The SorwatheTea Plantation

One of the things that Eva wanted to do was visit a Tea Plantation in Rwanda and since the Sorwathe Plantation and Plant aren't too far from our place we made our reservations to visit there. 

From the pictures you can tell that it is another cloudy day!
The main road takes us about 45 minutes out of Kigali and then
we took off on these back roads.

Some guys were bringing down the eucalyptus trees for their
cooking fires and the trees had fallen right across the road.

The sugar cane crops are coming in and the bikes are
 moving them to market.

The eucalyptus trees are so ethereal!

 Innocent getting a picture of the Sorwathe Signature Cup!

The front of the tea processing plant.

 Company with a Cup of Tea and
Yes, it IS tea pouring out of the pot! 

The grounds are beautiful and the roses...

well, the roses! 

 We started the tour...  our guide showing us the
different kinds of tea!

They made us dress up to keep us dust free, I guess!

 

We sure look great, don't we?  How embarrassing!

Here on the wall are all the kinds of tea made here.

Sylver and Innocent look way better than us in these outfits!

Here are the processing steps that we will now begin to see.

Drying.. Giant fans at the end of each bin.

Withering is done in these drying, 
heated beds inside these areas.

I won't remember all the steps but they did tell us that since
this is the dry season.... there are not as many tea leaves
being processed.

 The most amazing thing is that with all the tea plants and tea fields.... they only process the top three
leaves of the tea plants.  These are all picked by hand.

 Here you can see the tea leaves going through the cutting process.

Then the leaves keep on going through the other steps.

Tea pickers pick the top 3 leaves of the plants
every 3 weeks so they have a rotation process for 
 gleaning the tea leaves. 

I thought this was "green tea" but i think it is just another step.

The tea leaves gets cut or rolled until it gets finer and finer.

Then it gets brown... I have no idea why!
My description of this great tour is really lame.
I waited too long to get this page done and i've simply forgotten.

 Looking at some "fine" tea!

These are different grades of tea.

As the tea is refined...The grades shake out into separate bins.

And then the final bagging of the tea before it is shipped.

These metal containers are where the tea is stored.
Sort of like little grain elevators.

Then we went to a small narrow room where people were
bagging the tea into its proper packaging.

 Yes, they are sealing each tea bag individually.

 And then each is boxed in its appropriate container.

 Outside we saw tons of wood piled high. 

And extremely organized..

This is what all the wood is for.

These create all the heat and steam for the fans that dry the tea leaves. (At least i think that is what they said.)

It was HOT!  Reminded me of Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego!

 

Looks like it will stay hot, too--for a long time!

More beauty!

AND the best for last...The tasting room.  All of these teas come from the same plants.  What makes them different is how they are processed.  I didn't know that.

We each could taste whichever teas we wanted to....

So we would sip and swish the tea around in our mouths.... 

... and spit it into this column!
A tall spittoon.

After this we went back to the packing room
and each bought some tea to take home.
Then we were off to the lodge for lunch.

We walked up to the lodge & found these things along the way.

Amaryillas everywhere --in August! 

These hydrangea were spectacular.

A new lookout over the valley and tea fields was
built on the other side of the tennis court.

This is a bit of the view.  Even during the dry season 
the tea fields are green.

 Swirling tea fields.

Looking down the hill!   You can see how dry the valley is.

And then the first tennis game for Innocent and Sylver!

on a clay court, no less!

The brightness was blinding...but i love this picture of these two.

Walking through a garden...

Looks a bit like fall,  doesn't it?

 Then ping-pong...

Darts... 

and lunch was finally served....

Can you find the little bird on the flowers?

This is the gardener's garden!  Before we left they gave us a ton of fabulous flowers to plant at our house.  What a treat! 
Four hydrangeas!!!

 On our drive out we saw these lumber jacks!  

Pretty big saws!

More sugar cane, too!

 A typical picture along this road!

But back on the main road---not a typical picture for Tuesday! 
I guess they were all walking to the reception!  

Or maybe they were on their way to the 
Sorwathe Tea Plantation for a cup of tea!! 

It had been a great learning experience and great day! 

love,
margie