The Truth About Tea

Dr. Khaleda Islam at the Tea Centre.

Two colleagues and I went to Nuwara Eliya last weekend and toured the Tea Centre at the Pedro Tea Estate which spreads for miles around this 2000m elevation respite from Sri Lanka's heat. We saw the whole factory process (photography not allowed) and of course ended up in the tasting room with fine china cups of the brightest orange pekoe I'd ever seen. Not that I'm a connoisseur because as it happens - I dislike most tea.

Anyway the machinery was marvelous (I love this stuff) - especially a big grinding machine that moves a top half around an eccentric over a lower half with spiral ridges that grinds or pulverises or in some other way really beats up the tea. One room of the factory was about 40 degrees C. and another was filled with fine dust that Dr. Khaleda is sure is dangerous. We asked why the workers don't wear masks and were told that it's too hot to wear them comfortably.

Our colleague Dr. Ravi revealed more back in Batticaloa. He used to work in Nuwara Eliya, treating the thousands of women that pluck tea for cuppas around the world. They earn 150 to 180 Rupees a day (less than USD $2) when they start and will work for decades without an increment. They are not given time off for medical care. They tend to injure their necks and backs (from carrying bags of tea with tump lines) and suffer abrasions and arthritis in their hands.

What is there left to drink?