ELEMENTS  VITAL  to  'QUALITY'             MANUFACTURE

The work that is involved on an estate to ensure that healthy leaves continue to flourish and are skillfully prepared for your comforting cuppa!

The  BUSH

In its normal state of growth tea can grow into a tree of some 35 feet in height. For easy control and constant harvesting, planters have developed a pruning and plucking system which controls the bush at about two and a half feet in height, encouraging it to spread and fill across to the surrounding bushes. We call it the ‘plucking table’. Below are listed some of the

Traditional batten twist roller

main works to invigorate and nurture this amazing plant:

1. Pruning:               
Each field is maintained on a cycle dependent on elevation.

                Low elevation pruned every              2.5 to 3 years.

                Mid elevation                                       3 years.

                High elevation                                      4-5 years.

A division is usually an area of some 200 to 300 acres. The area is divided up into fields, often with no obvious boundary. These fields are about 20 to 50 acres each and about 7 -10 fields in all per division. Thus each year about 2 fields will need pruning and brought back bursting with energy, to go back into plucking. Pruning these days is fairly light in the main, it is largely a slash pruning, years ago we would have religiously cut out all dead wood back to live wood and shortened all new shoots. Recovery back to tipping is about 90 to 105 days for new shoots to reach the level of the plucking table. Once the long green shoots are up Tipping takes place. This is the first plucking in a new field from pruning and it breaks the shoot back to where the plucking level is required and this will be the plucking table until the bush is pruned again. The broken and plucked shoots are thrown on the ground as they are useless for quality tea and rolling. From then on the plucking cycle begins again every 7 days.

Each division has a band of trained skilled pruners and trains up two or three new pruners each year. Each pruner is given a set number of bushes 140 - 150 for a days work.

2. Drains  
At the time of pruning the field is spring cleaned. The hill sides are criss crossed with boxed drains some 2 feet deep, with a small dam every three or four feet. This retains the heavy falling monsoon rain with any soil that is eroded and allows the soil to settle, feeding the water on over the dam to the next box and so on. The drains are cut across the hill side to the deep natural ravines that cut down the hill sides where the drains empty out. At pruning time the drain boxes are re-cut and the soil returned and spread amongst the tea bushes above the drain.

3. Weeding            
This is a monthly exercise which is carried out fairly gently these days without scrapping the soil to any extent. Grasses and certain binding weeds are encouraged to combat soil erosion.

Traditionally every family received an area to work in their spare time for increased income. Usually the family would then leave grandmothers and grandfather’s to do this, together with older grandchildren who enjoyed being in the fields. Any members of families who may have some genetic or physical problem that does not allow them to work in the normal sense could also be given weeding work which was light as income.

4. Manuring
In my grandfather’s days he often used horse and cattle manure, with compost and Poonac (the by products from the coconut mills) for manuring. Later the Colombo Commercial Co and Baurs introduced the modern scientifically formulated artificial manures and a formula was born for calculating the requirements of the bush. This is based on the application of 10 lbs (1 kilo) of Nitrogen for every 100 lbs (10 kilo) of made tea yielded. This and increasing areas of the new high yielding Vegetative Propagated bushes, resulted in rising yields and capacity problems in withering, which led to the trough withering system. Certain problems have arisen. For instance the 2025 clone combined with heavy manuring produces a very fleshy, watery leaf and this has created some problems when trying to maximize quality. The trough withering system is now the standard system and is one of the few new mechanical advances that have truly been as good as or bettered the old system.

5. Disease                
In the 1960’s spraying of chemicals was the standard response to disease. D.D. for root disease fumigation and Dieldrin for shot-hole borer beetle, copper spraying for Blister Blight fungal spore attack on the leaf. It was realized that Dieldrin created as many problems as it solved, by killing the Braconid Wasp (Macocentrus hormonae) which parasitized the Tortrix moth and then led to Tortrix attack. The TRI concentrated on biological control, encouraging the right species of insect for nature to do the controlling. This has been a huge success story in the island and the International ISO organization recently congratulated the industry on it’s performance and the production of the cleanest teas in the world. Spraying residue levels were not recordable.

6. Nurseries      These are vital to sustain large supplies of stock for speedy planting in the short planting season, as the monsoons break.

Tea Nursery:

a)  A tea nursery, consists of a plot of mother bushes, of the clones selected. These mother bushes are left to provide long shoots and then harvested over time to produces the nodal cuttings for planting in large beds of 1,000 plants each. Originally the beds were stocked with bamboo baskets, to-day polythene tube is cut for the plant bags. The beds are shaded from the sun, watered and fed regularly by the nursery staff. Planted out at a year old and then cut across twice a year for a year to 18 months to encourage width before being brought into yield at 2 to 2.5 years of age.

Each mother bush can supply some 1,000 cuttings per year and are pruned at 15 to 18 months to encourage further supplies.

The original areas planted mainly in seed, are now 125- 130 years old and still in production but failing. This has meant a large replanting programme from the 1950’s accelerating in the 1960’s and still underway. The costs of this are very large indeed and a huge drain on estate finances, even with government subsidies.

Present day thoughts on the life of the bush have been revised in line with the greater yields and stress on bushes compared to the 1900’s:

Seed sown tea  = 75 - 80 years life

V.P. planted tea =  Ideally Low country 35 years. High grown 50 -  60 years.                                                            

When new planting is undertaken. the whole area is cleared and winched out. The soil is then deep forked down to 18” by hand, removing all roots, leveling, terracing and planting in Guatemala grass to renovate and improve the soil. This grass is lopped twice a year and laid on the soil to mulch for a period of two years.

The area is then holed and planted with the one year old plants at a rate of 13,500 per hectare. Planting distances have varied over the years with 4 feet x 4 feet, 4 x 3 feet and then 4 x 2 feet.

Shade tree and firewood Nursery:

b) This is a separate nursery maintained to bring on species of trees for planting within the tea as shade trees (Albizzia, Grevillia etc), for wind belts (Acacia) and firewood plantations (gum). Some estates also plant up copses of pine and jungle trees for timber production. You will see that we use an estate tree (sustainable under this programme), for our wooden chestlets or boxes.

Many factories were designed to take alternative fuels. Le Vallon factory was able to take firewood for it's burners to fire the leaf, plus fuel oil and pelton power (water power) for driving the belts to drive machines and produce our own electricity. To-day large internationally financed hydro schemes are in place. In the 1940’s our own family estate was totally dependent for electricity produced on the estate. This meant the charging of large banks of batteries in the bungalow during the day, ready for use at night. Each night the factory requested permission to stop the machines and the bungalow batteries took over.

7. Plucking             
One of the most important operations to the tea-maker. I have discussed pruning as the starting point and the fact that from pruning the bush takes about 100 days to recover growth to the plucking table.

Each division has a new field plucking force, of usually 60 1st line pluckers (mainly women). They move in on the designated day with long level sticks and break back the new flush to the level, following every change in the contour of the ground, this gives an amazing smooth rolling carpet effect across every hillside and the new field will be a light fresh green colour. This first break is thrown to the floor in quality production and then the field comes into the divisional plucking cycle with every bush being plucked every 7 - 10 days depending on the weather. 7 days in wet weather, 10 days in arid dry periods, every day of the year. The pluckers fingers flick across the bush selecting the fresh new shoots with a bud and two leaves, some estates will take four leaves. Traditional rolled leaf requires greater disciplined plucking. CTC can deal with much coarser leaf. The pluckers also break back any coarse leaf or dormant shoots and throw them down on the ground, moving to the next bush and so on. To-day it appears that the plucking round is set in stone at 7 days in rain or drought. The tight round apparently increases yield even if there is less leaf to take.

A new field is designated new for up to 2 years and then handed over to the old field pluckers who are not as skilled. The new field pluckers are numbered 1 - 60 and allocated rows throughout every field and they know those rows belong to them. This is used in determining and supervising responsibility for poor plucking. Once a field becomes an old field on it’s way to the next pruning, it produces a more mature leaf and the tea-maker will be aware of which fields are coming in each day. Their age and aspect on the estate and he will respond in manufacture accordingly.

There are many disciplines to be followed in plucking for the best production. It is vital to ensure that the leaf is weighed often enough, especially in heavy flushing periods after rain when yield increases to ensure that the leaf is not crushed into the baskets or waiting around on the roadside for long periods. As soon as the leaf is plucked withering starts and fermentation of any crushed leaf also starts. It is vital that estates invest in open weave baskets allowing air movement and bamboo supports to allow baskets to be stacked without crushing. At weighing it is important that leaf is not left lying on the floor and walked on but cleared constantly. With many estates having large areas of re-planted tea in the new clones the bushes are have filled out to join each other and walking between the rows is harder, this has brought in plucking into sacks and then the leaf from the sack is transferred to the cane baskets at the field edge. I understand the idea but I am not convinced that this is best for the leaf as crushing from extra handling and shaking must take place. Just as I am afraid I see too many instances of plucking that is too hard and includes leaf that is ideal for rolling. I understand that these days the pluckers will down tools if they are disciplined too much because they loose weight and bonuses but tighter control would lead to better quality leaf. Green tea estates also practice this and perhaps they can get away with it where steaming is used.

Yields

Early estates including our own in the 1900’s were yielding 400 lbs of made tea per acre.

(Remember from 100 lbs of green leaf in the field, we get approximately 20 to 22 lbs of made tea).

By 1953 our estate was yielding 915 lbs per acre. By 1962 it reached 939 lbs per acre. We sold the estate in 1954.

8. Manufacture     The most important phase of all in quality production, once the disciplines have been followed in the field.

I have discussed pruning and the age from pruning. The night before the receipt of the following days leaf the tea-maker will assess which fields the divisions are sending in and what yields that they anticipate. In a six division estate, he will be receiving at least 6 fields of new leaf and 6 of old field leaf. The new fields will need a different approach to the old. He will consider whether they are new VP planted fields or old seed stock. the aspect of the fields will be known to the tea-maker. Whether they are Assam or China jat leaf and whether it is rainy season leaf or dry season leaf. All this will determine his rolling programme and the pressures applied, plus the length of fermentation.

Factories inherit a variety of makes of rollers, one such make is a Jackson 36” or 28”. In a three roll programme once we had 7,481 lbs of green leaf, withered down to 3,660. This withered leaf was charged at 500 lbs in two rollers (250 lbs each). At the end of the day this produced 1,732 lbs of made tea in all grades.

In the dry periods fermentation can take 35 minutes to 3 hours and plus.

Present day policy in the factories tends to a four roll programme especially for the larger grades or a two roll programme, followed by two rotorvane passes to produce maximum levels of BOPF and BOP grades. The roller is often a 47” roller charged with 250 Kilos of withered leaf every 50 minutes. Final capacity is determined by the drier output. The drier operates at 180 to 200 ^o F and arrests the fermentation process, as well as lowering moisture level ideally down to about 2 or 3 % which is ideal for keeping the tea. Over 5 % and the leaf loses its sheen and becomes dull and grey  to look at.

Rolling produces friction which creates heat, an enemy of quality tea production. In the flavoury districts like Uva manufacture can take place after midnight to try and use lower temperature in the rolling rooms, helping the management of the volatile oils expressed in rolling. Below is a fictitious example of how temperatures rise and how the tea-maker tries to control them.

Roll breaking is when the batch (dhool) is removed from the roller, leaf that is satisfactory is removed by a vibrating sieve and sent for fermentation and that passing over the top, having been aired and cooled down to some degree, is then sent on to the next roller for further rolling to obtain the tea-maker’s aims.

Manufacture of traditional teas is a highly skilled operation. Tea-makers train for decades as juniors, before being promoted. Manufacture is a huge subject with varying opinions and it is only possible to give you a flavour of the subject here. Obtaining top quality teas and maximum flavour in high season is an enormous operation with close liaison between estate and ourselves. Estates normally run for maximum levels of the smaller BOPF and BOP grades in the high dry seasons to emphasize flavour. Asking for large grades in high season means special runs upsetting their normal programmes. Emphasis on FBOP grades at this time will degrade the smaller grades and prices will reflect this. Certain estates have been very co-operative even allowing special runs at night to obtain cooler conditions. Our whole ethos in working with the estates in this way is to promote their individual identity to the public, something that has been lost over the years. We believe that this connection between consumer and producer is vital for the consumer to be able to appreciate and keep in contact with the process that delivers their cup of tea, day in and day out. Hopefully then they will begin to appreciate this truly amazing bush and the work that goes on to make 'tea'.