Tea Plantation

The tea season generally lasts from April through to September but this year picking started in the last week of March. We were able to watch the 1st tea pickers of the season plucking premium quality Kangra tea - the 1st leaves of the year are considered to produce the best-tasting tea.

Processing the leaves begins in the fields with the pickers rolling them between their fingers as they transfer them from bush to basket. The rest of the processing takes place in a nearby factory where the leaves are dried for 5 days on huge mesh trays, then "fermented" in a cool damp room for a few hours, turning from green to black, before being dried out again very rapidly at high temperatures. Finally they are graded & packed into sacks or tea chests, with a small amount kept aside for sale in jars locally.

It was fascinating, particularly as we now know exactly where the Kangra tea we've sampled in Tchai Ovna in Glasgow comes from. We were close neighbours of the estate owners & have even passed the time with them while waiting for a bus. We'll close our eyes & picture the mountains, the sunshine, the clear blue sky & savour the taste even more keenly in future.