This is a Tea Post

We had the awesome experience of seeing how tea is grown, picked, processed and shipped. I love tea! I became a tea lover when I lived in Bangladesh! I learned to drink my tea hot and sweet with milk. After reading about how beneficial green tea is for you, I have began drinking lots of green tea. Every morning I start my day with a cup of green tea! It was really neat to see how tea is processed. We visited Happy Valley Tea Factory while we were visiting Darjeeling. The kids thought it was boring but Hubby and I found it interesting. This one particular tea plantation sells their tea exclusively to Harrod's in England. She told us we would not be able to find Happy Valley tea for sale in town and we never did see it. She did let us buy some while we were there for a nice pretty little rupee! Hubby wasn't too happy that I paid that pretty rupee for this tea, but hey...it was fresh picked and just processed that week. :)

Here are the ladies picking the tea. I learned that tea has three flushes...this is the second flush. Flush means picking. March to May is the first flush, June to August is the second flush, and Sept to Nov is the third flush. The part of the plant they pick has two leaves and a bud.
The man explained that the young women have a certain quota of tea they have to pick. Then he proceeded to say that the old women, 40 and older, don't have a quota. I shocked me that I am getting close to being old here!

You can see how foggy it is here...back past the ladies are huge deep mountains and valleys.

This was our little tour guide. He is picking a leaf for us.

The machines below blow 8 hours of cool air on the fresh pick tea and then 8 hours of hot air onto the tea. This takes all the moisture out of the tea.





The ladies below are pouring the tea into large bags.


These ladies hand sort the tea after it has been sorted by a machine to make sure there aren't sticks and weeks in it.




Here we are in this ladies home drinking tea with three young Canadian men who where on their way through trekking.


Here are all the different teas that are made from these plants.


The last two pictures are on way to the airport at the bottom of the mountain. Our driver was a really good tour guide. He pulled over and insisted that Hubby take pictures.