T Stands for the Tea Plantation-Part 2

 Hi everyone. I hope that everyone has had a great week since last T day. Today (Monday) is the Memorial Day holiday here in the US. It has cooled off nicely, but yesterday (Sunday) it definitely felt like summer.I even went for my first swim of the year, but the water was COLD. 😀

Last week (for T over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog) I showed you the tea fields at the Bigelow Tea Plantation in Charleston , South Carolina. The other thing that you could do at this tea plantation was visit the room where the drinking tea was actually produced. This was a self-guided tour.

But first an interesting historical sign.

They weren't making any tea when we visited as they were just beginning their first cut of the season. (No tea is cut over the winter.)  Here's a brief description of what happens to the leaves to get them to be tea ready to steep in your glass. 

It all begins when the leaves are brought to  the withering bed. The withering bed is where the drying of the tea leaves actually begins.  In this process

various chemicals in the tea leaves (like caffeine) increase in concentration, water is removed, the cells begin to break down, and  increased permeability to the cells in the tea leaves is created. 

I found this diagram online about how this machine works. I believe the tea is on top of the mesh netting.

The tea leaves are still whole when they go through and then leave the withering bed. The next step in tea production is to put the dehydrated  tea leaves through the rotovane. This machine takes the withered leaves and distorts them. It does this so that oxidation can happen.

Through oxidation the various tea flavors are produced. 

To get the various flavors tea can have,  the cells in the tea leaves need to be broken open. This allows oxygen to reach the inner chemicals which produce the flavors of tea. A rotovane rolls and distorts the leaves and that opens the cell walls, allowing the oxygen to enter and get to the inner cell chemicals.

How long oxidation occurs produces many of the various types of tea. To stop oxidation the tea leaves are then heated up. The more time that passes before you heat the leaves, the darker the tea will be with more oxidation. Green and white  teas use the least amount of oxidation time and the leaves stay green. Black teas use the most and the leaves actually turn black or brown in the process.

After oxidation has stopped, the leaves go to be dried. Once that is finished they can be packaged either as loose tea or tea bags. The resulting leaves can also be separated and sorted depending on the company producing it.

I would have been fun to see the tea leaves actually going through the machines.

And I'll end today's post by making myself a cup of tea in the new mug I bought. The tea is from a bag I bought at the tea plantation. Some of you might recognize the Buc-ee! image on the mug. This highway rest area phenomenon was also a new place for me as we don't have any of these in New England (at least as far as I've noticed). I think they sell just about everything at a Buc-ee’s. I bought myself a mug to drink my new tea in. The beaver is  silly, but I like the mug because the yellow is bright. It’s also a big mug and comfortable in my hand so I can enjoy lots of tea in it. 

That's all for me this week. I won't be around next week for T as my husband and I are off to Iceland for the next 11 days. It's my second trip to the island, his first. We're leaving tomorrow (Tuesday)  morning, so if you postTuesday it might take me a bit to get to your post. I'm just apologizing in advance.  I'll see you for T in 2 weeks, and I hope you lovely T day ladies (and everyone else)  have a super T day too and the next 2 weeks.