From Sri Lanka with love

A Hindu priest blesses the inauguration of the new sachet-making machine at a factory in Sri Lanka.

Last week we discussed what makes tea sachets so much better than tea bags. You ended up with a bunch of tea on your kitchen counter, but also a head full of knowledge about the full flavor you can get from whole leaf tea like ours. Isn’t reading a tea blog rewarding?

So this time around we wanted to show you a couple of photos from one of the spots where our tea is put into those sachets. We like to pack the tea as close to the source as possible, and since a number of our teas are grown in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), that’s where this particular factory is.

A local bank manager hits the start button at the ceremony.

Thanks to you, our business is growing (cheers!) and so we need more machines to pack our tea. Last week this particular factory sent us photos from the inauguration ceremony of their brand new packing machine. As you can see in the photos, the ceremony was a big deal — a Hindu priest blessed the factory and machine, and the local bank manager who loaned the factory  money for the machine got to push the start button.

As you may already know about two leaves and a bud tea company, we support small farmers from around the world when buying tea, as well as small businesses who pack our tea. This family-owned factory has been in the tea packing business for three generations, and they’re passionate about the work they do, just like we are.

And here’s a fun fact about these sachet machines — since tea sachets are more difficult to pack than tea bags, this machine turns out 60 sachets a minute, max, compared to a typical tea bag machine that churns out around 400 bags a minute. Put that in your mug and steep it.