As we were paying our tab for dinner last Wednesday, Weezie thinks it a good idea to ask the jolly little waiter if he remembers her name. He then goes into a few guesses as to what it actually is, and when she corrects him he says "Ahhhh, Moojie!". He does all of this with a particularly sinister grin and then laughs to himself. After a few seconds he leans over and half-whispers to us "Moojie mean bad word in Nepalese... It mean this (as he gestures to the seat of his pants)." We realize that this joyful young man has just referred to Weezie as a particular part of his rear end (or the whole thing; we're still not sure), and before we know it he is strolling away giggling. I have no idea how I failed to mention this before now, but I simply could not let it stay in India with me. I know that Weezie goes by a myriad of nicknames, but from here on out the prominent one should be 'Moojie'. She thinks that it is funny by now and hopes that it will maybe replace 'Squishy'.
Now that the tale of Moojie has been explained, this trip to the Palampur Tea estate may bore you. Stay with me; it was actually pretty neat, and the pictures of our tour guide are comical. To begin we drove from Green Acre (our home base) to near where most of our schools are. We found out that one of the doctors who lectured us last week is actually the son of the owner of this particular estate, which spans roughly 100 acres (40 hectares). As we approached the estate we begin to recognize the smell of a freshly paved road, and soon are told that we have to get out and walk because the small gravel road to the estate is currently being 'metalled', or steam rolled. We all got out of the cars amidst 50 gallon barrels, from which plumes of tar smoke were rolling out. The walk was quite sticky, but when we cleared the smoke we found ourselves surrounded by embankments with millions of tea plants on either side. After another 5-10 minutes of walking down the path (still non-metalled at this point) we reached the main processing barn for tea and were greeted by a rotund and amiable man with a large white mustache. He smiled at us and said "Shall we walk?"
We began by cutting down a path to the bottom of a ravine, where he stopped and began his lecture on the art of growing tea. We were told that the weather here has been entirely too hot and dry to produce the type of lush new leaves that are required of the best tea. He explained that every one of the bushes on his plantation, if properly pruned and maintained, will yield suitable tea leaves for over 150 years. The current crop is a result of seeds that were sown during the British occupation and colonization of India in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Since then the plants have been hand-weeded and hand-pruned by the staff of 100, who live on the premises. Their daily wage is determined, very simply, by the quantity of tea which they pick and harvest. In the hot summer months before the monsoon they surely do not make much.
As we climbed the hill we began to see some of the quarters of the farmhands. Children were playing and mothers were washing the family's clothing. The living quarters were modest, by Indian standards, and consisted of a one room common area and an upstairs common bedroom. I cannot say for sure, but I am almost positive that there is no electricity, only a cold water pump for four households to share. Before anyone cries out in the name of human rights violations consider two things. First, there are millions upon millions of Indians who live in worse conditions than this and go to bed hungry nearly every night. Comparatively these people live a rather comfortable lifestyle. Second, if anyone is trying to change any part of Indian culture then more power to them. There are institutions and social structures here that long predate the discovery of the 'New World' in which we live. No one person (not even Mahatma Gandhi) can change such establishments, they can only attempt to bring light to injustices which result from such things. Usually any type of progressive idea falls upon deaf ears here.
Beside the meager houses there were orchards of small trees. We asked what these were and the old man replies "Kivis". Though they do not bear fruit yet, the estate cultivates kiwi for sale in the market of Palampur. Beyond tea and kiwi, there are also jacaranda, lemon, mango and lychee trees. As we began to circle the plantation we heard what sounded like a man practicing his drum cadences on a large tin box. When we asked what this was the old man replied "They are scaring away the parrots!" Apparently he employs two to three farmhands each day to sit on a ridge and beat on metal boxes so that parrots don't destroy his corp of lychee fruit. We all laughed when he snuck up behind one of the 'drummers' and scared him to death.
When we had made our rounds and arrived back at the processing barn we were invited inside to see how black tea is made. To begin, he asked us how many types of tea there were. After some brilliant answers of "Golden Tea", "Diamond Tea", and "White Tea" he laughed and explained that the only types of tea are the green and the black varieties. The two are simply processed in a number of different ways. We also learned that Lipton Green Tea is not actually green tea at all, just black tea with the name of "Green".
We walked up to the second floor where the tea is dehumidified. At the time of picking, tea leaves contain about 70% water, and after the first process is finished they contain about 5% water. After this the leaves are pushed down a large chute to the first floor, where they are sifted and broken down into smaller particles. There is a machine, which looks like a conveyor belt with different gauges of screen at each point, that sifts dry tea leaves into anything from pure powder to half-leaves. The finest powder and leaves are packaged for sale inside tea bags. The courser tea is packaged into different lots, all sold in either Delhi, Mumbai, or Calcutta to the highest bidder in an open market. The process described above is that for black tea (or chai masala).
For green tea the process is nearly the same; there is just one extra step in the process. With green tea the fresh leaves are roasted for about 5-10 minutes prior to the aforementioned drying process. This lessens the taste and bitterness of the tea, while bringing all of the natural antioxidants of the tea leaf out. Beyond this there is no difference between the two; they are even picked from the same plants. The old man then let us see some of the auction books which are sent to him on a bimonthly basis. Every plantation in India sends their tea to be bid upon (bids are based on a small sample of each plantation's tea) under various names. The man showed us what some samples might look like and then asked us if we had any questions. As we had just learned more information about tea than we knew existed, we declined any questions and thanked the nice man for the tour of the grounds. We wished each other well and went on our way, back across the fresh tar and lychee trees, back to the cars.
All in all this wasn't the most exciting day, but it might have been one of the most informational. A large majority of the tea consumed by the entire world is grown within 50 miles of this place. The Kangra Valley is world-renowned for growing and producing the finest tea leaves in the world, and the log books of auctions gave us an idea of just how much tea is sold on a bimonthly basis. It is amazing what the actual mark-up on tea bought in America ends up being. Needless to say we learned a lot and got another insight into the distinct culture that is present here. More to come from the weekend in Manali/Vashisht.
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