Art of making a fine cup of tea

Nishantha ABEYSINGHE

TEA: How many of us often wonder why the tea in our cups, which is supposed to cheer us up, often does the opposite.

How often have we found ourselves complaining about the poor quality of the tea we purchase from the market, compared to that rear good cup we stumble across, often accidentally once in a full moon.

Yes. The taste of a cup of tea differs from one to the other. Even the tea leaves plucked during the day time and processed at night in the upcountry districts such as Nuwara Eliya, Dimbulla and Uva regions where the teas produced are world famous for their quality and flavour do not have the same quality of aroma and taste.

Their quality can be categorized as poor, ordinary and excellent. This is where the difference lies between a good cup and a poor cup which most of the time leads to complaints of poor taste by ordinary consumers.

Now let us try to understand the reasons for this different standard of teas produced from basically a standard manufacturing process. The basic process established for black tea by the Tea Research Institute and the industry is the same for each and every factory.

But to produce a good tea you have to do much more than follow the basic guidelines. Without going into details of tea manufacture and the science behind it which might confuse you, I will take a simple example - the locally famous parippu curry we often eat daily at home, in hotels or in canteens etc.

I am sure you have tasted various types of parippu dishes of which some would have been of excellent taste and others would not have been the same.

Here, the recipe for making parippu looks simple but how many of us realize the art involved in preparing the ideal dish, capturing its delicate flavour spiced up to enhance its flavour and cooked at optimum temperature etc.

If everything was perfect whoever who ate that dish will remember the dish for a long time. The art involved in tea making is very much similar. The taste of tea in the cup is a blend of many things. The natural surroundings, the human touch, climatic conditions.

To capture the best flavours a lot of human judgment is involved beginning from the quality of green leaves and the withering process (reducing moisture) of leaves are important in producing a good cup of tea.

Various factors influence these two vital areas such as the dry/ cool climate, seasonal winds, icy cold nights which if properly handled enhances the tea characters.

Following the withering the tea leaves are rolled to break into small particles, there again at optimum pressure and temperatures.

Thereafter the broken leaves are fermented to enhance and develop in colour and strength and also to develop its unique flavours. The period of fermentation is again judged and adjusted to capture the ideal colour and the best characters in tea.

The final step is to dry the fermented tea in heated ovens which are called tea driers. This operation if incorrectly done with too high/low temperature or if the tea drier is mechanically in poor condition the produced tea could be really bad which will taste of a high fired/raw, smokey taste.

Again the human judgment in timing etc becomes very crucial in the drying operation. This is followed by the final grading of teas which most of us are familiar as BOP Fanings, dust, etc depending on its particle sizes.

Like wine making, tea making is an art. The quality of teas produced in each factory will vary depending on how efficiently the effort has been made contributing to its characters and taste.

The birth of a fine tea is the result of a perfect blend of people and Mother Nature working together in harmony.