Darjeeling tea has a highly customised system of manufacture, catering to the needs and tastes of particular countries or individuals. In the UK, for example, a stronger tea is preferred as opposed to Japan where a lighter tea is more popular.
A fine Darjeeling begins its journey at the gardens where it is picked. The soil, elevation, rain, drainage, and overall weather affect the growth and quality of the tea. The expert pickers begin work at 7 a.m. when the leaves are still covered in dew and the pick until 4 p.m. The pickers carefully choose only the fine top "two leaves and a bud." They bring their bounty to the factory to be weighed two or three times a day because the leaf has to start the processing close to when it is picked, as it will otherwise begin changing chemically in the basket.
The Orthodox style of manufacture used in Darjeeling requires much time and care. After weighing, the leaves are spread out on troughs with the utmost of care, because if the leaves break, quality automatically begins to degrade, and this may damage the tea so much that it cannot be rolled. It is on these troughs that the process of withering, or removal of moisture, is carried out. Many say that the quality of a Darjeeling's taste is "in the wither" and the tea garden managers pay particular attention to this stage of manufacture. Withering of the leaves can take anywhere between 2 hours to 20 hours depending on the humidity, climate, and time of year. Cool air fans are used to remove up to75% of the moisture from the leaves. If, however, the leaves are wet from moisture or rain, this cool air is replaced with hot air. In the Unorthodox manufacture only 30% of moisture needs to be removed, and withering can be completed in 2 or 3 hours, as hot air is always used. This method is never used for Darjeeling tea.
The tea is then rolled on a rolling machine which twists the leaf. The main purpose of this step is to prepare the leaf for fermenting by rupturing the cell membranes so that oxygen begins to act with its polyphenols, a main element of tea, also called catechins. Care is taken not to provide too much heat from the friction of the rollers because this can damage the essential oils, which are developed during this time. Some very delicate teas are rolled by hand.
Tea is then brought to the "fermentation room," where the tea is oxidized over a period of two to four hours. The rolling and oxidation processes require the tea to be exposed to cool, fresh air. This part of the factory is thus usually left open to the mountain air.
The leaf is then taken for "firing," or, drying, to stop further fermentation by deactivating the enzymes, and to remove almost all of the remaining moisture in the leaf, hopefully down to about 2% moisture content. The tea dryer exposes the leaves to hot dry air at regulated, varying temperatures for 20 or 30 minutes. Tea is then graded by size through vibrating wire mesh sifters. Very delicate teas are hand sifted with flat baskets with various sized openings. The broken tea leaves and tea dust are of poor quality and are used mainly in tea bags, while the whole leaves are of the highest quality.
Regular observation and control of temperature, humidity, duration and rate of moisture loss are all vital, and human observation through all of the senses is the only way to coax the best flavour and texture out of the leaves. Experienced tea managers assess moisture content merely by sight and touch. Smell and look of the leaves in the fermentation room set the timing for drying and so on. Of course, the final stage of crafting the tea is to taste it, and Darjeeling planters have a finely tuned sense of taste and a language to describe it that is all their own.
Authors Bio: Rickey is working in The Tea Trove and also an avid blogger. He writes regularly on several blogs. Like in this article he writes about the preparation of Darjeeling Tea
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