I never imagined that visiting a tea garden for the first time would affect me in such a wonderful way. Honestly, I never thought these magnificent places — the Annamalai ranges in Tamil Nadu state neighboring the Mudumalai and Indira Gandhi Wild Life Sanctuaries — existed.
It took us almost three hours from Coimbatore town to reach the tea plantation. Most of the trip consisted of steep, narrow and curvy, but well-paved roads. After more than 3 hours of driving, we reached the summit of a beautiful mountain range. Once we reached this site, a magnificent sort of uneven plateau opened up a unique scenario of natural springs, wildlife background and manmade tea gardens co-existing naturally. Surrounded by water falls and enchanted mist, we finally reached the main house of this estate. The old house and parts of the estate still remain as a legacy of the Britain’s presence.
As we traveled by car throughout the tea field, we were told to be prepared to watch bisons, elephants and, even tigers, but we did not encounter them this time.
We stopped a few times to listen to the general manager of the farm present basic information about harvest practices. For instance, we tasted the external tender buds of the tea shrub where the best aromatic tea leaves come from. I chewed a tiny bud leaf, perceiving such an ample range of flavors ranging from fresh fruit up to caramel notes.
Then we stopped at the factory facility where the leaves collected undergo processes such as drying, fermentation, heating and size selection. This process is called CTC.
At the end of this journey we ended up at the tea testing room, I was able to bring some of my coffee cupping skills to this exercise, although the astringency is welcome in tea but not in coffee. I still could perceive the nuances described above when I chewed the bud leaf in the field. One additional element of this process was to add whole milk to the tea to neutralize some components of the beverage and bring out others.
This is the end of my India trip stories, I am glad to share this experience with our readers.
