Afternoon tea in Borneo

We enjoyed a visit to the Sabah Tea Plantation, the best known and largest producer of tea in Borneo. We figured that in addition to a nice cup of tea, the boys would be able to add this to their lengthening list of “How stuff is made,” which to date includes things such as alcohol, coffee, sugar,  wood-carving, pottery and stone-carving.

Our personable and knowledgeable guide, Hamid, first showed us a video that gave us an overview and some history to the tea plantation.  In short, it has been trading for 30 years and boasts the purest tea in Borneo because of its declared non-use of pesticides, its elevated position (2,300 feet) and the fact that the 1,000 acres of tea plants are nestled within a further 5,000 acres of primary rainforest.

Hamid then guided us around the factory. There wasn’t much activity as it was mid-afternoon and the main part of the production only operates in the morning. Nevertheless we could see the long 12 inch deep tanks where this morning's harvest had been deposited - some 3,000 kilogrammes of leaves that will deliver about 600 kilos of actual tea, either in loose leaf or bag form. 

One of the tanks with newly harvested leaves

He explained about the withering, fermentation and drying processes, noting that green tea is achieved by having a much shorter fermentation period.   He showed us the machinery for cutting, rolling and heating the leaves and then the ongoing processes that help to grade the leaf sizes to meet varying demand.  He also explained how the tea can be combined with other flavours, for example, cinnamon or ginger.  Most of these are found locally.

The packaging room was very busy with teams of people putting the tea bags in various size boxes as they came off the big tea bag filling machines at rates ranging from 1 per second to over 2 per second. 

Hamid, our guide, with us on the tea plantation

Enjoying a delicious pot of cinnamon tea together

The final test was a fine pot of cinnamon tea which we all enjoyed together, which was the perfect complement to the lovely views overlooking the tea plantation.