Plantation Tea

As we sip our cups of green tea, we often take for granted the journey green tea makes from the plantation to the cup. The path from tea tree to final packaging is relatively short and takes about three hours.

There are three harvest periods throughout the year. First is between mid-April until the end of May, second is late June, and the final is from late July to early August. Tea is harvested from the tree either by hand or by using a powered plucker.

After the green tea is removed from the tree, it arrives at the processing plant. Then, the leaves are transferred to a custom container that blows air onto the leaves to keep them fresh while waiting to be processed.

The first major step of processing is steaming the green tea leaves. Steaming stops the oxidation process which would ruin the leaves otherwise. Large revolving steam machines are typically used to process mass quantities of leaves at a time. After the tea leaves are steamed for roughly 30-45 seconds, they are allowed to cool to room temperature.

Next, the leaves are sent to the first rolling dryer to reduce the moisture content. Hot, dry air removes the moisture from the tea leaves. This takes about 48 minutes. Now, for about 40 minutes the leaves are pressed together to go eliminate more dampness.

Tea leaves are dried again and they become rounded from the lack of moisture and the constant turning. They are removed when the batch has a consistent moisture level.

The leaves are rolled a Final time until the moisture content is 5%. The tea is sifted into a refining machine that removes all the stems and unwanted material.

The tea is then blended and graded. Once packaged it is ready to send to the wholesaler.