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the-south-asian.com October 2003 |
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October
2003
Exhibitions Metcalfe's album of
Technology
Lifestyle Sushmita Sen Literature
Lehngas - a limited collection Books
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by Rajika Jayatilake
Memories of Sri Lankan tea gardens that rush in are delightful cameos of beauty . Emerald green rolling carpets of tea adorning Sri Lanka’s central highlands amidst the gossamer mist. The crisp, cool delicate fragrance of the leafy tea in the air. The colorful, sari-clad tea-pluckers with the wicker-baskets tied to their backs. The incredibly lush scenery seems to blend so naturally with the rich golden hue and the delicate aroma of a freshly brewed cup of Ceylon tea.
By 1880, Sri Lanka’s sick coffee industry collapsed permanently and from the ashes of the dead plantation rose a lucrative tea industry which flourished beyond expectations. Tea, known also as Camellia Sinensis, basically has three main varieties ; the China, Assam and Cambodian. Dr. Wallich, head of the botanical garden in Calcutta, in 1839, sent several Assam tea plant seeds to the nursery in Peradeniya, near Kandy. The Assam tea variety is now grown on every tea plantation in Sri Lanka. Around 1860, the Peradeniya nursery supplied James Taylor, a young British planter, with his first seeds and tasked him with experiments on tea plants at the Loolecondera estate. Taylor set up the first basic tea "factory" which resulted in a delicious tea. The factory soon became well-known and in 1867, James Taylor was the first to grow tea commercially on 19 acres at Loolecondra,. Tea manufacturing then was a far cry from what it is today, primitive and basic, demanding more innovation, leading Taylor to invent a machine for rolling leaves in 1872. He trained several assistants, and this led to regular consignments of Ceylon tea in London and Melbourne. The undeniable success led to the opening of a tea auction in Colombo in 1883, and to the founding of a Colombo Tea Dealers’ Association in 1894. Today, the weekly Colombo Tea Auction is the largest Tea Auction in the world with about 4 to 5 million kilos of tea offered for sale by brokers specializing in the tea trade. Brisk bidding takes place and each lot of tea is knocked down to the highest bidder. On average 3 to 4 lots are sold every minute. The 1893 World Fair in Chicago was a turning point in the history of Ceylon tea, with no less than a million packets sold. This led to the Paris Exposition of 1900, and thereafter the "five o-clock tea" became a fashion statement. The planters’ association pepped up the promotional campaign further by organizing high exposure publicity events. In 1891, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Czar Alexander III, Grand-Duke Nicolas, the queen of Italy and Emperor Franz- Josef all received sixty coffers of tea accompanied by an illustrated album on Ceylon. This targeted promotion was effective and by the end of the 19th century, "tea" was no longer associated with China, but with Ceylon (now Sri lanka).
Amidst the incessant clatter and clanging of machinery, the overbearing heat, the strong odors evoked in the process of fermentation, the factory workers diligently control the conditions and monitor quality as the transformation takes place. Black tea undergoes five successive stages - the leaves are first softened by a withering process that reduces moisture content by half and enables them to be rolled, breaking while spread in thin layers on wide screens stacked eight inches apart for warm air to circulate for a day. The most modern factories now accomplish the task in tunnels or vats thereby reducing withering time to six hours. The rolling process breaks down cell walls and releases essential oils. The rolled leaves are placed on long mats to be sorted according to size and condition - whole or broken. Sorting is still a manual process in some tea gardens, enabling the leaves to be "graded" into various classes of black tea. The dried tea is sorted into different grades by passing it over a series of vibrating screens of different mesh sizes. The passage of teas through this system makes four grades of tea almost evenly sized particles. These are leaf, broken, fanning and dust in descending order of particle size. They are traded under a wide variety of traditional names, Leaf grades : (orthodox only): FOP (flowery orange pekoe), OP (orange pekoe) etc. Brokens : BOP (broken orange pekoe), FBOP, BP etc. Fannings : OF ( orange fannings), PF (pekoe fannings) etc. Dust : PD (pekoe dust), D (dust) .There are no internationally recognised standards defining these grades with respect to particle size distribution or any other characteristics and they may vary considerably from factory to factory within a single producing country. The fermentation is a crucial process that gives black tea its color and its characteristic flavor. Experts agree that the process remains something of a mystery. No one knows exactly what alchemy produces the flavors, for certain cellular reactions during fermentation have never been fully understood or even identified. Fermentation is known to expose leaves to a highly moist atmosphere (at least 90% humidity) after having been spread on broad cement, glass or aluminum slabs. The air temperature must be carefully monitored and controlled (between 72 degrees and 82 degrees F), because a slight rise in temperature will give the tea a burned taste, whereas a slight drop will halt fermentation. The leaves are then dried in an enormous machine complete with dryer and conveyor belt. This is the last stage of transformation, requiring much skill and expertise. If dried too little, the tea becomes moldy in time. Too much heating will make the tea will lose much of its flavor. This is why a cup of quality tea should be given due respect. Sri Lanka, with consistent tropical weather conditions allows tea to be grown as a perennial crop. Sri Lanka’s climate is ideally suited to producing a variety of teas of high quality, appealing flavors and aromas. Dr. P.D. Collier, Chairman of the European Tea Technical Committee, once informed an international forum held in Sri Lanka that Ceylon tea was one of the cleanest teas produced, with an insignificant level of pesticide residue. Sri Lanka’s tea is grouped into three depending upon the altitude of plantations from sea level. Low grown teas which make up 48.8% of production, grow from sea level up to 600 metres. Mid grown teas make up 20.8% of total production and grow from 600 to 1200 metres above sea level. High grown teas, which grow in the central highlands above 1200 metres, make up 30.4% of total production. Within these broad categories, the individual plantations with their particular soil, weather patterns and processing, produce teas with individual character and taste.
On the fringe of Uva and leading on to Nuwara Eliya is the Uda Pussallawa mountain range. The dry cold conditions of the area make way for a range of rosy teas. Teas from plantations near Nuwara Eliya are lighter in cup and more fragrant. As the plantations descend towards Kandy, a range of lighter rosier liquors of exquisite taste are found, while teas from the lower slopes are stronger in keeping with warmer conditions. The soils in the southern part of the country give blackness to the leaves as well as strength and character. The unique feature of these teas grown from sea level to around 2,000 feet is their appearance and special taste. The stylish range of whole leaf teas are enhanced by attractive golden and silver tips produced from a range of tea bushes that thrive in the fertile soils and warm conditions. Matara is another region well known for its tea production. Here the platations are situated at almost sea level. The cool springs of the nearby hills and the Nilwala river have brought fertility to these plantations. As much as Ceylon tea is valued for quality and taste, it is not the only reason that tea is becoming popular in unrelenting coffee-drinking countries like the US. There is an overwhelming surge of recent scientific research that confirms ancient proclamations that tea is the most potent health beverage of all times. Leading medical journals and experts declare tea as a potential heart tonic, cancer blocker, fat buster, immune stimulant, arthritis soother, virus fighter and cholesterol detoxifier. The chemicals in tea have been shown to protect the body against stomach, breast, colon, and skin cancers, to lower blood pressure, to lower serum cholesterol, and triglycerides, and normalize blood sugar. A Rutgers University study found that a component of black tea called TF-2 causes colorectal cancer cells to "commit suicide", reduced tumor growth in colorectal cancer. A Japanese study has found that gargling with black tea boosted immunity to influenza. There is a whole world of reasons why people should drink tea. Says Bruce Richardson, noted US tea authority with five books on tea to his credit and owner of Elmwood Inns, a popular tea room in Kentucky, the heartland of bourbon wines, " I don’t base my market on health. I market tea based on quality and the whole concept of leading a quieter, more relaxed life." Having visited Sri Lanka recently to participate in the Tea Convention in Colombo, Richardson is fascinated by Sri Lanka’s tea industry. "The craftsmanship going into the making of Ceylon tea, the pride the manufacturers take in their product, made me feel Ceylon Tea is a work of art," he said.
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