[by Lakmini Wijemanne]
The folklore of the Delwala Village has it, that the water stream flowing through the Delwala village was quite rich in gems long years ago. It is to this river that the Kappetipola Adhikarama had come to find a few precious gemstones that were needed to embellish his head-gear. Taking advantage of his absence from the Royal court, the king was wrongly informed that the Adhikarama had gone to relay vital information about the Kandyan rulers to the British army. Thus, the king proclaimed him a conspirator and ordered that his family be killed in public.
During the 17th Century A.D. according to history, when King Seethawaka Rajasinghe was ruling a part of the country, Delwala Village also came under the King’s purview. The village was blocked out to around twenty families for the performance of royal duties. The area now known as New Vithanakande was allocated to persons who were assigned to collect the paddy harvest for the King. They came to be identified as the Vidanes and the area they lived was identified as the Vidana Kande which, over the years became Vithanakande.
New Vithanakande today is a name Synonimous with extremely good quality tea manufactured under most hygienic and modern conditions. At the recently concluded Tea auction in Las Vegas, U.S.A, teas sold under the label of “New Vithanakande” fetched an unprecedented US $ 70 per kilo, thus procuring the winning position in the competition: Ceylon Specialty Estate Tea of The year organized by the Sri Lanka Tea Board. It is to this tea factory we went, to bring you details of the process of made tea.
As much as Delwala was rich in gems all those years ago, Delwala is now well known for its supreme harvest of good quality green tea leaves which are processed into drinking tea for you and me. The making of the green tea leaf into a ready to brew product is complex as much as fascinating. At the New Vithanakande tea factory, high quality control is strictly adhered to, and they specialize in producing less powerful, more aromatic teas preferred by the European tea drinker who likes to drink his tea without either sugar or milk to dilute it’s taste.
The factory is also equipped with many modern machinery to ensure that the tea it produces lives up to it’s name, always. Franqois-Xavier Delmas, a connoisseur of tea, who visits and spends several months with tea growers worldwide, is well known for his exceptional tea tasting skills and is also a leading expert in his field. In his book “The Tea lover’s guide”, he especially mentions New Vithanakande tea and the factory as one poised to face the new era of change.
The tea factory is located in the Ratnapura District of the Sabaragamuwa Province. Started by late Mr. P.B.H. Pilapitiya, the father of the present Chairman/Managing Director Mr. N.B.H. Pilapitiya, in the late 1940’s the factory has been steadily growing. From an average of 1500 lbs. of green leaf intake per day, it has now reached a peak of an average of 22,000 kg. of green leaf intake per day. This in turn enables the factory to produce around 140,000 kg. of made tea monthly. The factory has a loyal small holder base of almost 6,000 growers who are well looked after by the management.
They are given fertilizer and planting material on easy installments, together with agricultural know-how. The management also looks after their small holder growers in their times of need even extending financial support. In return, the small holder makes sure that they supply the factory with high quality green tea leaves which has enabled new Vithanakande Tea factory to produce high quality tea for which they are well known. The factory employs a workforce of 78 staff members and around 250 manual workers of which 90% are females. The workers are quite well looked after . They are provided with daily meals and transport.
New Vithanakande was successful in achieving an “A” rating with the Ethical Tea Partnership of UK and has also achieved CQC “one star” and “Two Star” certificates from the Tea Commissioner’s Division together with HACCP Certification. Presently it is in the process of achieving the “Three Star” certificate from the Tea Commissioner’s Division.
The Tea Making Process
The withering plucked green tea leaves arrives at the factory by 4.00 – 4.30 p.m. every day. The bags are weighed and the leaves proceed on to “withering troughs”. When the leaves arrive, they contain about 70% - 80% moisture, and to reduce the moisture levels to desired 45% - 40%, they are spread on the withering troughs”. These are long metal racks with a metal mesh bed to evenly spread the leaves. The temperature is controlled here always at a 78° F.
Rolling
Once the leaves are withered to the desired levels, they are put onto the Rollers through a funnel near the withering trough. Rolling is fully automated and the leaves are rolled for about 25 minutes. Here, the leaves are gently rolled to help the oxidation process. Then the rolled leaves are sent on the conveyor belt to the Roll Breaker.
Roll Breaker
At this point, the rolled leaves go through a sifting process, where, according to desired sizes, the rolled leaves are separately collected while on the long conveyor belt, which are called the “Dhool”.
Fermenting
The separately collected, different quality and, sized dhools are collected and taken for fermentation. In the fermenting room, different dhool lots are marked and stored separately. The temperature is maintained ideally at a 83° F. Here, the leaves which arrived in the colour of an olive green, would stay for 45 minutes to one hour, at the end of time, they would be sent to the Dryer.
Firing/Drying Process
The fermented leaves are then sent on a conveyor belt through the firing unit, which maintains a heat of 120° C at the inlet and 80° C at the outlet. The dried tea leaves then pass through a series of fibro extracting machines. This is to separate the brown particles (Stems and unwanted pieces) from the black (properly dried and fired tea leaves) particles.
Winnowing
The black tea leaves go through the winnowing machine where the grading takes place according to the weight of the tea leaf.
Colour Separation
The winnowed and graded tea is then sent through six colour separation units to ensure that the high quality of the tea leaves are maintained.
The colour separation of the processed tea leaves is a serious task at the New Vithanakande factory. Quite a lot of money has been spent on acquiring state-of-the-art machines to separate brown particles from the black to ensure no un wanted particle remains with the tea to mar it’s quality and taste.
Once the tea leaf passes through all these processes, then it is sent to be packed in readiness to be sent to the market.
The time we spent in the factory was an unique and interesting experience for us. Experiencing the tea process made me realize the care and attention to detail that has to be lavished on the tea leaf to produce a tea that brings us fame from world over. It made me look at tea with a renewed greater respect. It also brought home the fact that the tea trade which was introduced to us so long ago and had survived so long among our hills and valleys, should be protected and nurtured for future generations for it is a fascinating process. The tea growers as well as the processors (factory owner) are passionate lot about their trade who genuinely care for the tea bushes they grow and tend as well as the leaf they process and market. Let us hope that our tea trade would grow and flourish for many more years to come !!!
(Our grateful appreciation is extended to all the staff and the CEO Mr. Ananda Fernando for taking the time to explain all this to us.).
This was an idea that Mrs. Pilapitiya had, to have a continuous vision of the inside from outside and vice versa, without having a wall to distract the eye. I thought it was a clever idea! When Mr. Pilapitiya Snr. built the house way back in the early 1930 s, it was in a very different style. The house underwent renovations quite recently, when major maintenance works was done.
The extended porch area provides the interior with a shade during the hottest time of the day keeping the inside as cool as possible. On to the left of the sitting area is the wood paneled bar with the TV lounge. The old “haansi putuwa” and the lounge chairs there were quite comfortable to sit and leisurely sip a drink or watch a movie.
The floor is of tiles to match the “old” look with the wooden vaulted roofs done in beautiful designs.
