Some important facts on Tea

India is the largest tea-growing country in the world. There are three main varieties of tea:

(i) Black Tea: This is prepared by drying the leaves in the sun and then rolling and fermenting them.

(ii) Green Tea:

There is no fermentation and is used in China and Japan.

(iii) Oolong Tea:

It is greenish-brown in colour and the leaves are partially fermented.

(a) Method:

Seeds are sown either by the method of Clonal planting or by sowing them in nursery beds and then in the plantations.

(i) Clonal Planting is the method when cuttings of good high yielding mother plants are used rather than seeds.

(ii) Shelter belts are planted to protect the tea bushes from the hot sun and strong winds.

(iii) Pruning is done to encourage the growth of new leaves.

(iv) After plucking, the tea goes through five main operations in its preparation- Rolling, Fermentation, Drying and Sorting.

(v) A number of teas are blended together to get the right flavour. They are then packed in chests and exported through Kochi or Kolkata.

(b) Major tea producing areas are:

North-East India:

(i) Assam: The Brahmaputra and Surma valley on the bordering hill slopes.

(ii) West Bengal: Hill areas of Darjeeling, Cooch Bihar and Jalpaiguri.

(iii) Bihar: Areas of Purnea, in Jharkhand, Hazaribagh and Ranchi districts.

(iv) Uttaranchal: Almora and Garwal districts.

(v) Himachal Pradesh: Kangra Valley.

South India:

(i) Karnataka: Western Ghats.

(ii) Tamil Nadu: Annamalai.

(iii) Kerala: Western Ghats