We said a lot about the farmers who pick the soft and sweet little tea leaves, but where does the tea go from there? Tea is one of those wonderful crops which requires very little production. No chemicals need be added, no expensive scientific jargon is used. It is plain and simple, right up till the time we put it in our cups.
Village-based factories can easily accomplish all that is needed to prepare tea. In one small village, four factories can take care of the tons of tea leaves that come flowing through each year. These factories are equipped with a few simple machines and a staff of four to ten people. During the day the tea leaves are picked, and to ensure freshness, the factories open when the farmers begin to return from the fields with the leaves. Between sunset and midnight, the day's production needs can be met.
The first step is to shovel a steady, but light flow of leaves on to a conveyor belt which will carry them over a large, wood-burning oven. Then, they will be placed into my personal favorite machine—I have no real idea what it is called—which rolls the leaves into long cylinders (tea usually comes in either a long, skinny shape or a ball shape). It then goes through an air drying machine, and is placed in a small basin or plate made to facilitate air flow. That is it. Well, in the wealth of my experience, that is it.
At the end of the night's work, fifty pound bags will be filled with the finished tea. Then, everybody fills their cups with steaming water and enjoys a cup of tea while they revel in the fruits of their labor...or something like that.
