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Tea is a multi million industry in Darjeeling. There is a vast demand for Darjeeling tea. Darjeeling is famous for being the best tea producer in the world. Some of the teas estates here is very high quality. It attracts the highest prices at auctions. The climatic conditions play a big part in the production of fine tea; still the ultimate outcome depends on a complex drying process.

When the tea leaves have been picked, the fresh green leaves are kept 15 to 25 centimeters deep in a drying trough. Here the moisture content is reduced from 70% and 80% to 30% and 40%. This is done using high-velocity fans. When this process of drying is completed, the leaves are rolled and pressed to break the cell walls and squeeze out their juices onto the surface of the leaves. By and large it is rolled at two different pressures, and in between the rolling the leaves are sifted to split the coarse leaves from the fine. Then the leaves which are coated with their juices are allowed to ferment on racks in a very humid room. This process develops their characteristic aroma and flavor. This fermentation must be controlled carefully since either over or under-fermentation would ruin the tea.

The process only ends when the fermented leaves are passed through a dry air chamber at 115 degrees Celsius to 120 degrees Celsius on a conveyor belt. This is done to further reduce the moisture content to 2% and 3%. The final process is sorting. The tea is sorted according to grades. The teas in ascending order of their value are: Dust, Orange Fannings, Golden Broken Orange Pekoe, Orange Pekoe (unbroken leaves), Flowery and the best is Golden. (The first three teas consist of broken leaves).

To improve and maintain the viability of the tea, the tea estates have employed modern agricultural practices in the last few years. They were one of the first agricultural enterprises to use cloned plants, in their replanting schemes. But not much has been done on this level and most of the tea trees are 100 years old. They are almost at the end of their useful or even natural lives. The soil is deteriorating and the plants are ageing. This is a cause for grave concern as tea is not only a major export item but it also provides most of the employment in Darjeeling. The producers don’t get good prices for the lower qualities at the auction but the top qualities continuously achieve record prices. The tea from Castleton Estate in Darjeeling fetched a record breaking price of 6010 rupees per kilogram at an auction in the year 1991. A Japanese bid this amount, which was a world record.

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