Assam’s Woolah Tea secures patent for India’s first bagless tea
July 3, 2025e-Paper
The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective.
Karnataka Today Your daily dose of news highlights from Karnataka
First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming.
Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day.
Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in!
Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers
Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there
The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features.
July 3, 2025e-Paper
Assam’s Woolah Tea secures patent for India’s first bagless tea
Woolah’s patented bagless tea made from whole leaf bundles aims to eliminate microplastics and champion organic farming
Updated - July 02, 2025 03:27 pm IST
Woolah bagless tea | Photo Credit: Prabalika M Borah
Assam’s first bagless tea brand, Woolah Tea, has been granted a 20-year patent (No. 567895) for its innovative ‘compressed true whole leaf tea dips and method thereof’ (patent name). Founded by Upamanyu Borkotoky and Ansuman Bharali from Sibsagar district in Assam, Woolah is a start-up rooted in Assam’s tea heritage.
Compressed tea bundle, the bagless tea by Woolah Tea | Photo Credit: Prabalika M Borah
Woolah’s tea is made from a compressed bundle of eti koli duti paat (one bud and two leaves), bound by a natural string —eliminating the need for conventional tea bags. The founders filed for the patent in 2020. “Initially, we experimented with fibres like banana and bamboo to replace typical tea bags,” says Upamanyu. “But the leaves didn’t unfurl properly. Our focus was to eliminate microplastics that leach into tea from standard bags.”
“The bagless concept was entirely new — it took us over a year and 167 trials to get it right,” says Upamanyu. “Initially, we compressed the tea by hand and dried it over a tea dryer. We filed for the patent even before launching the product.”
Neither Upamanyu nor co-founder Ansuman had prior experience in the tea industry. A chance encounter with a farmer selling hand-rolled organic tea during a visit home sparked their interest. “I used to think green tea couldn’t taste good, but that changed,” says Upamanyu.
The team of Woolah tea at their new unit in Tinsukia | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
They eventually quit their corporate jobs and began working with organic tea farmers in Assam, particularly in Sibsagar, Kaxhopothar and Dibrugarh.
Woolah was featured on Shark Tank India Season 4 and was the only tea brand to receive offers from all the sharks. The brand is now preparing to export to the US, UK, UAE, Australia, and New Zealand.
Woolah is also representing Assam in celebration of 200 years of Assam Tea at The Summer Fancy Food show at New York.
Published - July 02, 2025 03:05 pm IST
Related Topics
Top News Today
Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.
إرسال تعليق