INTRODUCTION ABOUT BOH TEA PLANTATION

BOH Plantations Sdn Bhd is the leading tea grower in Malaysia with four tea gardens – Boh, Sungai Palas and Fairlie situated in Cameron Highlands; and Bukit Cheeding in Selangor - constituting a total land area of 1200 hectares. With a production capacity approaching 3000kgs per hectare, the Company produces 4 million kg of tea annually which translates to about 5.5 million cups per day. This represents about 70% of all tea produced in Malaysia. BOH dominates the domestic retail market. While maintaining its market position locally, the Company is also expanding into foreign niche markets.

Today BOH exports its brand of prime grade teas to various countries including the USA, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Singapore and Brunei. The Company is one of the few vertically-integrated tea companies in the world. It has operations ranging the entire spectrum of tea manufacture - from cultivation and processing to the packaging and marketing of its wide range of locally grown robust black teas. BOH’s operations are mechanised while application of fertilisers is carried out aerially and harvesting is done by hand-held machines or raised tractor harvesters. Each of BOH’s tea gardens has its own processing facility and the Fairlie tea garden utilises some of the most modern machines in the world. BOH also packs all its tea at its packing facility in Bukit Cheeding. In keeping with its commitment to quality, BOH conducts long-term research and development to ensure that only the best tea clones are cultivated. In-house tea quality teams are at hand to ensure that strict quality requirements are met at every level of processing.

BOH emerged as winner of the Super brand Excellence Trophy award in Food & Beverage category in 2004. As an acknowledgement of its excellent brand identity, BOH received the National Creativity & Innovation Award from Malaysia Design Technology Centre. Today, BOH is the Number One brand of tea in Malaysia. Yet, the Company is not one to rest on its laurels. BOH keeps abreast of its evolving consumer demographic and industry trends while continuing to produce distinctive teas for both domestic and international customers. As a household tea brand, BOH also believes in playing an active role in the community and is a keen supporter of the local performing arts scene. The Company is also an advocate for animal and environmental conservation.

WHAT IS TEA?

The tea bush is botanically known as camellia sinensis. It is an evergreen plant with smooth, shiny, oval-shaped leaves and small white flowers. The camellia sinensis is indigenous to China and parts of India. Left to grow wild, the bush can reach almost 20m in height but under cultivation, it is pruned to approximately waist level into a flattened top called a ‘plucking table’. This makes it easier to pluck the tea during harvest.

Today, tea is grown in more than 25 countries around the world. Like wine, tea is greatly influenced in its character by the environmental conditions of the region in which it is grown.

The climate, soil, altitude and amount of rainfall and sunshine create subtle differences in a tea’s flavour and aroma. In broad terms, however, there are three major types of tea depending on how the leaf is processed: black tea, oolong or red tea and green tea.

Example of Tea

1) Black tea

Black tea is a favourite in both western and eastern cultures. It develops its characteristic black colour because it is allowed to ferment fully. After fermentation, the tea is dried. Black tea is robust and full-bodied and goes extremely well with milk. BOH’s bestselling BOH Tea is an excellent example of black tea. Black tea is also referred to as Ceylon or English tea.

2) Oolong

Most Chinese teas are Oolong teas. It is semi-fermented and rolled lightly until it turns red. It is then dried over a fire. When brewed, the tea is usually a light brown-red in colour, hence its name. Oolong tea is drunk without milk or sugar.

3) Green tea

Green tea is unfermented. It is first withered, then steamed. It is dried in the final stage. Because it skips the fermentation process, the tea retains its distinctive green colour and has a lighter, more delicate flavour with a slight tang. The most familiar form of green tea is Japanese tea.

THE PROCESS OF PRODUCTION OF TEA

Though tea is derived from the basic plant called camellia sinensis, the character of tea is influenced by where it is grown, the soil condition, and finally the processing method. That’s why chinese tea has its own distinctive taste and goes very well on its own while English teas like Boh, Dilmah, and Twinnings would require some sugar and milk to enhance its flavour. The soil in Cameron highland is slightly acidic, and with the low temperature, it was an ideal places to grow tea. However the process of making tea at Cameron highland is more suited to make English tea.

1) PLUCKING

Tender leaves are picked in morning and these are immediately transported to the tea factories for further processing. Tea leaves are plucked only after two years from planting. Once the tea plant is mature, leaves are plucked every two weeks. Plucked leaves are checked for quality and weighed and later transferred the factory where it goes through five main processing stages. Each stage will bring out the distinctive fragrance and aroma out from the tea leaf.

2) WITHERING

The green leaf is withered to reduce moisture and to allow natural chemical reaction to take place. This process takes between 12-20 hours and is usually done overnight.

3) ROLLING

The withered leaf is rolled to crush the leaf cells and process it into smaller particles. Boh uses three types of machines for rolling: rotovanes, rollers and CTC(Cut,Tear,Curl) machines.

4) FERMENTATION

Fermentation or oxidation is natural chemical process and takes place as the rolled leaf cells are exposed to oxygen. This process is essential for the leaf to develop the right flavour, colour and aroma. Thus timing and temperature have to be carefully controlled. The leaf emerges coppery in colour.

5) DRYING

Drying stops the fermentation process and reduces the moisture in the leaf to 3%. This is done by passing hot air heated to almost 120’c through the leaf and is completed in 10 minutes. The tea leaf then transform into the familiar crisp, black, curled from and is known as “made tea”

6) SORTING

The “made tea” is put through a series of vibrating sieves to sort it according to size.

7) TEA TASTING

Tea tasting is an intrinsic and vital part of the tea making process. Some of the tea taster examines for are colour, brightness and aroma. Tea tasting is a unique are and requires years of training and experience very much like a wine taster.

8) STORAGE

The tea is then stored in dry conditions to mature and mellow further before packing. The tea has to be carefully stored so as not to be exposed to moisture in the air, which can adversely affect its quality.

Discussion

Tea is the agricultural product of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of various cultivars and sub-varieties of the Camellia sinensis plant, processed and cured using various methods. "Tea" also refers to the aromatic beverage prepared from the cured leaves by combination with hot or boiling water,[3] and is the common name for the Camellia sinensis plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world.[4] It has a cooling, slightly bitter, astringent flavour which many enjoy.

BOH workers harvest, or ‘pluck’, the tea bushes approximately every 3 weeks when the new shoots grow or ‘flush’. Tea used to be plucked by hand as the workers move laboriously through the long rows of low tea bushes. Today, innovation and research within the Company has led to a mechanisation and upgrading of its operations with the development of several labour and time-saving methods. In the highland gardens, the most common plucking method used is the two-man hand-held machine which is assisted by winches. These machines can harvest up to 300 kg of green leaf per man per day, 10 times more than traditional hand plucking. On the steepest slopes where access is limited, shears are used and can bring in about 120kgs per man per day. In the evacuation of the plucked leaf from the field, zipwires are used. In the lowland garden at Bukit Cheeding where the land is flatter and more accessible, BOH uses specially-designed vehicular harvesters which pluck 9000 kgs of green leaf a day! After the harvest day is over, the leaf is first checked for quality, packed into sacks and weighed before being transported to the factory for processing.

Tea is a naturally-derived beverage and, besides antioxidants, contributes valuable vitamins and minerals to our daily diets. An average daily consumption of 5 to 6 cups daily complements our body’s dietary intake of these vitamins and minerals. Tea also contains Manganese which is a mineral essential for optimum bone health and physical development. 5-6 cups of tea is able to provide approximately 45% of our daily requirement, making tea one of the richest natural sources of manganese in our diet. Potassium is the element in tea which is vital for maintaining good function of the nerves and muscles as well as regulating fluid levels within the cells. Potassium deficiency usually experienced by people with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia or even those who over-exercise – results in an erratic heartbeat and fatigue.

The stimulating attributes of tea is a fact well acknowledged. Early historical documents record the practice of ancient Buddhist monks drinking tea to keep them alert during meditation. Tea contains caffeine which stimulates the central nervous system and respiratory function. It also influences the metabolic processes of all body cells. The average cup of tea contains approximately 40mg of caffeine, half the amount contained in an average cup of coffee. Having 5 – 6 cups of tea a day is equal to an intake of 200 – 225mg of caffeine, an amount considered moderate. This degree of caffeine is just enough for the beverage to stimulate immediately yet in a more subtle manner. That’s why a steaming cup of tea instantly comforts the body without over-stimulating the mind. Tea also contains some milder stimulants known as theophylline and theobromine which acts in the same way as caffeine.