My Tea Break

Rediscovering Tea around the world

Category Archives: Tea Harvesting


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Bai Hao Oolong Tea

Bai Hao Oolong is a famous Oolong Tea from Taiwan. The name Bai Hao refers to the appearance of the Tea leaves which are mostly dark in color but ends with a silvery tip. This Tea is also known as Dong Fang Mei Ren or Oriental Beauty, a name given by Queen Elizabeth II when she tasted this Tea for the first time.

This Tea is known by its sweet fruity flavour but the processing of this Tea is even more interesting. This Tea is made not only by man but also by insects. Yes… Insects…  The farmers wait that some tiny green flies attack the Tea leaves before harvest. The Tea leaves that were bitten by the green flies will change into a yellow colour and the Tea leaves produce an antibody which gives its characteristic fruity flavour. Only the damaged leaves can be selected which makes it an incredibly labour intensive process from start to finish.

There are many stories about the origin of Bai Hao Tea. According to one Taiwanese Tea book, a Tea farmer in Beipu (Taiwan) noticed that small green insects resembling grasshoppers had damaged the leaves of his newly picked spring crop. Rather than destroying his crop, he decided to process the leaves and was very surprised by its strong sweet fruity flavour.

A truly Oriental Beauty…. 

Happy Tea Break.

Tania


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Glenmorgan Tea Estate

Do you believe in the Six degrees of separation theory? It basically states that anyone  can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. 

Well, I can tell you that I’ve visited Glenmorgan Tea Estate in the Nilgiri Hills and had the pleasure to meet Mr. and Mrs. Vadera through a chain of three intermediaries! My friend and Tea partner Mariana worked with Veronica in London, who’s really good friends with Sonali, whose parents own Glenmorgan Tea Estate and kindly invited me the visit them.

I had less than 24 hours but I knew I couldn’t miss this opportunity and I am so glad I made it. I had the amazing opportunity to meet this wonderful couple who welcomed me to their home as if part of their family, see the amazing views of Nilgiri Hills, a visit to Glenmorgan Tea Estate, tasted a lot of Tea while chatting with Indu and even tasted fried Tea leaves.

The Family History:

Rasik and Indu were born and got married in Uganda. Rasik’s father, a man with a great business vision, had coffee, Tea and sugar cane plantations in Uganda but in 1958 decided to invest in land back in India and bought Glenmorgan Tea Estate which had around 250 acres at the time. During Uganda’s independence in 1962, Rasik and Indu got back to India and started developing Glenmorgan Tea Estate.

Glenmorgan Tea Estate:

India has always been known for Black Tea but in 1969, Glenmorgan Tea Estate started making green Tea to Japan. At the time, everything was done by hand but after a while they imported machinery from Japan. Over a period of time, they developed the market for US and Morocco. Nowadays, their biggest client is Lipton US.

Glenmorgan Tea Estate now has 500 acres, 400 workers (plucking and sorting is all done by female and male work in the factory) and produces around produces 3000 to 4000 kg. of  made Tea per day. Glenmorgan Tea Estate is certified by the Rainforest Alliance which means they follow the three pillars of sustainability — environmental protection, social equity and economic viability.

Rasik showed me all the steps which starts with the plucking, followed by roasting, rolling, rotary drying, sorting and packaging.

When asked about what has changed in the world of Tea during the last years, Rasik explains that interest in Green Tea has increased even in India, where Black Tea is King.

Rasik’s favourite Tea is Glenmorgan. He believes you get used to a particular taste and Glenmorgan green Tea has a light, mellow and smooth taste.

If you’re ever in Southern India I highly recommend that you visit the Nilgiris. The Nilgiris, which literally translates into “Blue Mountains” are located in the state of Tamil Nadu.  The hills are beautiful and are named after a local flowering shrub that blossoms once every twelve years, covering the hills in purple-blue flowers.

I already promised Indu and Rasik that I will be back to Glenmorgan during the next purple-blue flower blossom. :)

Thanks to Mariana, Veronica, Sonali for this introduction and to Rasik and Indu for the amazing experience.

Happy Tea Break.

Tania

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Tea in Hangzhou

Hangzhou is the provincial capital and largest city of the Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. This city is not only famous for the natural beauty of the the West Lake and many historic and cultural landmarks including the Leifeng Pagoda where you can enjoy an amazing sunset view over the lake, the six harmony Pagoda, Ling Yin Temple but also it´s  home to the China Tea Museum and the Longjing Village, one of the birthplaces to Chinese Green Tea. Also very representative of the local Tea culture are the  Teahouses that line West Lake and where you see all the locals playing cards and drinking Green Tea.

If you visit Hangzhou and the Longjing village between the end of March and mid May you get the first harvesting season. The Tea leaves are picked from late March to early May,  when the new leaves appear. Tea cultivation is a labor intensive business, as all picking is done by hand so that the young leaves are not damaged.

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The National Tea Musem, the only one in China with the Tea theme, is surronded by a Tea plantation and is comprised by four buildings where you can learn about the history of Tea, the growing and cultivation process, properties of Tea,  the different kinds of Tea (they show you 300 kinds of Tea including the six basic types and some reprocessed and scented varities), Tea sets  and the impact of Tea in the Chinese Culture.

To get there from Shanghai you need to take the Train from the Shanghai Hongqiao railway station to Hangzhou Railway Station. The bullet G trains take around 45 minutes. From Hangzhou railway station you can take the bus n. 27 or Y3 or alternatively get a cab however make sure that you either have a map where you can point on where you want to go or go with someone local as I had to leave the first taxi due to communication problems. Despite my best efforts and gestures he could´t understand where I wanted to go.

Some tips that I learned from my experience: Don´t go on sundays as it is a very popular destination for locals so the buses get completely packed,  taxis are all taken and there is a lot of traffic. I had to walk to a hotel and request a car from there. Also, don´t buy Tea from the street vendors around the lake as this is usually the lowest grade quality so if you want to make sure you get good quality Tea you can either try and go to a farm or to the Longjing town. A famous shop is number 216 Longjing Road. Anyway, always make sure that you try the Tea that you buy. I have tried several different varities of Longjing Tea and they the quality vary substantially and all have different characteristics.

Happy Tea Break.

Tania


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Chinese Tea Provinces

When researching where to find and buy Tea in China one can get quite lost. In China, Tea is mainly produced in 17 regions: Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi Zhuang, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Szechwan, Yunnan, and Zhejiang.

The most famous Green Teas in China include Longjing tea produced in the  Zhejiang Province, Maofeng from the Anhui Province and Biluochun produced in Jiangsu.

Some known types of  black Tea (named Red Tea in China ) are Qihong of Anhui , Dianhong of Yunnan, Suhong of Jiangsu, Chuanhong of Sichuan and Huhong of Hunan.

Oolong Tea is a specialty from the provinces on China’s southeast coast: Fujian and Guangdong.

Each Region also developed their own Tea drinking habits. In Northern China you fill find

Scented Tea with rose petals

that scented Tea, the process of infusing Tea with flowers is very popular but Green Tea is still the nation´s number one choice.

I visited Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, home to the Longjing (Dragon Well) Tea Plantations and to the National Museum of Tea. . The first harvesting season goes from Mid March to early May so I was lucky to see the Tea harvesters manually picking the leaves. The whole journey was quite an experience and an adventure which I will share with you in detail in the next post.

Happy Tea Break.

Tania

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Japanese Green Tea Plantations

One of our Tea friends, André Lopes, kindly shared these photos from a Tea plantation in Japan:

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If you have any photos that you would like to share with us feel free to send us an email.

Thanks André.


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Growing and Harvesting Tea

A lot has changed since Shennong introduced the skill of Tea agriculture to Man.

For centuries China was the world’s only Tea-exporting country but today Tea is cultivated in about 36 countries all over the world. Soil and climate conditions dramatically affect the taste of leaves from different parts of the world so planting is a crucial operation but only half the battle.

Once the Tea plant is grown, which takes approximately 4 to 12 years to bear seed and about 3 years before a new plant is ready, the process of harvesting the Tea starts. Growing and harvesting Tea is an art. It takes time and practice and Tea farmers can take years to be able to cultivate a good crop.

When plucking the leaves for a high quality Tea, they pluck only the bud and the second and third leaves. This is called fine plucking. Harvesting Tea needs to be done in the early morning and this type of harvesting makes very fine and delicate flavoured Tea. It is usually lighter and sweeter in taste.

If more leaves are taken with the bud it is called a coarse plucking which produces a lower quality Tea and makes a strong flavour Tea.

In Tea harvesting there are normally two harvests seasons of tea per year. The “First Flush” is in early spring and the “second flush” is in summer. The best times for harvesting Tea will vary according to the tea variety which is to be harvested.

For both techniques harvesting tea is usually done by hand because machines damage the leaves too much but I will leave this debate to another post and leave with you a video that shows a Tea harvesting season in India.

Happy Tea Time,

Tania

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