Tea Manufacturing in Ceylon.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 4312, 9 February 1887, Page 2

Tea Manufacturing in Ceylon.

We bare been allowed to take tbe following extract from a private letter received by a gentleman in town from a relative who is engaged on a tea plantation in the Island of Ceylon. The writer gives a very clear description of tea manufacturing. “ Now I will give you a description of how tea is made in Mariawatti. First the tea bash is not a bush (at least the Assam tea plant,which is the better) but a tree, and it has to be pruned down to the level of eighteen inches every year or eighteen months; in abundance of my knowledge in a low country like this I would prune every twelve months. The plant must be three years old before one expects any good result from it in the way of bearing, and four years until one can make really good tea. The young plant has not the strength in the leaves that tbe older ones have, nor is it so good, however old tbe plant may

bo for the first four months, after prunniugs is done. We pluck the budding loaf, the second, and half the third leaf. I can’t describe that better to you, as at the present moment nothing will come into my head that I could compare it with. This loaf is brought into the withering place, where it is carefully weighed, first in the pinchers basket, so that we may know how much each brings in and give them their fall day’s pay, half or none just as the case may be, thou it is weighed in bulk to find exactly how much leaf wo have, the leaf then is carefully spread on Lata, that is on fixed trays placed one above the another about eight inches separate, the leaf is spread very lightly and thinly, thera it is allowed to wither, not dry up and get bard so that it will break if yon squeeze it in yonr band, bnt a soft wither, like what rose leaves get like when left two or three days in a vase. Down here it withers in about 10 hours, though up on Darravill's I have seen it take two days and a half. When properly withered it is put into the roller for an hour. The roller is a machine of this kind, a huge box inverted. I am not sure if that is the right word, but it is a box without a top turned upside down upon a movable platform. The box and platform move at right angles to each other backwards and forwards, thus giving to it apparently a circular motion ; the leaf is put into this and it Js so thrown abont that it gets into balls, and these also rubbing together pots that roll upon the' leaf wbioh yon see in the made tea. After it has been rolled in this for an hour it is taken out, and the balls broken by the hand as quickly as possible, and placed in trays about three to four inches deep, covered up and kept as dark as possible for about three hours. One, of coarse, has to judge this for themselves. This part of the proceedings is called fermenting—in reality it is only oxidisation that is taking place. After it is properly oxidised or fermented, it is fired. We have n machine for this composed of an endless well, hot air—air being passed 1 through it. The fermented leaf is put in at one end and comes out at the other to all intents and purposes made tee. It takes from fifteen to twenty minutes to pass through, and the temperature stands at from 260 F. to 280 F. After it has cooled 'down it is sorted into different grades by sifting. The finest grade is Broken Pekoes (these are commercial teas). It consists principally of the bud or rip itself. Ton will notice it almost in any kind of tea by its yellow tint; it is also mixed with a little of the finer leaf, then comes Pekoe, also with some of the tip aod the broken up, or as we do, passed through a machine that cuts in certain lengths. Out of this is again sifted first the broken tea and then the dust. The red leaf which is (he very coarsest, being badly rolled, ig picked ont by band and sold locally. The reason for rolling the leaf is not for the sake of appearance as I used to think, bnt to break np the leaf cells as well. After it has been graded it is weighed, and ought to tarn oat one fourth, or 25 per cent., the. weight of the green leaf, sometimes on account of the dry weather, ao little moisture being in the leaf, it tarns ont over 30 per oent. Each sort is then placed in large bins, capable of holding about 8001ba of tea, and on every fourth Monday it is again passed over the drier, ao that any moisture that may have got in it is drawn off, and then it is placed hot in lead lined boxes, the lead being carefully soldered, the beads nailed down, and the boxes well hooped and marked, and it is now ready for the market."