Darjeeling tea is plucked at the Goomtee tea estate the "orthodox" way: That is, it is plucked by hand, by women, mostly, who scramble up and down tea gardens steeper than ski slopes and pluck two fresh leaves and a bud from the tea "tables," as the 2-foot-high pruned tea bushes are called. I followed the women down one slope to watch them work. Their hands moved quickly over the tea table, pinching the leaves and bunching them in their fist before releasing the neon-green load with a backhand wrist flick into a bamboo basket suspended by a strap across their heads. The women quietly talked between themselves or hummed music as they worked. Their voices mingled with the rustle of the tea bushes, the snap, snap, snap of plucking and the rush of water coursing down a mountain stream two thousand feet below. When I pulled out my camera, the women motioned me to take portraits of them. Here are a few.
What a fantastic collection of photos! I've read about how Darjeeling is harvested but this is the first time I can put a face to the process. :)
Posted by: Ari (Baking and Books) | November 17, 2006 at 03:32 PM