All the Tea in Malaysia - February 17

February 17th broke clear and sunny, a perfect day to tour around the highlands. After a quick breakfast, we set off for the highest point on the Malay peninsula, Gunung Irau. We drove through several towns and market areas selling local crafts and vegetables, then turned off onto a steep and extremely curvy one-lane road which climbed ever higher into the mountains. We drove by the Sungai Palas Boh Tea Estate, still going higher and the road getting more precipitous and windy. We finally reached the top and then climbed a steel viewing tower where we were able to gaze down on all Malaysia, or at least the mountainous part.
After satisfying ourselves with the wonderful view (photo), we headed back to tour the Sungai Palas Boh Tea Estate. Boh Tea is the most popular brand of tea in Malaysia, they claim, cultivated since 1929. We had it for lunch at their tea room , and it is quite delicious.
They harvest their tea every three weeks by trimming (plucking) all of the new growth from the top of the tea shrubs.(photo) It is then brought into their factory where it is "withered" for 12-20 hours, to reduce the moisture content and allow some natural chemical reactions to take place. It is then rolled to crush the leaf cells and process it into smaller particles. There are three types of machines used in this process, the CTC (Cut, tear, curl) machine, the rotovane and then simple rollers.
Next comes fermentation, or more properly oxidation, another natural process that exposes the rolled leaf cells to oxygen, in order for the leaf to develop the right flavour, colour and aroma. Timing and temperature are carefully controlled at this stage. The leaf emerges a coppery colour.
The tea is finally dried, to stop the fermentation process, by passing air through it that has been heated to 120 degrees C., for 10 minutes. The tea emerges as the crisp, black, curled form known as "made tea".
It is then sorted. First, fibres and stalks are removed, then the tea is divided into four grades: Leaf (whole leaves), Broken (part leaves), Fannings (small broken grades), and Dust (smallest particles). The dust and fannings are commonly mixed and made into tea bags. The tea is then tasted, graded and aged and, of course, marketed.
There is housing on the estate where the workers live, and a school for their children (photo).
We bought several kinds of tea in the estate shop, then got back into the car to go back to Tanah Rata. That night we went to the Rosedale Diner (yes, there is a Rosedale Diner in Tanah Rata) where we had a lovely meal of prawns, lemon chicken and vegetables with fried cashews and birthday cake in celebration of my birthday.