Making Tea - The Boh Tea production process
Cameron Highlands Tourism Malaysia Travel Destination
Ever wondered how tea is made? Making tea by Boh or any other tea production manufacturers has not changed much. It involved a series of steps and procedure before ending up in your tea pot and pouring yourself a cuppa for that warm soothing relaxing sip.
Before we start on the making tea process, here's a brief history of Boh Tea. It was first started in 1929 by John Archibald Russell who bought some land in the Cameron Highlands and made it into the first highland tea plantation. It was passed to his son, Tristan Russell and now the mantle is taken over by J.A. Russell's granddaughter, Ms Caroline Russell. Though Boh is already doing so well when Ms Caroline Russell took over, thus it was a greater challenge for her to make Boh Tea Plantation rise to ever greater heights.
Tea is not just something you pour hot water over it, wait awhile and then drink it, or in the case of English teas, put some sugar and milk and then savour it. To the finest extend it can even be regarded as drinking tea is like drinking wine, though on a less costly affair (considering the Malaysian Government do increase alcohol tax every year thus making wine and other liquor more expensive every year).
And one of the most expensive teas around is the Pu Erh tea grown in China. Most tea would have an expiry date, but not Pu Erh. The longer you keep it and age it the better the taste. And it is also regarded as healthy too. My long time schoolmate friend, who is very passionate about tea, is working for a Taiwanese company is importing Pu Erh. He even has some interesting recipe for making tea.
Though tea is derived from the same basic plant called camellia sinensis; the character of tea is influenced by where it is grown, the soil condition, and finally the processing method. That's why Chinese tea has its own distinctive taste and goes very well on its own while English teas like Boh, Dilmah, Twinnings and Ahmad's would require some sugar and milk to enhance its flavour.
The soil in Cameron Highlands is slightly acidic, and with the low cool temperature, it was an ideal place to grow tea. However the process of making tea here are more suited for making English tea. I did come across some Boh Garden Teas and it was suppose to drink it like Chinese tea, without sugar and milk, but it tasted more like an English tea pretending to masquerade as Chinese tea. Sometimes the sheer amount of tea variety does confuse me, and you have the Chinese name versions and the English name versions, and the way each tea leaf is roasted and process that will give rise to each variety, so much that even the info in the Wikepedia may not be accurate.
Anyway for tea production by Boh, here is what they usually do typically.
Tender tea leaves are picked in morning and these are immediately transported to the tea factories for further processing. Tea leaves are plucked only after two years from planting. Once the tea plant is mature, leaves are plucked every three weeks.
Plucked leaves are checked for quality and weighed, and then later transferred the factory where it goes through five main processing stages. Each stage will bring out the distinctive fragrance and aroma out from the tea leaf.
Withering
The green leaf is withered to reduce moisture and to allow natural chemical reactions to take place. This process takes between 12 - 20 hours and is usually done overnight.
Rolling
The withered leaf is rolled to crush the leaf cells and process it into smaller particles. Boh uses three types of machines for rolling: rotovanes, rollers and CTC (Cut, Tear, Curl) machines.
Fermentation
Fermentation or oxidation is a natural chemical process and takes place as the rolled leaf cells are exposed to oxygen.
This process is essential for the leaf to develop the right flavour, colour and aroma. Thus timing and temperature have to be carefully controlled.
The leaf emerges coppery in colour.
Drying
Drying stops the fermentation process and reduces the moisture in the leaf to 3%. This is done by passing hot air heated to almost 120°C through the leaf and is completed in 10 minutes.
The tea leaf then transform into the familiar crisp, black, curled form and is known as "made tea".
Sorting
The "made tea" is put through a series of vibrating sieves to sort it according to size.
Tea Tasting
Tea tasting is an intrinsic and vital part of the tea making process. Some of the tea taster examines for are colour, brightness and aroma. Tea tasting is a unique are and requires years of training and experience very much like a wine taster.
From an episode in the Discovery Channel, I learned that each batch of tea that was harvested and process do not taste the same. And thus it requires the tea taster to blend the various batches to create a consistent taste.
Thus if you bought one box last year and enjoyed your say Earl Grey, and you decided to go for another box this year, you would still get a similar tasting Earl Grey with its tangy taste and distinctive spicy aroma. Thanks to the tea taster who has blended it and making an almost indiscernible difference to our untrained taste bud.
Storage
The tea is then stored in dry conditions to mature and mellow further before packing. The tea has to be carefully stored so as not to be exposed to moisture in the air, which can adversely affect its quality.
So now you know how teas are made, so whenever you pour yourself a cuppa whether it is English black tea or the Chinese Oolong tea, you have some fair idea of how the making tea process went, well, at least the English version. The Chinese tea process is somewhat different but would probably be along similar line in some of the tea processing procedure. Maybe the tea connoisseurs amongst you readers can enlighten my lack of Chinese harvesting and production process, huh?
Cheers and have a cup of tea!
Jan.
Posted on 4-April-2009
- Cameron Highlands Tea Plantation
- Boh Tea Center Sg Palas Cameron Highlands
- Bharat Tea Plantation and Tea Shop in Cameron Highlands
- Tea plantation photos slideshow gallery
- Benefits of drinking black, white and green teas
- Grow your own tea plant
- Making tea. Boh production process
