There are many ideas as to how plucking should be carried out, and how many leaves should be taken off, but the most general system is to pluck two leaves and a bud, not separately but together.
PICKERS HAVING THEIR TEA LEAVES WEIGHED.
Bourne & Shepherd, Photo, India
Some planters, who prefer quantity to quality, pluck the half or whole of the third leaf as well.
It must be thoroughly understood that all the leaves are not "ripped" off the bushes, but only the young shoots. It is a very delicate operation, requiring great care and skill, and is usually carried out under the eye of the assistant manager.
It is usual to get round a plantation once in six to eight days, and woe be to him who cannot cope with the leaf, or lets it run away from him, as it will show the result both in the dry leaf and liquor.
The leaf, when plucked, is brought into the factory, weighed, and put through the following process of manufacture. The first process is called withering. The leaf is thinly spread on wire meshing, stretched from end to end of the loft or withering-house, the object being to allow a certain percentage of moisture to evaporate, and to get the leaf into a pliable condition for rolling, so that it will not break during this process. Properly withered leaf should be as flexible as a soft kid glove.
Then comes the rolling, the object of which is to break the cells of the leaf one into the other, so as to free the juice and to give a "twist" or "roll" to the leaf. Care has to be taken that too much juice is not expressed, which would be detrimental to the liquor when in the household pot.
The old and dirty method of rolling by hand, which is still carried out by our Chinese friends, is quite extinct in India and Ceylon, where rolling machines or tables are used.
The religion of the natives of India compels them to be cleaner in their habits than the Chinese, so it would not matter how much they handled the leaf.