Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In a (probably unintentional) bit of honesty the nation's main tea producers funded a mar-
keting arm in 1932: the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board.
Cultivation
Tea bushes are typically planted a metre or so apart on contoured terraces to help irrigation
and to prevent erosion. A tea bush is around 1m (3 ft) in height, and is regularly pruned to
encourage new shoots, prevent flowering and fruit formation and maximise leaf produc-
tion. Adequate rainfall is essential, as is fertilisation.
Tea leaves are plucked by hand every seven to 14 days, a task traditionally carried out
by Tamil women in Sri Lanka. The pluckers have a daily target of between 20kg and 30kg
(44 to 66 pounds). After plucking, the tea leaves are taken to a factory where they are left
to wither (demoisturised by blowing air at a fixed temperature through them). You'll spot
the huge factory buildings throughout tea-growing country. Many are more than 100 years
old.
The partly dried leaves are then crushed, starting a fermentation process. The green
leaves quickly turn a coppery brown as additional heat is applied. The art in tea production
comes in knowing when to stop the fermentation, by 'firing' the tea at an even higher heat
to produce the final, brown-black leaf that will be stable for a reasonable length of time.
Finally the tea is separated and graded according to leaf size.
The workers who regulate the myriad variables to take a day's pickings and produce
proper tea, which will demand the premium prices Sri Lankan tea producers count on, are
high up the ladder on the plantations. There is a definite art to the process, which has been
refined over decades.
It only takes 24 hours from the time tea is picked to process it and load it in bags for
shipment.
