When we visit a hill station such as Ooty, Munnar or Darjeeling we get to see hills covered with beautiful lush, green, tea plantations.
The tea bush is indigenous to China and the cultivation is believed to have originated in Chang Jiang (the Yangtze Valley of China). Chinese mythology reveals that around 2737 BC, Emperor Shen Nung, scholar and herbalist, was sitting beneath a tree while an attendant boiled drinking water.
A leaf from a nearby shrub (which was later found to be a tea bush) fell into the water. The emperor decided to drink the brew and thus mankind got this drink called tea.
In India, a British army officer, Robert Bruce, located wild tea plants on the hill slopes of Assam in 1823, but it was Lord William Bentinck, the governor-general who took steps to cultivate tea there on a large scale. Today, India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of black tea with a production of 1,000 million kg of tea each year, followed by China with 500 million kg and Sri Lanka ranking third.
The tea gardens are set up on cleared hill slopes as the roots of the tea bush cannot tolerate stagnant water and the water drains away easily on the hill slopes. The seeds are planted in raised nursery beds.
After about a year, when the plants reach a height of about 2 cms, the saplings are transplanted in the tea gardens or estates.
Nowadays, the method of ‘Clonal planting’ is also becoming popular. Here the cuttings are taken from a tea plant called the ‘mother plant’ which has a better yield, special flavour and quality, and then grown so as to produce tea shrubs yielding the same superior quality of tea. These are also first raised in nurseries and then transplanted to the main tea garden.
The tea shrubs are grown in rows about one metre apart. Rows of shade-giving trees called shelter belts are planted alternatively with tea shrubs to protect the bushes from the hot sun. The tea garden is regularly hoed and weeded to help the bushel grow without any hindrance. The bushes are constantly pruned to maintain a height of about 1 to 1.5 metres. This helps in picking of the tea leaves and also in growth of new shoots bearing soft, tender leaves.

A ‘flush’ of tea
The picking of tea leaves in done mostly by women. It is a skillful job and needs patience and judgement. Tea shrubs are ready for plucking after 3 to 5 years and produce a flush (new shoots).
Each flush consists of several leaves and a bud. All the leaves on a twig do not provide good quality tea.
For the finest quality tea, two tender leaves and a bud are plucked from each stem and tossed into baskets on their backs. A skilled picker can pluck about 50 kg of tea leaves in one day. The leaves contain tiny oil cells which give tea its peculiar flavour.
A stimulating substance called therine, a tannic acid, is also found in the leaves. The fermentation of tea removes part of the tannic acid but preserves the strong flavour. The life span of a tea shrub is about 50 years.
The plucked tea leaves go through various stages to finally be transformed to tea. First, the plucked leaves are washed, cleaned and spread over shelves called ‘withering racks’ and cool air is blown over them for 24 hours to reduce their moisture content and make them soft and flexible. This process is called ‘withering’.
The next step is called ‘rolling’ or ‘curling’ in which the leafs are twisted to break its cells, exposing their juice to the air for fermentation, which in turn helps to give tea its special flavour. The next step, ‘fermentation’ or ‘oxidation’ of tannin gives the leaves the red colour as they change chemically under controlled humidity and temperature in the fermenting room where they are spread on racks.

Ready, set ‘fire’!
These leaves are then placed on conveyer belts in an oven with temperatures of 70 to 75 degrees centigrade to dry them & give them their black colour. This step is called ‘firing’.
The dried leaves are then sifted with the help of special sifters or screens. Special people called ‘tea tasters’ are employed to taste and blend tea to evolve a special brand or quality of tea. The tea is then vacuum packed in tin foil packs to protect the freshness and aroma and thus reaches us under several brand names for consumption.