Tea Factory @ Ooty

Tea Factory at Ooty:

Dear friends on the way to Dodabetta (highest peak point i.e. 8640 ft from Sea level) in Ooty, one Tea manufacturing company offers the view of tea manufacturing, demo on Tea making process and free sample Tea test. Which is as shown below..

Tea Process

The Rotorvane:

The machine seen below is the Rotorvane. It consists of stainless steel ‘vanes’ and gunmetal resistors. The leaf, while passing through this machine, is crushed and the juices extracted. The leaf, soaked in its juices, comes out of the Rotorvane and enters the CTC Machines.

Rotorvane

CTC Machines:

Seen below is a chiain of 5 CTC (Cut, Turn, Curl) machines. The leaf is cut, twisted and curled when it passes through these toothed, high speed stainless steel rollers, which run in opposite directions.

CTC Machine I

CTC Machine II

CTC Machine III

The Googy:

The leaf which has been cut into tiny particles now enters the Googy. The Googy is a large aluminium drum which runs at normal speed. The tea particles while passing through this machine, assume the needed rounded shape and density.

The Fermenting Floor:

The leaf which comes out of the Googy is spread on the Fermenting floor. The leaf is spread in the form of beds, usually of 4 ft width and 10 ft length, with a thickness of not more than 3 inches. During Fermentation, the leaf reacts with Oxygen in the atmosphere and changes colour. The green ‘dhool’ which is spread on the floor, slowly turns copper red. At a particular point, when smelt, a fruity fragrance is identified, which indicates that the dhool is ready for drying.

The Fluid bed drier:

The dhool is now fed into the Fluid bed drier. The tea passes over a perforated, stainless steel sheet of dimensions 2 ft X 16 ft. Hot air produced by a heater enters through the bottom of the sheet, keeping the tea in constant motion, making it appear like a liquid. Hence the name – Fluid Bed Drier. The drying process takes 16 minutes.

The Fibromat:

The dried tea now gets elevated through an Elevator and falls into a machine called Fibromat. As the name indicates, it helps remove the fibre in the tea. At the end of the Fibromat is mesh that separates the Dust and Leaf. 

Company has a sale outlet as well, there we can purchase different varieties of Tea. One first time I heard is White Tea.

Cute Baby @ Tea Factory