For most of us, a hot cup of tea in the morning is a refreshing start and one in the afternoon is necessary to get a relief from the day’s stress and tiredness. Ever wondered how the tea leaves were processed into the form that we see in the packets now? Mrs. Tapasya Goel’s ( Executive director of HPM )Tea factory visit in Assam to Welcome tea factory will give you all the information for your queries regarding the processing of tea leaves. Let’s discuss her experience in welcome tea factory. Let’s take a look on tea leaves processing. The first step in the process is plucking fresh tea leaves from the Alaknanda Tea estate. She met with these worker and experienced their working atmosphere. The plantation workers pluck the fresh tea leaves. Once the leaves are plucked, it’s now time to take them to the welcome tea factory for further processing. Factory’s staff was very cooperative they told her every process with the brief. After plucking the next process is the sorting process.

Since, leaves of different sizes brew differently, leaves of the same size are grouped together. This next step, known as withering reduces this moisture content in them by drying them up by passing air on them gently. In the next step the withered tea leaves are torn or bruised in order to quicken up oxidation. The process is known as disruption and is usually done by kneading, crushing, tearing or rolling the withered tea leaves. The next step in the tea leaves processing process is oxidation. This step is important as it decides the colour, strength and taste of the tea.

In this step, the tea leaves are laid out on a flat surface for some time at a temperature of about 26℃. All the while they are laid out, the enzymes present in the leaves react with the air causing the colour of the leaves to change from green to darker shades. For obtaining tea leaves that make tea with a lighter taste, the leaves are taken out when they are light brown in colour. For a strong taste, the leaves are laid out further till their colour is darker. The leaves are now ready for the final step in the processing which is drying.

In this step the oxidized leaves are further dried by methods like baking, sunning, panning or air drying to further reduce the moisture content in them before they are ready to be packed and shipped out.