Journey from the tea garden to the cup of tea
Step 01- Cultivation
As a crop grown in hilly areas of tropical and subtropical countries, the ideal temperature for tea cultivation is between 15.6 degrees Celsius and 27 degrees Celsius. The tea tree needs widespread rainfall throughout the year. Slightly sloping lands are preferred as the root of the tea plant is water dependent. Red loam soil with a soil value of PH 4.5-5.5 is most suitable. It can be grown in a wide range of altitudes, starting at sea level.
Obtaining seedlings from seeds for planting tea is an old obsolete thing. The new way is to get tea plants by sprouting. This is also known as VP (Vegetatively Propergate).
Step 02- Pruning
Pruning is one of the oldest methods of cultivating tea. Rejuvenation of the Tea Tree is the first objective here. The tea tree can grow up to 10 m in height naturally, but when grown as a commercial crop, the tea tree can grow up to 1 m in height. Pruning the tea tree thus allows the bush to continue to produce leaves while preventing flowering and wilting. Height control is another goal.
Step 03- Plucking tea leaves
Plucking tea leaves is an art. It is essential to have trained labor for that. When plucking tea leaves, only the unopened leaf and the two lower leaves should be harvested. Mechanical methods are also used to pluck the tea leaves, but it may not be possible to produce high quality tea from the leaves. This is because mechanically, when picking tea leaves, the hard / hard parts may be more mixed than the part to be harvested.
Step 04- Tea production
The harvested leaves are sent from the tea estates to factories for processing. So carried on .the. Processed in factories with 04 classes. That is,
(i) Green Tea
(ii) Unfermented Tea
(iii) Black tea
(iv) Semi Unfermented tea
That is. Instant tea at present. There is also a fifth class that is easily dissolved in water. The tea is packaged in wooden boxes or linen bags and released to the scientific market.