The first part of the tea making process is picking the
leaves. Female workers pick about 700 leaves a day, six days a week. Male
workers will also pick during the abundant months but as our guide said, they
are not as good as the women. The workday for pickers is seven hours and they
get three breaks during that time and the leaves are weighed.
Once the leaves are picked, they are “withered.” The leaves
are placed over hot air for 8 to 12 hours. The hot air doesn’t exactly dry the leaves but it removes about 43%
of the moisture. The withering process changes the leaves chemically and
physically.
The leaves are then sifted and move on to huge rollers. The
rollers pass over the leaves in a circular motion, rolling the leaves, but not
breaking them or tearing them apart. The extracts more moisture and it is
spread on the surface of the leaves, supporting oxidation.
The next steps include sifting again, sorting, and cutting
the leaves. They are cut three times during the process with the goal of making
fine particles. The particles are then spread out to rest and ferment for two
hours and 40 minutes. During this time the tea turns from a copper red color to
dark brown.
Onto the drying! The tea particles are dried in large drying
chambers and the fermentation is deactivated. This turns the tea into a
jet-black color. Then the tea is sifted and sorted again into “grades.” The
finer particles are graded higher. The grade also determines the cost.
The Dunkeld tea goes to auction in Colombo where buyers will
bid on the different types. Demand determines cost and the weather dictates how
much product the estate can produce.
Tea grown in high elevations (5,000 – 6,000 feet above sea
level) is known as “high-grown” tea and is regarded as the finest in the world.
I put together a short video of the process as well:
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