We know Munnar being one of the popular Travel destinations as it offers the best climate and hill-station resorts.  But something that is most commonly seen across Munnar, are the tea-plantations spreading far & wide.  The teas produced from these estates belong to Kanan Devan Hills Plantation Company (KDHP) are branded as RIPPLE.  Kanan Devan Hills Plantation Company (KDHP) is the first ever employee owned plantation company in India.  It’s also the largest producer of Tea in South India.  To know more on KDHP, History and Product offering ready my article on KDHP – India’s Finest Tea Planters from Munnar.

KDHP packages and sells nearly 90 different products that includes multiple varieties of Tea, Coffee, Choco, Oils & Spices.  I got an opportunity to try 3 products – Ripple Premium White Team, Ripple Premium Rose Tea & Ripple Premium Leaf Tea.  I will be sharing some thoughts and giving more information in this article.

Tasting Ripple Premium Teas

The products that I tasted recently are categorized under Specialty Tea and Flavoured tea.  Before I share my thought on individual tea, I will share info regarding the Ripple Premium Tea.

Abundant with rich and diverse ecological heritage, Munnar has been synonymous with producing exquisite range of teas for over a century.  Ripple Premium Tea is harvest from exquisite tea gardens that lie in perfect harmony with diverse flora and fauna of the region.  It is then processing within hours in 16 of our state-of-the-art factories and then packaged in the plantations to give Ripple Premium Leaf Tea e special taste and quality of garden-fresh teas.

Ripple Premium White Tea

This tea contains the high amounts of anti-oxidants, tannins and more.  Its shown to protect body against certain diseases and reduce risk of cancer & cardiovascular disorder.  White Tea is less processed which helps in retaining higher amount of anti-oxidants and has very little caffeine.

Packing

The white tea is packaged in a premium container that keeps the tea-leaves intact.  One the lid is opened, tea-leaves can kept in another cover that keeps the aromas intact.  No wonder its one of the premium offering from KDHP.

Tasting

Brewed the Premium Tea in boiling water for nearly 5 minutes and let the flavours be infused into water.  Tea color turned slightly brown and was emanating nice aroma.  The taste was good, and I felt a lot refreshed after taking the drink.  I would anytime prefer this to a green-tea because of its taste and its added health benefits.

Ripple Premium Leaf Tea

Ripple Premium Leaf Tea is the ultimate blend of strong CTC, high grown long leaves and high-grown long-withered Top Station Special tea which are meticulously tasted and blended to bring a unique combination of refreshing taste, rich aroma and superior strength.

Packing

This was packaged in a thick color that has pictures of Kanan Dean Tea estate and messages about brand & tea itself.  I felt that the quality of packaging was very good and done with an extent to preserve the flavors.  The cover has info about the ‘Ripple Premium Tea’ and about the ‘Leaf Tea’ offering that’s captured on the cover.

Tasting

Brewed the Premium Leaf Tea in boiling water for nearly 5 minutes and poured into my glass.  I loved the aroma and the dark-color of the tea.  The tea is quite strong and its hard to drink it straight unless one is a regular tea drinker.

Later I added a little bit of milk into the tea liquor and the color turned dark red.  I also added little bit of sugar and the taste went upto to notch higher.  The taste of the tea was just amazing, and I think it’s one of the Best Tea in the market.

Ripple Premium Rose Tea

Natural ‘Oil of Rose’ is one of the most expensive and precious essential oils on the earth.  It will require about 3000 g of rose flowers, to get one kg of all (each kg will have 400-450 flowers and 1.1 in 1.3 million flowers to get just one kg of oil).  Rose oil is emotionally soothing and graceful.

KDHP ‘Premium Rose Tea’ is flavoured with a unique natural rose flavour from selectively picked and carefully processed ‘rose flowers’.  For best results, brew around 2.0 g tea in 120ml clean fresh water just under boil for 5 minutes and serve with/without milk.  Add sugar or honey for taste.  For ice-tea, cool the liquor and add ice cubes or refrigerate.  This tea has 0.3% of Natural Rose in it.

Packing

The tea powder along with the aromatic dried leaves are put inside a nice tin container that’s been colored red.  One can see nice painting of rose and shine from outside the container.  The moment I opened the lid, the room was filled with the aroma from the rose petal.  On opening the extra cover, the aroma increased.  It reiterates the info about the Flavored Rose Tea that I mentioned earlier.

It’s not the first time that I am trying this tea.  I have brought this tea, when I last visited Munnar for a holiday.  Everyone in our family loved the taste and have ever since been craving.

Tasting

This premium tea while being brewed, fills the room with nice aromas from the rose petal.  The aroma gives a very soothing and calming effect to mind.  Outcome of the brewing is a dark-color tea liquor that tastes amazing without addition of milk.  This tea already contains rose oil in it that add its flavour to the tea.

Most of us are used to adding milk and sugar into the tea, taste elevates even further.  Its one of the best flavoured tea I have had till date.  The combination of tea & rose work very well and it leaves an amazing after taste.  Best part about this tea is that the rose flavour is very subtle and nothing over the top.

Overall Experience

It was a great opportunity to taste some of the Premium Teas from KDHP tea-estates.  I enjoyed the flavors of all the tea and specially loved the Premium Rose Tea.  Though the tea is made in Munnar, we still can have it shipped locally by ordering it online.  My primary focus was to taste the tea and share my thoughts but, in the process, I learned so much about the company.  I would specially urge my readers to go through the link after the article to know more about KDHP and order the products.

More Information

Kanan Devan Hills Plantation Company (P) Limited
https://www.kdhptea.com

KDHP – Buying Products
https://shop.kdhptea.com/all-products-kanan-devan-tea