From Leaf to Cup: Inside Kanan Devan Hills | India's World

From Leaf to Cup: Inside Kanan Devan Hills

India’s World

Rows of tea bushes follow the contours of the hills, with the Western Ghats rising beyond the plantation.

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Every cup begins with a leaf, but the journey from leaf to cup is anything but simple. It is a carefully timed transformation, where freshness, moisture, temperature and processing shape the character of the final tea. Each stage brings the leaf closer to the distinctive brew that eventually reaches the cup.

From the tea-covered slopes of Munnar to the machinery that transforms fresh leaves into a finished brew, these images trace the journey of tea at Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company (P) Limited.

Image Courtesy: Khiran Kumar/Pexels

The seven tea estates of Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company (KDHP), spread across 59,000 acres, surround the town of Munnar amid mountains rising to 8,841 feet, with tea cultivated at elevations of up to 7,492 feet.

The first light of day falls across the tea fields, revealing the contours of the plantation against the mountain landscape.

Fresh tea leaves are harvested across KDHP’s high-grown estates before being transported to the factories for processing.

A tractor carries freshly harvested tea leaves along a road winding through the tea estates of Munnar, on their way to a processing factory. | Image Courtesy: Rahul Kumar R/Pexels

A network of conveyors and processing machinery moves tea through the different stages of manufacture.

Inside the tea factory

Freshly harvested tea leaves are spread across withering troughs, where they undergo the withering process.

During fermentation, controlled temperature and humidity allow the formation of theaflavins and thearubigins, which contribute to the tea’s brightness, briskness, flavour, and colour.

In the CTC process, tea leaves are crushed, torn, and curled, rupturing their cell walls and preparing them for oxidation.

A KDHP factory sits amid the tea-covered slopes of Munnar, where freshly harvested leaves are transformed into finished tea.

Tea tasting and quality-control checks help assess the finished product before it reaches consumers.

An array of KDHP tea products fills the plantation outlet, bringing teas from the hills to visitors and consumers.

Visitors browse KDHP’s plantation store, where tea becomes part of the Munnar experience.

Rows of tea bushes follow the contours of the hills, with the Western Ghats rising beyond the plantation.

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