Tea production process .
Have you ever wondered where the tea you enjoy comes from? How it is grown? Where it is grown? what processes it goes through before it gets into your kettle or cup? Well if you are still in wonder,come with us and we will simply show you what it takes for the tea to come to your table.

Below are the main steps undertaken in the production of tea.

Step 1: Nursery bed.
Tea bushes are planted - from 1 metre to 1.5 metres apart - to follow the natural contours of the landscape, sometimes growing on specially prepared terraces to help irrigation and to prevent erosion.

Young plants are raised from cuttings obtained from a mother bush and they are carefully tendered in special nursery beds until 12 - 15 months old. They are then planted out in the tea fields. The mother bush is a strong, rich plant carefully selected for propagation.

Step 2: Leaf Plucking
Tea is grown in the field but must be made in a factory. This is because unlike most herbals that only need to be dried, commercial tea must be “processed”.
It all begins in one of the small holder tea farms where the tea grows. All tea is harvested manually; plucking the top two leaves and the bud (also referred to as fine plucking).

Each pluck takes only the flush - 'two leaves and a bud' of tender and succulent fresh growth. Within a week to ten days the bushes grow new shoots. This skilled job is carried out by picking the shoots, breaking them off by twisting the leaves and bud in the fingers, and deftly throwing handfuls of shoots into the carrier baskets resting on their backs.

The baskets are so designed that they permit aeration of the leaf to prevent heat generation.

The high standard of fine plucking is the first step towards superior quality tea manufacture. The interval between plucking and delivery is kept as short as possible.

As the aphorism goes, 'manufacture starts in the field'. Great care is taken when transporting green leaf to the factory. This is achieved by the use of specially designed leaf carriers that permit air circulation and thus prevent any heat build-up that would affect the quality of the teas produced.

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