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P.H. HASE, J.W. HAYES AND K.C. IU
their natural juices and the tastes and flavours of those juices, and leave behind only the taste of the substance of the leaf itself. This preparation takes several hours and each village family does the work necessary for its own tea itself. This preparation work is done by the village women.
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A very low fire is lit in the stove. The fresh leaves are placed in the dry wok for ten or fifteen minutes. In the heat the leaves in the wok wilt, and drops of juice ooze out to form steam, so that the whole mass of leaves quickly becomes a heap of warm, damp greenery. It is essential for the fire to be neither too hot, which would cook the leaves and make it difficult to express the juices, nor too cool, which would inhibit the wilting and steaming.
Once the steaming is complete, the leaves are taken out of the wok and placed on a rice winnowing tray. The leaves are then vigorously squeezed and rolled on the tray for up to half an hour to force out the juices. After this operation the tray is stained all over and wet with the juices.
At this stage the leaves are returned to the wok, which must still have only a very low and steady fire to ensure that the leaves do not burn or cook. The leaves are now slowly stirred in the wok by hand for about two hours. This stirring is to ensure that no leaves stick to the wok and burn, and to make it easy for the housewife, by feel, to ensure that the fire is kept at the right level, and steady.
After the stirring process is complete the tea leaves are completely dry and brittle, but retain some of their green colour. The leaves are now ready for use. At present villagers store the prepared tea leaves in large cans with tightly fitting lids: traditionally the leaves were merely stored in rattan baskets in dry places. In the traditional storage system, the leaves had to be checked every week or so, particularly in wet weather: if there was any sign of damp, the stored leaves had to be taken out and placed on rice winnowing trays in the sun to dry out again, being carefully turned several times to ensure that the re-drying was done evenly. Villagers do not bother to sift or grade the leaves, large and small leaves with the twigs and stalks are all stored up together. In time the heavier particles (twigs and the larger, coarser leaves) and the dust