38 TEA 



But there are many varieties of firing machines. The 

 most modern have ovens fitted with travelling trays, 

 whereby the leaves are carried automatically through a 

 large, hot-air chamber. The object of drying the leaves 

 is threefold : to prevent further oxidation ; to complete 

 the evaporation of natural moisture, so that the tea juice 

 can solidify on the leaves ; and to harden the leaves 

 for their long journey to a teapot. When the leaves 

 come out of the oven they are black ; in fact, the fresh 

 green leaves from the plantation have now been 

 changed into a very familiar form and colour. 



Sorting. — The tea has already been divided into 

 two classes by the sifters attached to the roll-breaking 

 machines — fine and coarse. In this factory the more 

 correct descriptions would be " fine," and " less fine," 

 for, as we saw when we were going over the plantation, 

 " fine " plucking is the rule on this estate. But the 

 classes have to be subdivided, which is to say " graded." 

 Sifting machines, with sieves that have meshes of 

 many different sizes, sort the main classes into many 

 sections ; thus the Pekoe, or " top " class of black tea 

 is assorted into Flowery Orange Pekoe — the finest of 

 teas, in which many " tips " are in evidence — Orange 

 Pekoe, and Pekoe No. 1. And any leaves of a certain 

 class standard that will not pass the mesh tests are cut 

 up by a breaking machine, and graded as Broken 

 Pekoe, etc. The fragments that remain after grading 

 are sold as " dust," or " fannings." 



After assortment, the tea is once more fired. 



Bulking. — Bulking is the process by which batches 

 of tea of the same grade are mixed together so as to 

 produce a large supply of uniform quality. In the 

 case of Orange Pekoe, for instance, there is likely to be 



