Tea processing in Munnar

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Ginger

I’m sure you’ve been wondering how tea gets from those lush green mountainsides into your teabag in your steaming and delicious cup of tea. Well, wonder no more. You have questions, I have answers. I even have answers to questions you didn’t know you had.

First, the tea is picked. At a distance, you might hardly even notice the pickers in the, er, fields? of tea.

The pickers are literally trimming the “tiny little tea leaves” from the growing edges of the plants, and they make their circuit of the plantation every ten days or so. Which completely explains why the landscape has that magical and completely groomed look.

The implement used for this task is a large set of shears with a collection box attached.

After the tea leaves are clipped and collected, they are brought to the factory.

I don’t really understand the tea factory. Yes, I was there. Yes, I took pictures. Yes, I listened to the explanations. But I was so fascinated by the antequated beauty of the machinery and the timelessness of the process that I couldn’t take in the words. So here’s what I know, and if words fail me from time to time, I hope you will enjoy the pictures of what I saw.

Freshly picked tea leaves are brought first to a room where they are spread out in large troughs to wither, which is one of perhaps many stages of different kinds of drying.

After the leaves are withered enough, they are rolled, which causes them to lose their green color and become a kind of coppery red. I think this solid old “Britannia” machine is for rolling.

Then the tea leaves are subjected to a process of “fermentation,” the term used for oxidation. The tea must be kept cool for this process. It is therefore spread out on a “bacteria free” cement floor. Fermentation takes maybe two to three hours. At the end of this time the tea begins to smell like tea. (Which is delicious!)

The tea is then further dried, removing its remaining moisture to stop the fermentation process. The speed of the drying machine is the critical component that determines the production rate of the factory.

After drying, the tea is sifted through a machine with different size meshes that extract any remaining fibers and grade the tea according to size (the smallest leaves are the best).

All of the output of this factory is earmarked for Saudi Arabia. Except, that is, for the small amount they sell to tourists right at the factory either in bulk or in a refreshing cup of tea.

Inle Lake – Silk and Lotus Weaving

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Ginger

Inle Lake has become famous for its silk weaving industry. They also weave cotton and an amazingly fine thread extracted from the stalks of lotus blossoms. We visited the Ko Than Hlaing factory and show room.

Silk shuttles glow against an open window.

We look out the window at the building across the street–well, okay, across the narrow canal; it turns out to be another factory, where people are also weaving silk.

In this factory, we watch as woman dyes the skeins of silk, her arms permanently stained from her work. A new batch of dye bubbles in a pot nearby. Traditionally, the dyes were all made from natural, local ingredients, but these result in a color that is muted and subtle. We tourists, it turns out, tend to like bright colors; and the factory owner is eager to please. And so now, some of the dyes are not all natural.

In the factory, women operate the looms.

This last young woman is weaving silk that has been tie-dyed to produce the traditional pattern that Inle Lake is known for. Here is a diagram of, well, I think it’s a diagram of how to tie the threads so that they will weave up into the right pattern. But I’m not sure.

This man is extracting thread from a lotus stem. The thread is fine, and one stem doesn’t yield very much. Shawls and garments made of lotus are breathtakingly expensive. And they feel wonderful. I regret not buying one.

Sitting on the floor, older men and women thread the dyed silk onto shuttles for weaving.

Mandalay – the silk weaving factory

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Ginger

Mandalay has been famous as a center of silk production for centuries, long clothing the kings of the various kingdoms of Myanmar. The complex tapestries they still weave there are awesome. And they still do it in the old way.

Here is the pattern one of them is following.

This lovely young woman is a master craftsman. The better they are, the more spindles of color they can take on in their pattern. Take a look at the fabric she’s weaving.

The patterns being woven are so intricate that even the job of connecting the heddles (the wires that pull up the warp threads each time a shuttle of silk is passed through to form the weft) to the shafts is a complicated affair. Here, a man is “programming” the heddles and shafts of a loom. Below, a good view of the loom itself and of the machine that winds the shuttles used for the weaving.

Bagan – the soybean paste factory

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Ginger

Our first factory! This family-run business makes (we were assured) the very best soybean paste in all of Myanmar.

First, we must have access to the needed raw ingredients. In this case, primarily soybeans and water.

And tools! Of course there must be tools.

The men pour the soybeans into a chute that empties into a vat, where they add water (and maybe other stuff?), boil it over a hot fire, and stir until the mix is thickened. The mix is then poured into the next vat and the next; more water is added; and eventually a thick paste is obtained. I am assured that this is truly delicious stuff.