It is common for tea to be grown alongside other crops. This can be seen in various countries, where tea bushes are cultivated among peanuts, coffee plants and tall palm trees. Here, in the Taiwanese hills, young camellias have just been planted between rows of ginger. It will be a while before their leaves can be harvested. This combination requires careful management, as ginger is vulnerable to attack by various pests. These must be controlled to avoid losing the crop, preferably using products that comply with organic standards. As a precaution, it is therefore essential to get the tea plants analysed by a laboratory.

The appearance of the man in the pink hat is deceptive. Beneath his innocent-looking pastel camouflage are fearsome fingers of steel. With razor blades clipped to each forefinger, he moves swiftly between the rows of tea plants, plucking the bud and the next two leaves at lightning speed.

In over thirty years of travelling through tea producing countries, I’ve come across some amazing gadgets, but I’ve never seen digits extended by steel blades before. Tea is still harvested by hand in many countries around the world, which is a good thing. Some pickers are finding ingenious ways to speed up the process and reap the rewards.

In Taiwan, many tea pickers come from Vietnam. They have their own distinctive way of layering colourful clothing and sometimes combine this with bright protective covers on their fingertips to prevent their skin from turning black after a day of picking leaves.