The people behind the tea
The People behind the tea - from crop to cup
That great cuppa' tea you are drinking represents an incredible amount of work - it is a long journey from crop to cup.
Tea Pluckers
Pluckers are the beginnings of a great cuppa' tea. When two leaves and a bud grow above the "plucking table" , the waist-high pruning level of the tea bushes, pluckers hand harvest them. Moving around the garden to harvest different areas every 6 -14 days, depending on the season, the plucker's skilled hands are the key to getting "good leaf." And good leaf is the key to a better cuppa' tea.
In Darjeeling, the pluckers are almost 100% ethnic Nepalese. In Sri Lanka, they are Tamil. In Assam, they are ethnically diverse.
From the field, tea is brought to the "tea factory" usually on or very close to the garden. Here the garden manager, usually someone who has come up through the ranks in the factory and garden, takes that great leaf and turns it into great tea. All the processes withering, rolling, fermenting, must be carefully watched to bring out the most flavor from the leaf. During the peak "flushes" (or growing periods) the manager gets very little sleep. The best tea is made at night when the climate is cooler.
Organic Tea is either sold directly from the garden or though an auction. Tea traders and tea tasters taste thousands of cups!
At two leaves and a bud, we taste teas from every week's production during the flushes. Sometimes there is a difference in daily production! (In Darjeeling, the gardens elevations can vary by thousands of feet ( the tea from lower elevations are dramatically different than the higher grown teas.) Richard personally makes the final selections.
