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About our Types of Tea and Roasted Coffee Beans
Find out more information about our types of loose leaf tea and fresh coffee beans to make the perfect cup of tea or espresso coffee.
Types of TeaTypes of Coffee
Loose Leaf Tea
Black Tea
Green Tea
White Tea
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Oolong Tea
Nepal Tea (Gurkha Tea)
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Tea and Coffee Best Sellers
 Black TeaWhat is Black Tea ? .The term Black tea is given to the most popular tea drunk today and refers to the manufacturing process, the tea is more oxidised than other types of tea such as oolongs, green and white teas. The tea leaves start by either being plucked from the tea bushes by hand or mechanically harvested. The best leaves are the top two leaves and the bud of any new growth, this is loose leaf tea and the tea is cut to make smaller leaf grades and tea for tea bags. |
 Tea PluckingTea is grown in rows of tea bushes and the workers would traditionally walk through the aisles of tea picking the leaves and placing them in containers worn on the persons back. The lady pictured here is from Kericho Tea Estate which is situated in the Rift Valley in Kenya. You will notice that unlike in India there are no shade tree's. |
 Tea HarvestingThe Tea is then collected and brought into the central factory of the estate. Here the green tea leaves go onto a weighbridge for weighing. This gives an early indication of the resulting crop production. |
 Tea WitheringNext the tea enters the TEA FACTORY . The tea is placed in withering troughs where the moisture content is reduced to the level required for manufacture. An alternative way is to place the tea in withering tanks. |
 Tea CuttingNext the withered tea leaves are passed along conveyor belts which have metal detectors in place to reject any ferrous materials. The leaves are metered and guided into a steady flow towards the cutters. A 15'' rotorvane pre-conditions the leaves for C.T.C ( Cut Tear Curl ) cutting machines pictured. |
 Tea FermentationBatch Fermentation takes place in tanks and you can see here the difference in the colour of the leaf between the freshly cut green leaf and the dhool ( term for the tea leaf during fermentation with a dark copper colour ) in the left hand row of containers. |
 Tea DryingNext the tea leaves passed by conveyor for drying. The machine pictured here is a fluidised bed dryer. You can begin to see here the colour of loose tea as it appears when you open a packet at home. This is Black Tea . |
 Tea Sorting and GradingTea from the dryers pass through this fibrex machine which removes any last bits of fibre from the tea before the tea passes through for final grading. The Teas are seperated into the primary grades and the lower grades for bulk packing. |
 Tea PackingThe final tea packing then takes place. These pictures are taken in 1988 and you can see tea chests were still being used. In the background you can see the more modern method of packing which is a thick paper foil lined bag. Today practically all teas come in these bags. |
