Loading
the leaves into lorries to be transported to the factories
The journey to the tea plantation seemed to
take forever. The plantation, located on a highland, was elevated about 1000 m above the
sea level where the temperature was much cooler than that in the city. The need for
well-drained soils explains why tea is grown in the highlands where natural drainage is
good. Just like what we had been taught in school, tea is cultivated from the leaf
cuttings of carefully selected tea plants grown in the nursery. We
were told that the tea plants grow better when protected from the sunlight and winds and
for this reason, they are planted close together to form a canopy. The processing
of tea leaves is done in a small factory located nearby. For a start the tea leaves
are dried so as to reduce the moisture content in the leaves. The dried tea leaves are
then feed into a machine known as the ‘roller’ so as to
break them into smaller pieces. They are then fermented to develop
its flavour and colour and then dried again to reduce moisture content and stop
fermentation. They are then sorted out and tested to maintain quality before it is stored
for 3 months to enhance its flavour. Having an idean of how tea was made, we then
proceeded to the "tea restaurant" as we called it, where we were served a
complementary glass of tea. Surprisingly, it tasted quite sweet and pleasant, exactly not
what we had expected!
Loading
the leaves into lorries to be transported to the factories
The journey to the tea plantation seemed to
take forever. The plantation, located on a highland, was elevated about 1000 m above the
sea level where the temperature was much cooler than that in the city. The need for
well-drained soils explains why tea is grown in the highlands where natural drainage is
good. Just like what we had been taught in school, tea is cultivated from the leaf
cuttings of carefully selected 
