Rarely have I seen such spectacular plantations as those around the city of Bandung on the island of Java. The landscapes are breathtakingly beautiful with the mountains, the mist and the magnificent trees with their delicate foliage. Sunlight floods the perfectly aligned rows of tea bushes that follow the contours of the hills as far as the eye can see.
For once, the tea route crosses the (Indian) ocean. This is an opportunity to see how volcanic – and therefore acidic – the soil on the island of Java is. This is important for the tea plant, which thrives in this type of soil, as well as the humidity and heat.
If you take a Camelia sinensis leaf and pour hot water over it, you’l get nothing from it. The leaf needs to be roughened up first in order to release its aromas and flavours when it comes into contact with water. Immediately after picking, the producer will process the leaves, which removes much of their moisture and eventually breaks down their structure without breaking the leaves themselves, so that the juices contained within their many cells can be extracted. This is one of the machines that’s used here in West Java (Indonesia). A cloth sack is packed with tea leaves then squeezed hard between two metal discs. This tool is widely used in Taiwan for making Oolongs, and is also used to make green teas that are rolled into balls.
In the Azores, attempts are being made to produce delicious teas from hand-picked leaves and particularly delicate pluckings. Experiments are taking place on small plots nestled in the hills on the island of Sao Miguel. At the agricultural research institute, Clara takes her precious harvests through all the stages of tea production. She achieves remarkable results using a variety of cultivars. Although the quantity of tea produced is small at the moment, I’m looking forward to helping to spread the word about the incredible teas made by Clara and the island’s future farmers.
