The Art of Making Organic Tea at Himalayan Blends
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How do age-old skills such as hand-plucking and hand-sorting affect the quality of the tea you receive? The process of bringing our tea leaves from the farm to your cup takes months and requires a great deal of patience and expertise in order to be accomplished effectively. There are seven important steps we take to ensure you receive the highest quality organic, single-origin tea leaves from the foothills of the Himalayas.
Step 1: Hand-Plucking Tea Leaves in Nepal
How does hand-plucking differ from machine-picking tea leaves? At first glance, distinction appears obvious: hand-plucking involves farmers walking through the rows of tea bush, whereas machine-picking employs shears and pruners to do the heavy lifting. At the Siddhadevi Tea Estate, where we source all of our teas, our farmers use fine plucking methods (two leaves and a bud) to collect the youngest, most tender leaves. Though machine-picking may be useful for amassing large quantities of tea leaves, many leaves are damaged in the process, and lower selectivity means poorer quality leaves find their way into the mix.
Utilizing fine plucking methods means our teas are both incredibly rare and of the highest quality. Only the youngest, most succulent leaves and buds are chosen to preserve the tea’s character. But what does it mean to only choose ‘two leaves and a bud’? By definition, the bud is the topmost, undeveloped leaf shoot, and the two leaves are the young leaves directly below it. As the newest growths on the tea bush, the two leaves and bud have the strongest flavor and aroma, lending to the tea’s high caliber.
Step 2: Withering Organic Tea Leaves
Withering tea leaves involves drying out the leaves after they have been plucked in order for them to soften for the third step: hand-rolling. Reducing the moisture content in the tea leaves brings forth the aroma and flavor characteristics in our teas. At the Siddhadevi Tea Estate, we engage in a natural withering process where our tea leaves are spread out on long troughs indoors and allowed to dry at their own pace.
Natural withering is not only cost effective, but is eco-friendly as it reduces the reliance on energy-intensive machines often used to wither tea leaves for mass production. A slower rate of drying can permit a more gradual dehydration to take place, so delicate teas—like our white tea—have a well-balanced flavor and aroma.
Step 3: Hand-Rolling Single-Origin Tea
Similar to the first step, this process can be accomplished by hand or with a machine. We choose to hand-roll our tea leaves to gently coax out the tea’s natural oils, flavors, and aromas while maintaining the integrity of the leaf. Hand-rolling tea leaves contributes to their high quality, especially within a competitive setting. It’s no wonder why the Siddhadevi Tea Estate took home three major awards at the Las Vegas 2024 World Tea Expo: Grand Champion, Best Liquor, and Best White Tea.
Hand-rolled teas are most appreciated by tea connoisseurs. The process preserves the shape of the leaf, allowing for a stronger visual appeal when steeping the leaves, and those who seek out hand-rolled teas understand the level of skill and artistry required to produce the highest quality tea leaves. When it comes to our leaves, Himalayan Blends values quality over quantity, and sustainability over mass production.
Step 4: Hand-Sorting Dried Tea Leaves
Hand-sorting tea leaves is an incredibly meticulous process. Skilled workers must inspect each leaf to divide the high-quality tea leaves from damaged leaves, dust, dirt, rocks, or any of debris that may be present. As you can imagine, this time-consuming step is worth the reward. To maintain the integrity of our premium organic teas, impurities that may impact the flavor, aroma, or overall quality must be discarded.
As with the previous steps, this requires a high level of attention to detail and is unsuitable for mass production. Our teas are rare and have unique characteristics, perfect for tea lovers from all backgrounds who seek to broaden the variety of teas they have tasted.
Step 5: Tea Tasting
Speaking of tea tasting, this fifth step may be the most enjoyable part of the experience. Tea leaves are carefully weighed to ensure the liquor is exact, a range between 2-2.5 grams (approximately 1.5 teaspoons) for every 8 ounces of water. Our teas must be steeped for 5 minutes, otherwise the tea may become astringent. If you have ever experienced a dry, puckering sensation in your mouth when drinking tea, you would potentially be drinking an astringent cup of tea. Astringency is caused from the presence of polyphenols, specifically tannins, found in tea that has been steeped for too long. Green tea can become astringent more quickly than other teas because it is an oxidized tea, so 3 minutes of steeping will suffice.
As with any food or beverage, the tasting process is of the utmost importance. This ensures the quality of the teas is consistent in every batch and helps farmers identify any impurities before bulking or packaging can take place. Our skilled tasters can determine how any of the previous steps—rolling, withering, or even oxidation, in some cases—affect the tea’s flavor, aroma, and liquor color.
Steps 6-7: Bulking & Packaging the Tea Leaves
Our organic Nepali teas are grown at 7,600 feet in the foothills of Ilam, Nepal. As a result, the altitude, along with other factors such as weather, plucking, and any variations in the previous steps, may contribute to slight variations between each batch of tea. Bulking the teas, or thoroughly mixing the batches of tea, reduces the chance for any noticeable variation in a tea’s liquor color, flavor profile, aroma, or general quality.
As you have seen in the previous steps, we take great care to ensure only the highest quality tea leaves make it to this step. Low quality leaves and buds are not mixed into the higher quality batches, otherwise that would dilute our teas and diminish their quality. After bulking the leaves, we pack them in boxes for shipping!
Single-Origin, Himalayan Teas Delivered to Your Doorstep
There is nothing quite like a good cup of tea. Soothing, healing—the perfect way to wake up after a restful sleep, or wind down after a long day. At Himalayan Blends, we understand that quality is far more important than quantity when it comes to preserving tradition and culture in our tea-making process. Our signature teas are finely plucked, naturally withered, hand-rolled, hand-sorted, tasted, and bulked, ensuring you receive a superior, sustainable, organic, single-origin experience. Due to changing weather conditions, out teas are only harvested during particular months, so check out our website to see which teas are currently available for purchase.
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