In-TEA-resting
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Glenloch Tea Factory. See my short review of this place on Trip Advisor. |
In-TEA-resting:
Glenloch – Tea Farm/Estate & Factory
Address: Nuwara Eliya Katukithula, Sri Lanka
Phone Number: 094 052 225 9646
www.glentea.com
As I have mentioned on my SL Day 1 blog, this “in-TEA-resting” visit is worth a separate blog. So here it goes!
Among the five (5) sites we visited for our first day (14 Sept 2016) tour is Glenloch Tea Factory. I was happy to learn about something about TEA. I love drinking tea and it helps to actually understand and know about how it is being processed and prepared.
It took us around 1 hour plus to reach this site (from Kandy’s Temple of the Tooth) – – – going up to the hills, the way is like that of Baguio/Osmena Peak in Cebu. You will see a sea of tea plants from different factories or they call it tea estate and a line up of pine trees that make the atmosphere really cold. When we arrived our driver – Amila asked someone to tour us around and there we met a young Tamil lady named Susini. Friendly and informative, she toured us around the factory – explained the process, answered our clarifications and allows us to take videos and photos. (uploading a short clip soon.) We noticed that almost all workers are female, so to our curiosity we asked Susini, at first she gestured a showing off her arms that connotes to a “strong woman” and when we laughed, she explains further that it is because of of the soft touch a woman has when it comes to picking/plucking the tea leaves and doing all other processes . . . and so all we said was – – “ahhhhhh ~~~ okay”.
The process of tea making are : Plucking (picking the right leaves), Withering (drying), Rolling & Crushing (makes it release the enzymes that promotes oxidation), Fermenting (applicable for black teas), Drying/Firing (further drying…), Sorting (separating leaves according to its grades such as BOP, BOPF,Orange Pekoe, Pekoe etc.) and finally Packing – part of the sorting process whether to make it as lose tea or into the tea bags.
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Over-all for me this tour is a must-visit when you happen to be in Ceylon.
A recommended one! At the end of the tour, Susina brought us to their overlooking cafe where they served us a free cup of tea! Indeed as Kokobear +ellejulie0116 quoted on his Facebook “Tea is great at the source!”
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pakulele
wow! i am so glad to meet a tea lover like me! :O amazing! i would love to go to sri lanka too!
Anj Yap
I guess I cannot be a tea maker someday because it takes a lot of patience and hard work in making the perfect tea! haha
Anumita
I am planning an SL trip next year. This is a nice little article I am pinning
Akyn
Wow!. I didn’t knew that it needs certain type of gentleness in picking leaf for tea making. Nice that you’ve detailed the process of producing tea. ☺
Sunshine
Oh this is so cool!
As such Sri Lanka is on my bucket list so would visit this place too!
Momma To Go
I do not know much about tea… more of a coffee girl myself! But I always love vising places like this to see how things are made and different products from different regions. Sri Lanka seems so exotic to me, literally half way around the world from here!
delhifundos
Must read for tea lovers.
GhoomophiroSisters
Such a beautiful and useful post for tea addicts like me.. Have bookmarked for our upcoming srilanka travel
JM Kayne
Thank you! Hope it helps and let me know how your Sri Lanka travel goes! :) @GhoomophiroSisters