New Delhi, Aug. 2 -- On the India Tea Collective WhatsApp group, a recent chat was about sourcing compressed tea cakes from Assam. It got me thinking about how much has changed in recent years. Back in 2019, when I started writing this column, single-estate or single-origin tea was new. There were small pockets of tea connoisseurs, mostly those who had stumbled upon a superlative Darjeeling that had changed how they perceived tea. Now, gong fu set-ups with wooden trays and gaiwans are a familiar sight, and easily available. In the last few years, tea producers are offering more than the standard staples of CTC and orthodox tea, and equally, there's a growing number of tea drinkers who are seeking it in India.

But tea cakes are almost an ...