JAN 12: TEA PLANTATION

What One Won't Do For A Good Cup of Tea

12.01.2016 - 12.01.2016 33 °C

THE TSARA TEA PLANTATION
We are getting into a rhythm now. Yoga from 6 to 8. Breakfast. Swim. Treatments from 10 to 12. Lunch. Afternoon excursion. Today we catch a bus that takes us for a 90 minute drive into the hills to visit a tea plantation - tour the site and premises for a couple of hours - and then drive back again. We learn the 5 stages of tea making : the whole process to prepare tea once the leaves are picked and brought to the facility takes 24 hours or less.
1: Plucking- 1 1/2 leaves for green, 3 1/2 for black
2: Withering - air drying in large trays and turned frequently
3: Rolling - the leaves are put in a big machine that rolls them into curls to break down the fibre
4: Drying - the leaves go through a drying process that dry heats them to a 90C high temp for a few minutes. This is the only process that differentiates green and black tea Green tea is steamed for 90 seconds instead of heat dried
5: Sorting - the leaves are sorted based on size to make 24 types of black tea

They didn't include this in the process but it was an integral part of the process.
6: Tasting - we then sampled as many of the teas as we wanted.
Only problem was I didn't really like any of them. Realized I am not a serious tea drinker but the ginger cookies they served with the tea was great, even though it would not of passed the Ayurvedic diet test.

TEA PLANTATION. TEA LEAVES