Tea lived up to its name as the drink that cheers at a special session for children convened at the Tocklai Tea Research Institute on Tuesday.

The special tasting session titled Tea — the Drink that Cheers, was organised to motivate youngsters to adopt tea as their preferred drink.

It was convened by Tocklai scientist S.P. Baruah.

Around 81 students of the higher-secondary level from various schools and junior colleges of Jorhat participated in the session.

“They tasted tea and promised to pass on the information about the health benefits to their friends. They were very inquisitive to know about the different kinds of teas,” the director of the Tea Research Association, A.K. Barooah, told The Telegraph.

This is the first initiative by Tocklai to directly encourage children to drink tea.

The Tea Board-commissioned study carried out by Deloitte says per capita consumption has marginally increased from 733 grams five years ago to 786 gram at present.

It said only 64 per cent of the population consumes tea.

Twenty-five per cent of the population, which is below 12 years of age, is discouraged from drinking tea and 10 per cent of the population, comprising the youth, is not attracted to tea in its current form.

“The need of the hour is, therefore, to launch a generic campaign targeting the youth and school-going children to move towards a per capita consumption of a kg,” a tea industry official said.

Barooah chaired the session and encouraged the students to drink tea, which has a number of health benefits and dismissed the myths surrounding tea consumption at an early age.

A short video, developed by Tocklai, highlighting the journey of the tea leaf from the field to the factory, was also shown. It explored other topics such as tea and human health and the correct technique to brew a cup.

Tea taster R.C. Gogoi demonstrated the correct method of brewing tea to extract the flavour and aroma that Assam tea is famous for.

Biochemist S. Sabhapandit spoke of the chemistry of tea and its health benefits.

Scientist S. Sanyal gave the youngsters a feel of the different kinds of teas available. The interactive session concluded with a tea-tasting session.