An Assam Green Tea Takes a Great Taste Star, Judged Blind

Assam is a black tea region by weight and by reputation, and CTC is what the world buys from it. A green tea grown there has now taken a 1-Star Great Taste Award 2026, scored on blind tasting alone: Woolah's Rare Assam Green Tea, from a company based in Sivasagar, as reported this month.

FNB News reported the win on Aug. 11 and Drishti IAS on Aug. 6. Neither states when it was announced. The Great Taste Awards are organised by the Guild of Fine Food in the UK and judged by blind tasting only. More than 500 judges, among them chefs, food writers, buyers, retailers and other food and beverage trade professionals, taste each entry with no branding or packaging visible and score it on taste alone.

The Rare Assam Green Tea is made from organically grown whole leaves sourced through Woolah's Organic Mission, a company programme that works with growers moving from conventional to organic cultivation. The company also works with grassroots farming communities and promotes greater participation of women in the tea workforce. Its green line is aimed explicitly at showing Assam's diversity beyond the black teas the region is known for.

Woolah was founded in Sivasagar and built its name on what it calls the world's first bagless tea dip, whole tea leaves that brew freely without a conventional tea bag. "This award means a great deal to us because the judges never saw our brand, our packaging or our story, they simply tasted the tea," Upamanyu Borkakoty, the founder of Woolah, said. Xcillency Limited distributes the tea in the UK. Neither report states availability beyond that.

Black tea is what this office is normally asked to weigh. The scale here is the cup and not the label, though, and a bench of 500 tasting blind is about as close to weight and measure as tasting gets. By that measure a green tea out of Sivasagar holds up, and the register will note that Assam grows more than one thing worth certifying.

Sources: FNB News, "Woolah's Rare Assam Green Tea wins Great Taste Award"; Drishti IAS, "Assam's Bagless Tea Wins Great Taste Star".