Most green tea sold in India is low-grade CTC or artificially flavoured — here is how to tell the difference before you buy.
Source: https://nevisan.in/journal/how-to-buy-real-green-tea-india
May 2026 · Nevisan Tea Journal
Most green tea sold in India is low-grade CTC or artificially flavoured — here is how to tell the difference before you buy.
The Indian packaged tea market is dominated by CTC — Cut, Tear, Curl — a processing method designed for strong, fast-brewing chai. Some companies sell what they label as “green tea” using CTC-processed leaves that have been lightly dried rather than fully oxidised. The result looks like green tea on packaging, but the flavour, antioxidant content, and brewing behaviour are all different. If your green tea brews dark and bitter in under a minute, it is almost certainly CTC.
Whole-leaf green tea should look like leaves, not uniform pellets or dust. When you open a packet of genuine whole-leaf tea, you should be able to identify the leaf structure — rolled, twisted, or flat depending on variety, but visibly leaf-like. Fresh green tea has a grassy, vegetal, sometimes floral aroma. If it smells of artificial flavouring or very little at all, the tea is either old or misrepresented.
Single-origin matters for green tea more than most categories. A brand that specifies the garden, district, and harvest gives you information you can verify. A brand that says only “Himalayan green tea” or “premium Indian blend” is telling you nothing traceable. Nevisan sources exclusively from a single garden in Golaghat, Assam — one origin, one standard, no blending.
Chemical-free cultivation is rarely disclosed but increasingly important. Most commercial Indian tea is grown with synthetic pesticides. Ask brands directly: do they test for pesticide residues? Reluctance to answer is itself information. Finally, price is a rough signal — genuinely good whole-leaf green tea at under ₹200 for 100g is almost certainly not what it claims to be.