the process of tea
plantation and tea plucking would make the book more complete. We are sure
future editions will see further improvements. We also suggest that Mr. Sarma
should seek some international book publisher like Penguin, Mc Grew Hill and
others to get the book published so that the book will get the world wide
distribution.
Rajen Barua, Houston, Texas
2nd November
2005 |
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