NILGIRIS TEA MAKING

TEA MAKING AND PROCESSES:

C.Camellia sinensis (Chinese) and C.Camelia asamica (Assamese) is an evergreen plant that grows mainly in tropical and sub-tropical climates. Actually it is a tree trained to grow as Shrub. Tea in India was commercialized by the British in early 19^th century. Tea is primarily grown in Assam, Darjeeling, Nilgiris, and Kerala.

Many high-quality tea plants are cultivated at elevations of up to 1500 meters (5,000 ft) or so: at these heights, the plants grow more slowly and acquire a better flavor. It is because the VOLATILE FLAVORING COMPOUNDS (VFC) such as LINALOOL AND LANALOOL are more in teas grown on higher elevations. Teas grown in higher elevation are light in color and usually taken straight without milk carry sweet and strong flavor. I saw huge SILVER OAK Trees around at a distance of 10 meters from each other. (As seen in picture 2.) In the tea garden.

(A TYPICAL TEA GARDEN WITH TALL SILVER OAK TREES)- Picture 2.

The long deep roots of “Silver oak tree” absorbs rain water and slowly nourishes the Tea shrubs during summers to maintain year long supply of Flushes. In summers they sprinkle water on leaves to maintain the temperatures and avoid burning of leaves. Similarly in winters they sprinkle some kaolin powder to avoid mist and frosting of leaves. Tea tree can live up to 100 years on an average but life is shortened by cultivators if the shrub matures earlier with thick trunk. In fact I was told there are some trees still harvesting in Nilgiris as old as 1904.

Only the top 3 leaves and a bud of the mature plant are picked. These buds and leaves are called flushes (as shown in picture 3) and have a very light green shade, soft and supple. A plant will grow a new flush every seven to ten days during the growing season. In Assam or Darjeeling they pick only 2 leaves and a bud. Lesser the leaves or higher we pluck better are the flavors and quality of tea. After 5 leaves the quality of tea drops. It is said first flush teas of Darjeeling or any other place are the best.

(TEA FLUSHES)- Picture 3.

A tea plant will grow into a tree if left undisturbed, but cultivated plants are pruned waist high for ease of plucking. This height is called TABLE and leaves above the table are usually plucked by expert fingers of lady workers (Pluckers). I was told that mechanical plucking has started too but quality suffers. When the tea plant is from three to five years old and about three to four feet high, it is ripe enough for plucking. It is said; less the fibers better the tea. These fibers come from thick leaves or stems of leave plucked wrongly and missed during sorting.

A tea's type is determined by the processing which it undergoes. This factory prepares CTC Tea- CUT TEAR AND CURL process.

The leaves are assembled at a place and laid on perforated tables. Here hot air is blown from underneath to dry leaves other wise they wilt and oxidize if not dried quickly after picking. This withering process will retain about 30% moisture in the leaf and takes about 12-15 hours.

See picture 4.

(WITHERING PROCESS) Picture 4.

CUTTING TEARING AND CURLING: The withered leaves are dropped down through a chute from top floor on to CTC table. After a brief conditioning roll, the leaf is made to pass through a machine consisting two steel cylinders with fine tooth-like sharp ridges. The cylinders with only marginal clearance between them move in opposite directions at speeds of 70 and 700 r.p.m. respectively. The objective is to ensure that most of the cells of the leaf are ruptured thereby achieving accelerated and intensive fermentation. The result is that the tea liquor is much thicker and yields many more cups of drinking tea per kg.

If the leaf was not limp, more than normal quantity of watery juice would be squeezed when rolling, resulting in loss of essential solids. Fresh or brittle leaf would not ensure a well-distributed rupturing of the cells while rolling. Moreover, limpness enables the leaf to assume the desirable twist or curl.

The leaves are passed through cutting, twirling and curling rollers in three steps called 1^st cut, 2^nd cut and 3^rd cut. While the CTC process is on, a small amount of water is sprinkled on the conveyor to retain moisture and avoid fermentation and retain limpness during this process. See picture 5(regret the picture quality as my Digital camera battery was down I had to shoot with Papa’s Phone)

(CTC ROLLING PROCESS) Picture 5.

At this stage tea is bright gold in color but leaf can not be seen only small curled pieces can be felt between your fingers.

FERMENTATION: Next is the process of fermentation. These leaves are sent to a drum that is constantly turning on its axis with temperature slightly higher than ambient for about 6-8 hours.

The leaves turn progressively darker as their chlorophyll breaks down and tannins are released. This process, enzymatic oxidation, is called fermentation in the tea industry.

DRYING:

The leaves are dried after fermentation to close the oxidation process. This is done by deactivation of enzymatic fermentation. The tea leaves are passed through heating tunnel at a temperature ranging from 110° F to 130° F and as they come out in about 15-20 minutes the moisture at dryer mouth is about 3%. I could not hold the leaves in my hand due to heat.

SORTING: From here the tea is passed on to another conveyor that has rocking mesh ranging from 8mm thickness to fine dust. I was told finer dust has high density of tea hence darker color of tea liqueur. We can get up to 800 cups of tea from 1kg. Of superfine dust tea.

Average chemical composition of Orthodox and CTC teas :

Composition	Orthodox teas	CTC teas
Water soluble solids %	39.52	41.12
Theaflavins %	0.59	1.30
Thearubigin %	6.5	18.00
Total Lipid	3.11	3.68
Carotenoids (ľg/g)	215	176
Flavour volatilesd	18.40	8.20
Total fibre %	19.35	18.93
Crude fibre%	11.70	11.12
Chlorophyll a mg/g	1.38	0.48
Chlorophyll b mg/g	0.77	0.58

Tea Categories:
Two main types of Tea:

A) Black Tea

B) Green Tea

There are two types of Black tea processing :

A) CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) as explained above
B) Orthodox
Orthodox or the traditional tea-making begins with “withering” the freshly plucked leaf. At the end of this phase of manufacture, the leaf is limp. This limpness helps the next stage of tea-processing known as “rolling” whose object is dual: to rupture the leaf cells for releasing the enzymes and to twist or curl the leaf. It is made possible by rolling the leaf in a machine for one to two hours as if it is being squeezed between the palms of hands.

After this leaves are sent for fermentation as explained earlier. This process which is known as “firing” goes on for half an hour by which time the color of the leaf turns from bright gold to black. After the “fired” leaf has cooled to ambient temperature, it is ready for grading/sorting.


Fanning Grade: Made from smaller, flat pieces of broken orange pekoe and used to make quick-brewing, strongly flavored, robust teas with good color.

Dust Grade :Tiny bits of broken leaf used to brew strong tea quickly, popular for black tea bags.
BLACK TEA GRADE’S: ORTHODOX TEA

Kind of Tea	Grade name	Nomenclature
Whole Leaf	FP	Flowery Pekoe-smells like flower
	FTGOP	Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe(golden color tinge AND TINGES YOUR UPPER PALLATE)
	TGFOP 1	Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
	GFOP	Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
	FOP	Flowery Orange Pekoe
	OP	Orange Pekoe
Broken	BOP1	Broken Orange Pekoe one
	GFBOP	Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
	BPS	Broken Pekoe Small(souchong)
	GBOP	Golden Broken Orange Pekoe
	FBOP	Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
	BOP	Broken Orange Pekoe
Fannings	GOF	Golden Orange Fannings(leaf grades which are bolder when brewed the leaf opens flat with fan shaped cuts at edges)
	FOF	Flowery Orange Fannings
	BOPF	Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings
Dust	OPD	Orthodox Pekoe Dust
	OCD	Orthodox Churamani Dust
	BOPD	Broken Orange Pekoe Dust
	BOPFD	Broken Orange Pekoe fine Dust
	FD	Fine Dust
	D-A	Dust A
	Spl. Dust	Special Dust
	G.Dust	Golden Dust
	OD	Orthodox Dust

BLACK TEA GRADE'S: CTC TEA

Kind of Tea	Grade name	Nomenclature
Broken	PEK	Pekoe
	BP	Broken Pekoe
	BOP	Broken Orange Pekoe
	BPS	Broken Pekoe Small(Souchong)
	BP 1	Broken Pekoe one
	FP	Flowery Pekoe
Fannings	OF	Orange Fannings
	PF	Pekoe Fannings
	PF 1	Pekoe Fannings one
	BOPF	Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings
Dust	PD	Pekoe Dust
	D	Dust
	CD	Churamani Dust
	PD 1	Pekoe Dust one
	D 1	Dust one
	CD 1	Churamani Dust one
	RD	Red Dust
	FD	Fine Dust
	SFD	Super Fine Dust
	RD1	Red Dust one
	GD	Golden Dust
	SRD	Super Red dust

GREEN TEA

Kind of Tea	Grade name	Nomenclature
Whole leaf	YH	Young Hyson
	FYH	Fine Young Hyson
Broken	GP	Gun Powder
	H	Hyson
	FH	Fine Hyson
Fannings	SOUMEE	Soumee
Dust	DUST	Dust

PRODUCTION AND OUTPUT: From 4.4 kg. of fresh green tea leaves about 1 kg. of dried tea black or green variety.

BLENDING:This is highly secretive process, each to its own and never shown to outsiders-Restricted zone.I was told that they make Blends and add flavors such as chocolate, masala, orange, berry etc.

(Arranged with help from papa’s colleague Mr. Anand Behl C.O.O of Rnk Agro & Chemicals Ltd. Hyderabad- in fact if you have any more information to seek he can always provide you since he worked in tea gardens and has Agricultural Degree with lots of experience. His email id: behllinux@yahoo.co.in