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Tea
By Priya Wickramasinghe and Carol Selva Rajah
Published 2005
The two main tea-producing areas in India are Assam (leftpage) and the Nilgiris (right page). In Assam, the tea gardens are situated along a flat valley and the bushes are interspersed with shade trees. In the Nilgiris, they are on the rolling foothills. However, both areas have a high rainfall, a prerequisite for growing tea. Tea is picked by hand, with only the bud and top leaves being plucked. One section of the garden is worked on at a time to make sure that the tea bushes are kept to the same height. A stick is laid out along the bush and the leaves above it are picked. The tea is collected three times a day. The leaves are tipped out ot their baskets, briefly sorted through to get rid of any twigs, then weighed at the collection points throughout the garden. The leaves are then delivered to the factory to be made into tea.