Indians have a great love affair with chai! Just enjoying a hot cup of tea on a breezy morning is one of the simplest pleasures of life for us. We love tea so much that we end up drinking many cups throughout the day! It gives us the needed boost of energy that revitalises us and that is why we are so addicted to this drink. Although tea was brought to us by Britishers, we have managed to Indianise it to the point where we can't live without a cup of kadak chai. We all know how to make tea; do we know how tea leaves are prepared? A food blogger gave us a glimpse behind the mechanised process of how tea leaves are manufactured in Assam. Assam is home to some of the best tea gardens in the country.
The video is uploaded by Instagram-based food blogger @foodie_incarnate and it has over 3.3 million views along with 238k likes.
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How Chai Patti Is Manufactured In Assam:
The tea leaves are freshly harvested and then sent to the factory. The tea leaves first go through the withering process, where hot air is blown through tea leaves so that moisture is removed. The dried leaves are bagged, placed on a conveyor belt and then sent for conditioning and cutting. The leaves are finely chopped and then sent for graining so that the chopped tea leaves are powdery. Next, tea leaves are sent for oxidative fermentation, where the oxygen in the environment shall be used to ferment the leaves. During this stage, the colour of the leaves turns from green to brown. The fermented tea leaves are air-fried and then go through segregation where the leaves are cleaned and the quality of tea leaves are separated and packaged.
Watch the video on how tea leaves are made in Assam:
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