Manufacturing Process:
- Estate workers pluck several million tea leaves by hand. This is the first step in the manufacturing process.
- Only the bud and the two youngest leaves are plucked, for it is only these leaves that have the flavor and aroma. In other parts of the world plucking is done by machines. These machines pluck the bud, the young leaf, a lot of coarse leaf and few twigs as well. Coarse leaf and twigs just add bulk and not flavor to the tea.
- The plucked tea leaf is then brought to the muster sheds where they are weighed in, and first quality inspection is made. The leaf is then moved to the factory where they are withered using large blowers.
- The next step in the manufacturing process involves, cutting the leaves. This brings out the juices and begins the fermentation process. Fermentation is the critical step. The humidity, temperature and fermentation time has to be well controlled or the flavor is lost.
- After fermentation is completed, the leaf is fired, to lock in the flavor, to dry it and to improve the keeping qualities. Absolutely no preservative or artificial flavoring is added in the manufacture of pure Ceylon tea.
- The final step is the separation of the product according the color and the particle size. Here stringent quality control is done and anything that does not measure up to the standards is rejected.