Technology

Leaf to Cup

The total production capacity of the factory is 4 million tea bags a day. This will include string and tag, paper envelope and foil envelope tea bagging with and without staples.

Tea plucking – the tea pickers pluck two leaves and the bud in order to manufacture the best quality tea.

Withering – Once the picking is concluded, the green leaf is transported to the factories and the moisture is removed by spreading the leaf in troughs and passing dry air through it. This will be carried out until the tea leaf reaches the correct consistency.

Rolling – After the tea is withered it is fed to the roll breakers to extract the leaf. This is to obtain smaller particles.

Fermentation – the extracted leaf is left to ferment on tiled beds to develop aroma , colour and flavor. This exercise could range from 45 minutes to 3.5 hours. Short fermentation for light, bright teas and longer fermentation for coloury teas

Firing – this is carried out to arrest the fermentation. The raw fermented tea is exposed to high temperatures of dry air. This arrest of fermentation gives the tea leaf its blackness

Sifting – the dry black tea is passed through mesh trays in order to sort it out into different particle sizes. Each particle size has a term recognized within the tea trade. These terms are the manner in which the grades of tea are identified from each other.

Colour Sorting – The sifted tea is sent through a colour sorter to extract the stalks and red ends in order to keep the tea even and clean.

Packing – The different grades of tea are packed in paper sacks ranging from 28kgs to 60 kgs depending on the volume and the grades and sent to Colombo to the respective brokering warehouses.

Senok currently employs the most sophisticated and state of the art technology in order to keep up with the global standards.

The full factory automation is currently in process.

“State of the Art –Taking
Tradition to New Heights.”