The Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea

by Edward Money

As properly withered leaf is an important point in making good Tea, it is well worth while to keep one or two men, according to the quantity of leaf, for that work alone. They soon learn the best way to do it, and if made answerable the leaf is properly ready for the rollers, the object is generally attained. In this and every thing else in Tea manufacture, give different men different departments, and make them answerable. Much trouble to the manager, who should supervise all, and much loss to the proprietor from bad Tea, will then be avoided.

Rolling.—This is a simple operation enough when the men have got the knack of it. Some planters advocate a circular motion of the hands when rolling, under the impression it gives the leaf a better twist. Some like rolling it forward, but bringing it back without letting it turn during the backward motion. I believe in neither way, for it appears to me to be rolled no better, or no worse, by these plans than by the ordinary and quicker mode of simply rolling it any way. The forward and backward motion is the simplest and quickest, and the way all rollers adopt, who are given a certain quantity of leaf (say 30 lbs. a fair amount) to roll for their day’s work. In this ordinary rolling the ball in the hand, ’tis true, does not turn much in the backward motion, for ’tis more or less pulled back, but whether it turns or not does not, I believe, signify the least.

Rolling in hot pans was formerly extensively practised. It is not much done now. I have tried the plan, but found no advantage in it.

Rolling on coarse mats, placed on the floor, might be seen also. When I visited the Assam Company’s gardens near Nazerah, in Assam, I saw it done there. It is a great mistake. The coarse bamboo mat breaks the leaf sadly, and much of the sap or juice from the leaf, which adds much to the strength of the Tea, runs through the coarse mat, and is lost.

One and the principal reason why Indian Tea is stronger than Chinese is that in India the sap or juice is generally retained, while in China it is, strange to say, purposely wasted!

A strong immovable smooth table, with the planks of which it is formed well joined together, so that no apertures exist for the juice of the leaf to run through, is the best thing to roll on. If covered with a fine seetul pattie mat, nailed down over the edges of the table, a still greater security is given against the loss of any sap, and I believe the slightly rough surface of the mat enables the leaf to roll better. An edging of wood one inch above the surface of the table should be screwed on to the edges over the mat, if there is one, to prevent leaf falling off.

The leaf is rolled by a line of men on each side of such a table (4½ feet is a good width for it) passing up from man to man, from the bottom of the table to the top. The passage of each handful of roll from man to man is regulated by the man at the end, who, when the roll in his hand is ready (that is, rolled enough), forms it into a tight compressed ball (a truncated shape is the most convenient) and puts it away on an adjacent stand. When he does this, the roll each man has passes up one step.

The roll is ready to make up into a ball, when it is in a soft mashy state, and when in the act of rolling it gives out juice freely. None of this juice must be lost, it must be mopped up into the roll, again and again in its passage up the table, and finally into the ball, when made up.

There will be some coarse leaves in the roll which cannot be twisted. These, if left, would give much red leaf in the Tea. They should be picked out by, say, the third or fourth man from the head of the table, for it is only when the leaf has been partly rolled that they show. The man who picks out the coarse leaf should not roll at all. He should spread the roll, and pick out as much as he can, between the time of receiving and passing it on. In no case allow roll to accumulate by him, for if so kept it hardens and dries, and gives extra work to the last rollers to bring it into the mashy state again. Besides which I rather think, any such lengthened stoppage in the rolling helps to destroy Pekoe ends, and is certainly injurious to the perfect after-fermentation, inasmuch as it (the fermentation) partly takes place then.