Harvesting

More commonly known as 'Plucking', the young fresh shoots are carefully plucked off the top most portion of the tea bushes. It is these young shoots that hold the key to quality and the highest level of care and supervision is required to achieve this.Our company maintains a stringent quality control system that ensures only the very best plucked leaves enter our factories and therefore only the highest quality of tea is manufactured.

Withering
After the Green leaf has been collected from the plucked sections it arrives at our factories and is spread evenly in the 'Withering Troughs'.		By using fans that blow hot and cold air through the green leaf, their moisture is reduced by between 28%-32% (chemical wither), this process lasts for 14 to 16 hours. The green leaf is now limp and flaccid (physical wither) and can now proceed to the processing area.

Processing		Fermentation
The withered leaf is either rolled or rotorvaned prior to CTC or Orthodox processing (i.e. preconditioning of the withered leaf). A CTC (Crush, Tear and Curl) roll process lasts about 20-30 minutes whereas a CTC rotorvane process lasts for about 5-7 minutes. An Orthodox roll process lasts about 30 minutes. After this initial process, the withered leaf is subjected to CTC or Orthodox processing.		This is the oxidation process for both the CTC and Orthodox Mal and lasts between 100 to 180 minutes, depending on the colour and the smell (nose) of the fermented leaf and which process has been used. It is at this point that the green mal turns a coppery red or rust colour. Our factories use various types of fermentation process such as Gumlah fermentation, Floor fermentation and the Continuous Fermentation Machine.

Drying		Sorting & Grading
To halt the natural process of fermentation and to displace moisture, the mal is fed into dryers in a regular manner and is subjected to temperatures of between 121-127 degrees Celsius with controlled through put time of 22 to 25 minutes. All the fermented CTC tea is dried in VFBD's (Vibro Fluidised Bed Dryers).Orthodox teas are dried using conventional driers that convey the leaf on slow moving, perforated trays through the drying chamber, so preserving the natural bloom, liquor and taste of the tea.		The 'black' teas can now be sorted into primary and secondary grades by passing them through sorting machines that use meshes of various sizes. CTC teas are also passed through Fibre extractors to remove excessive fibre and the sorting of these will produce Primary and Secondary grades. Primary grades comprise 90-94% of the product line, the remainder as secondary. The Primary CTC grades are - BPS, BOP, BP, PF, PD, D and CD (secondary CTC grades are BP1, D1, CD1 and RD). The Orthodox grade include TGFOP1, TGFOP, GFBOP, FBOP, GBOP, BOPF, OP, OP1, BOP1 and BPS1

Packing

Following the Sorting process a grade of tea is bulked together and stored in climate controlled bins.

The packing process involves the transfer of a single grade of tea that has been bulked, to be released from a storage bin and conveyed to the packing area. The tea is then carefully measured and funneled into large Kraft Paper sacks (other variations of packing material also exist), sealed and gently placed on wood pallets. Through containerisation, the paper sacks can be stacked on top of one another totaling 20 sacks per pallet (ten layers of two sacks).

It is at this point that an Invoice of tea is created. Invoices can vary in size from 10 to 100 paper sacks. Each Invoice, whatever packing material used (Kraft paper sacks, Vacuum packaging or jute bags), is then given a unique identity number - an Invoice Number. Throughout the Invoice's life, this unique number is a traceable record.

To comply with strict European and North American traceability legislation McLeod Russel also identifies each and every individual package with its own unique number, so further adding to the Best Practise policies.The packed tea is then sent to market centres and ports, by lorry and containers.

Quality Control

Each and every Invoice of our tea is tasted by our professional tea tasters based at Margherita and Pertabghur. This high level of attention ensures that all our tea is carefully monitored and, if needs be, immediate action can be taken to eliminate defects before the teas reach our customers.

Vacuum Packing

In the mid 1980's McLeod Russel introduced a revolutionary new packaging concept that guaranteed storing of tea in as fresh a condition as there is. Bespoke machinery and packaging material allows for our tea to be safely stored for periods greater than the 18 months which is normally seen as tea's perishable life.

Working closely with a few core customers, we have assisted in their introduction of new product ranges and which has widely received acclaim by many as the best way to store tea.

Green Tea

We have a tea garden dedicated to Green tea production and have found the quality we make meets our customer's standards.

Bespoke & Bulk Manufacture

Please visit our link - Nilpur Blending Unit - to see what McLeod Russel can do for your blends.

Pallets & Slip-sheets

Through the introduction of containerisation in the mid 70's we export all our tea on pallets and slip-sheets and meet our customers' requirements of quality of materials used.McLeod Russel has prided itself on maintaining strict practices to ensure that any timber used in pallet construction meets with the legal requirements set out when importing teas into foreign countries.

All our pallets meet the ISPM 15 standard (ISPM 15 is an International Phytosanitary Measure by the IPPC that directly addresses the need to treat wood materials of a thickness greater than 6mm, used to ship products between countries. It affects all wood packaging material (pallets, crates, dunnages, etc) requiring that they be treated with heat or fumigated with methyl bromide, or made from alternative material, like paper, plastic or manufactured wood products (e.g. plywood). New treatments are being evaluated for inclusion in ISPM 15).

The increased usage of slip-sheets has allowed McLeod Russel to reduce its demand on timber and therefore the environment.We are proud of our ability to meet our customers' individual shipping requirements, as we share their view towards limiting the environmental impact on our world.

Logistics & Services

McLeod Russel has been supplying tea to all the major tea blenders worldwide for over 100 years.We have a dedicated Sales and Shipping team to facilitate all our customers' wishes and have a reputation equal to none throughout the industry for product quality, timely deliveries and after sales service.

Our tea is bought on a bulk and wholesale basis by our customers and is supplied in multi-walled Kraft paper sacks or Vacuum packaged, meeting the numerous international standards for safe food transportation.Individual invoices are containerised in 20ft and 40ft containers and shipped in accordance with our clients' wishes and strict time-scales.