Make your own tea program

It is a new innovation introduced by Lockhart Estate and the Factory in Munnar. The objective of this unique programme is to give the tea lovers all around the world a unique experience of producing a tea by their own hands.

This program provides an opportunity for participants to acquire first-hand experience on the manufacture of orthodox black tea from the picking of green leaf in the field up to the packing of their own manufactured tea. They will be engaged in selective plucking of suitable green leaf for making black tea, spreading in the troughs for the next step (withering) of tea manufacture, involved in rolling of the withered leaf, breaking of rolled leaf and doing the oxidation, drying of the wet dhools, sieving of dried tea leaf to make the grade.

They will taste their own manufactured tea and learn how to do a tasting of the tea sample in the correct technical way. All participants will be presented with their own pack of tea under their name to proudly enjoy with family, friends, and colleagues in their own country.

Description of the programme

• 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM: When a guest books for the make your own tea programme, they will be warmly welcomed by the Lockhart Tea Factory staff on their arrival to the premises. A cup of White Tea will be given as a welcome drink. Plucking costume will be issued such as Plucking Basket etc.
• 9:30 AM: Guide will bring the guest by trek to the Plucking Field. Then the guest will be accommodated by the field staff to the demarcated tea field with a trained tea plucker to give them the tea plucking training and help with their journey in the field. The guests will then start the plucking of leaf under the supervision of the trained tea plucker in their allocated and named tea field. This is the hardest part of this programme. During this step, the guest understands the effort a regular tea plucker puts in to pluck their day's collection. Normally an average guest would pluck only 5 kg of green leaf. After being in the field for about 2 hours, by 11:30 AM, the guest will be accompanied along with the other workers to weigh the leaf they have plucked.
• 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM: Traditional Kerala Lunch will be provided at Estate Bungalow.
• 2:00 PM: Proceed to Lockhart Tea Factory. Along with the visit, the guests have to work in any of the processes for one hour: Withering – Rolling – Fermentation – Drying – Sorting. After this step, the guest will have a good quality black tea produced by themselves in the Factory. Then the guest will be taken to the specialized tasting room to taste their own tea and learn about the technical terms according to the tea tasting terminology. This will be done by a specialized tea taster. Visit to Plantation Museum. Break with White Tea / Snacks.
• 4:30 PM: Check out along with some Tea that they made on the Day.

The advantages of this programme

• By doing this programme, the guests who are participating will get an idea about the effort which we are putting into making a good cup of tea. They will get an idea about the value of the cup of tea they are drinking. It is an advantage for the team of Lockhart to get international experience and exposure with the guests.