Educational Tour
PT Perkebunan Nusantara (“PTPN”) VI opens up the gates of the Kayu Aro tea factory for tourists and travelers who are interested in learning more about tea processing. It’s free, but you need to send a letter to the Factory Head to inform them that you’re coming at least two weeks before your arrival. Alternatively, you can arrange for your tea plantation tour through Swarga Lodge & Homestay. They have staying packages bundled with a tour of the tea plantation and the PTPN VI Kayu Aro tea factory to watch tea processing, as well as tea tour only packages. “We provide the tea tour packages to allow visitors to Kerinci see how tea leaves are harvested, and to allow them to have a taste of the real Kayu Aro tea right in the factory,” said Dika, Swarga Loka Kayu Aro’s General Manager.
Kayu Aro tea processing starts with the picking of fresh tea leaves. These leaves are taken to the Warehouse using trucks. In the warehouse, the leaves are wilted in great tubs with hot air blown up from the bottom. Next, hanging lorries transport the leaves to be milled in machines that are mostly still in use from Colonial days. The chopped leaves are then fermented, aired in a cold room until they are suitably darkened and matured. Then they are roasted to dry like coffee beans, and sorted according into grades, using a final set of machines.
Visitors to the tea factory may also enter the tea laboratory, where the factory tests each batch it produces for the color of the steeped water, taste, and aroma to ensure quality. “Furthermore, in order to prevent the tea’s aroma from being contaminated, we restrict the people allowed into the factory and prohibit our factory workers from using cosmetics, especially perfume,” said Firdaus, the PTPN VI Kayu Aro staff member who guided the Independent Observer on the tea tour.
By watching tea testing in the laboratory, people learn the best way to brew tea (use boiling hot water, use sufficient tea for the number of person going to drink, and don’t steep too long to prevent bitterness in taste and aroma). The Kayu Aro tea brewed properly in the lab is colored red, with a taste that Indonesians rarely get to taste because it is sold solely in foreign markets. “I can’t repeat enough that we test the tea in the laboratory from the time it dries and gets toasted, to ensure that quality standards are strictly maintained, before we package and export it,” Firdaus said. (fre)