Meet Günter Faltin, the German professor who knows too much of tea

Founder of Teekampagne says, focus on quality, beating the "cheaters" is key to resolving the challenges of Darjeeling tea

Günter Faltin is worried about the future of Darjeeling tea. The 78-year-old German may be a professor of economics but he does know a thing or two about the “champagne of teas”. After all, Faltin’s venture, Teekampagne, happens to be the single largest importer of leaf tea from Darjeeling.

As a young professor at Freie Universität Berlin (Free University of Berlin) –where Faltin established the entrepreneurship department – he wanted a model for better economics. The idea was to create a new standard of business within a capitalistic framework. Teekampagne (tea campaign) popped into his head in 1978 and finally