A cuppa char,
A brew,
There is nothing quite like a nice cup of tea. Visiting a tea factor, seeing exactly where it comes from, swept off the floor, handled by yours truly…thank goodness we made it using boiling water.
Ant, Maureen, Steve and I climbed into a taxi heading for Liptons Seat just outside Haputale and drove up through the tea plantations. It was the easy way of getting up the hill; it allowed us a gentle stroll up to the top. We had magnificent views; an abundance of evergreen tea bushes scaled the hills, pickers moving in and out of the fields busy at work. Huge acacia trees are scattered amongst them giving a good foothold for the lines of tea trees in the hills.
The clouds started to close in quickly at eleven making our decision to walk down easy otherwise soon we wouldn’t be able to see a thing. We cut through the plantations, hopping from boulders; it certainly cut out a lot of the seven kilometers walk back down. Descending we past groups of woman laydened with their bags of tea precariously balanced on their heads heading to a weighing station. These women work extremely hard carefully weaving their way along selecting the new buds high in the hills. How they do it amazes me, some of the plantations are so steep. The pay is minimal, 300 rupees for a days work, there pay is based on collecting fifteen kilos and anymore that they pick they receive a small commission.
After the ladies have toiled in the fields the tealeaves are placed on large troughs where they are dried for twenty-four hours. The process of chopping and fermenting follows, the smell is intoxicating and brings on the urge for a good brew.
However I don’t think health and safety rules apply, okay so they wear hats and overalls but what exactly is the point if workers and tourists walk through tea scattered on the floor, sift through it with their hands before its all swept up and put through the machine making its way to sacks before turning into tea bags. Over looking all of that (hope your not in the middle of a brew..) it was interesting and um….eye opening…he he he he
