Guwahati, Mar 28 (IANS): To make authentic garden fresh Assam tea available to people, the North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) has decided to launch 'NETA Tea Boutique' in the state's Golaghat district.

Announcing this, NETA chairman Nepul Saikia on Thursday also said that a pilot project will be launched at Bengenakhowa at the Golaghat-Furkating road in June this year.

"If the pilot project is successful, NETA will assess the possibility of opening many more such exclusive tea boutiques in different cities and towns of India," he said.

NETA is a tea producers' association established in 1981 at Golaghat. It represents about 132 tea producers and produces around 75 million kg of tea.

"The primary objective of the NETA Tea Boutique is to make available garden fresh, single estate origin, non-blended and authentic Assam Tea to consumers at a reasonable price. Anyone visiting this boutique will have a complete experience of tea," said NETA adviser, Bidyananda Barkakoty, adding this is also a step in the direction of value addition and branding by tea producers.

This tea boutique would be the first of its kind in the entire country where a tea producers' association will directly cater to the end consumers.

NETA will ensure strict monitoring on the quality and will introduce different varieties of garden fresh tea -- CTC (crush, tear, curl), orthodox, green tea, white tea, oolong tea, yellow tea, purple tea and other high valued specialty teas. Consumers will have the choice to buy different brands at retail price in 100 gms, 250 gms, 500 gms, 1 kg and 5 kg packs," he added.