Blog – Page 45 – Discovering Tea

A very broken tea

9 October 2015

In some regions of Sri Lanka, they produce a tea that is so fine, so broken, so black, it is undrinkable. Or else you have to add milk and sugar, or dilute it with water.

To produce a high-quality tea, you must start by harvesting the leaves carefully; in other words, picking off the end shoot, the bud and the next two leaves. If you take off more leaves, the quality will suffer. So it is important to train the people doing the harvesting and to value their work.

Escaping the city

25 September 2015

I don’t like cars. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to get out of town by train, escaping the crowds, and, through the open windows, feeling the factories, the dust and the noise becoming more distant. Gradually, nature takes over, like here, heading towards Kandy (Sri Lanka) and the tea plantations in the centre of the island.

Tasting many teas

18 September 2015

It is no more difficult to taste thirty or forty teas than to taste two or three. On the contrary: you move quickly from one to the next, you spit each one out, you concentrate so you can compare them, and very quickly you know which one you prefer.

Tea auctions in Sri Lanka

11 September 2015

When I set off to visit Sri Lankan plantations, I stop off first in Colombo to taste the teas being sold at auction in the following days. It gives me a good idea of the quality being produced by the different gardens. Each of these boxes contains a few tea leaves and is marked with the lot number.

As strong as a Turk

4 September 2015

In most regions of the world, tea leaves are transported by tractor after being harvested. In Turkey, you see men carrying absolutely enormous bags. They tumble them down the slopes, over the tea plants, until they reach the road.

Tasting and contemplating

28 August 2015

The advantage of photographing a window is that you can layer two images: here, the tasting set being prepared, and the landscape reflected in the glass. It’s fun to combine and merge the two views. The meaning of the tasting becomes clearer: we drink the tea, which comes from nature, surrounded by the land from which it originated.

Delicious, fairly traded teas

21 August 2015

My purpose in life? To offer you not only delicious teas, but fairly traded teas too. Teas that allow the people who have harvested them to lead happy lives, work for themselves if possible, be able to hold their heads up high and look after themselves, and educate their children.

Transporting freshly harvested tea: a crucial stage

14 August 2015

There must be as little delay as possible from the time the tea is harvested to the moment it reaches the building for processing. This is because the fresh leaves, wrapped in bags for transporting, immediately start to ferment with the heat and humidity.

Tea plants shaded by trees

7 August 2015

In some countries, tea plants require cover. It depends on the climate. Strong sunshine dries out the ground, whereas tea plants love humidity. In addition, tea plants don’t like wind. The trees used differ from country to country but they tend to belong to the Leguminosae family. Pictured here is a fine Acacia abyssinica specimen.