What is CTC Tea, and Why Does It Make the Strongest Chai?
Understanding the Crush-Tear-Curl process and why Dooars granules brew faster, bolder, and richer than delicate orthodox leaf tea.
Biplab Saha
Co-Founder, Teji Cha • Berubari, West Bengal
🍃Key Takeaways
- ✓CTC stands for Crush, Tear, and Curl — an intensive mechanical rolling method invented in Assam.
- ✓By rupturing the cell walls of tea leaves, CTC accelerates oxidation and quickens liquor extraction.
- ✓Uniform spheroidal granules deliver a punchy, brisk cup in under 3 minutes.
- ✓It is the foundational choice for Indian milk chai stalls, cafés, and households.
The Process Behind the Granule
If you open a packet of everyday Indian tea, you will not find twisted dried whole leaves. Instead, you see dark, uniform, tightly rolled granules resembling coarse ground pepper. This is CTC tea — Crush, Tear, Curl.
Developed in the 1930s by William McKercher in Assam, the process passes withered green tea leaves through a series of cylindrical rollers fitted with sharp teeth. These rollers rotate at differing speeds, shearing, crushing, and twisting the leaf matter within seconds.
Why Cell Rupture Creates Intense Liquor
In orthodox tea production, the leaf is kept intact and rolled gently to preserve delicate floral aromatics and clear liquors. In CTC production, however, the deliberate crushing ruptures the cellular structure of the leaf completely.
This exposes polyphenol oxidase enzymes immediately to atmospheric oxygen, accelerating full oxidation. When steeped in boiling water, these micro-granules have an extraordinarily high surface-area-to-volume ratio, yielding instant colour, briskness, and punch.
CTC Grades: From BOPL to Dust
CTC teas are graded according to granule size. Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP) and Pekoe Fannings (PF) are prized for home tea brewing because they strike a harmonious balance between brisk strength and aromatic smoothness.
At Teji Cha, we select high-grade granules that avoid fine dust fallout. The result is a clean cup that never leaves a gritty sediment in your cup.
