new delhi while tea as a category has stopped growing green tea is bucking the trend judging by the numbers it could be the latest healthfood craze of indians right up there with cold pressed oils and millets vikram grover vp and marketing head with tata global beverages which owns tea brand tetley says that the green tea category has been growing at around 60 yearonyear compared with black tea that is growing at around 2 it has become an aspirational drink for young urban indians whose food habits are not under control he says green tea is essentially normal tea that is not put through the oxidization process to keep its enzymes intact nutritionists tout it as an elixir for people with hectic lifestyles for instance medical research points out that green tea helps people lose weight and aids in digestion on top of having a positive effect on heart ailments and typetwo diabetesread also benefits of drinking green tea every day its a fad but a good fad at least it has great health benefits from gym goers to corporate executives everyone carries a green tea sachet these days says bengalurubased food blogger nandita iyer however palatability is a big factor green teas natural harsh taste has made tea brands like lipton and tetley look for new flavours we have taken a lot of effort to mask the alien taste of green tea two of our bestselling variants are honey and lemon and aloe vera says grover of tetley unlike black tea whose superiority can be judged on the basis of its strength aroma and flavours good green tea is supposed to taste harsh its coarse taste is due to the preserved enzymes in the leaves says sumit h shah executive director of kolkatabased tea firm madhu jayanti international the maker of jay tea the demand for green tea in the country is also being stoked by clever marketing campaigns the main task on green tea is to build appreciation of the benefits of the category and drive penetration amongst consumers our key activities are centred around making consumers aware of the category clearly communicating the benefits and driving trials through sampling says a spokesperson with hul which owns lipton and the potential is huge although india is the worlds second largest tea producer after china the per capita consumption of tea here is one of the lowest trailing at around 300gm behind turkey 3kg and england 2kg the market for green tea pegged at around rs 50 crore is the fastest growing in indias rs 16000 crore tea industry