Even though South Indian teas are not so renowned like teas coming from Darjeeling or Assam, Nilgiri mountain in South India also produces fairly good teas. Munnar in South India experienced frost with the temperature dipping to minus three degrees Celsius about a week ago, The News Minute reported. The hills and valleys of Kannimala, Chenduvara, Chittuvara, Sevenvalley, Nallathanni and Munnar town were covered in frost, leading to a rise in the number of tourists visiting the scenic station.

Dark Side

In some areas, the temperature was recorded at -3 degrees Celsius on Saturday, while Munnar town recorded -1 degree Celsius.

Several places in neighbouring Tamil Nadu also saw a sharp dip in temperatures. The India Meteorological Department last week had predicted that ground frost would occur at a few places in the hills of Nilgiris, Coimbatore and Dindigul districts in Tamil Nadu.

Munnar Hotel and Resorts Association President VV George said a lot of tourists visited the hill station to enjoy the frost-covered hills. “Most of the hotels and resorts are fully booked in the last two weeks and have a good number of bookings for the coming days,” he said. “We hope the tourist arrivals will continue in the next weeks.”

However, the frost could wreak havoc on Munnar’s tea plantations as tea leaves wilt due to heavy frosting. “Tea leaves grown in 828 hectare-area belonging to Kannan Devan Hills Plantations are wilting away due to the bad weather in the region,” said an unidentified plantation official. “The damaged tea leaves could weigh around 631’000 kg.”

The plantation had also lost a lot of crop when the temperature had fallen to -2 degrees Celsius last year, The New Indian Express reported.

Bright Side

As every dark cloud has a silver lining, this frost damage also enhances the taste of tea due to creation of complex flavor compounds and due to concentration of chemical matter dramatically.
Muscatel notes of a first flush Darjeeling, the sweet notes of an Oolong and the robustness of an Assam can be experienced with teas produced during coldest months of the winter. The Republic of Tea markets this tea as “Frost Tea”.

Nuwara-Eliya region in Sri Lanka (http://www.teawithnipun.com/2018/07/26/champagne-of-ceylon-tea/) also affects with the same for few days. As a result, during months of January and February teas coming from this region is also higher in quality with more floral and sweet notes.

References

1.Original Post: https://scroll.in/latest/908491/kerala-frost-in-munnar-as-temperature-dips-in-the-hills-tea-plantations-affected

2. About this tea: https://www.republicoftea.com/frost-black-full-leaf/p/v20226/