Week 25: Vinu and I started the week with a trip to the market. We weren't out to get our groceries though; instead we were accompanying one of the Tata Tea sales team to see how the population of Kerala get their tea.

In my previous blog I mentioned our trip to the tea shop, where you can get a boiling hot, strong cuppa at the side of the road. However, there are a number of other outlets for tea, catering to a range of different consumers. First stop was a wholesaler on the edge of Ernakulum market. We arrived just as a delivery of rice was being unloaded, highlighting that this particular establishment, sold just about any foodstuff you could want, from staples to spices. Among the lentils, rice, sugar and cardamom, we saw the distinctive green Tata Tea packs. Here the owners of the hot tea shops will come and buy in bulk what they need to make the strong brew for the thirsty punter.

Deeper into the market, lined with stalls selling a huge variety of fruits, spices, electrical goods, and just about anything else you might want to buy, we visited an outlet which was selling various packed products including, of course, tea. Branded tea packets are hung in strips at the back of the stall, so the customer points to their favourite and the stall holder tears a pack from the end. Our colleague was keen to find out how the Tata teas had been received, and Vinu too felt it a good opportunity to speak to the stallholder and get an idea of how the tea he was buying in the auction was being received here in the market. After the intense sights, sounds and smells of the market we made our way to the more sedate environment of a Western style supermarket, which was certainly familiar to me, made even more so by the presence of Tetley tea bags on the shelves!

Midweek Vinu and I headed inland again, this time to the famous Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu province. Nilgiris is renowned in the tea trade as home to some of finest teas from Southern India, if not the world. This was confirmed when one Nilgiris tea fetched a record price at the first ever Las Vegas tea auction in 2006.

Our initial destination was to be Glendale Tea Estate. So after the long and dusty road to Coimbatore, we still had to negotiate a series of hair-raising hair-pin bends, with buses and trucks appearing from nowhere, horns blaring under the tree canopy. The bands of monkeys who populate the area didn't seem in the least bit bothered, however, and sauntered nonchalantly out of the way if any traffic appeared.

Glendale itself is set at the upper end of a valley before the pass that takes the road over to the town of Coonoor, where the other South Indian tea auction centre is based. Here the lush green of tea bushes is set against the darker tones of the forest, rising up to the boulders and rocky outcrops forming the mountain tops.

We were hosted by manager Mr Shenai who gave us a tour of the factory which has recently undergone something of a facelift, bringing it in line with international manufacturing standards. And in line with such standards Vinu and I had to wear rather fetching hairnets and shoe covers. Following the tour there was the customary tasting session, a chance to see and slurp the range of teas produced here in Glendale, which displayed the typical aromatic and flavoury characteristics one expects from a Nilgiris tea.

Just as we were finishing off the tasting session, Mr Shenai became quite animated, checking his watch and listening out of the door. He beckoned us to come quickly, as the train was coming... a little confused, I followed him out of the factory gates of the edge of one of the tea fields to see a small steam train puffing its way in between the tea bushes, and apparently running on time too. Apparently Glendale is the only tea estate in the world to have a narrow gauge steam railway running through it. I paused, thinking of the dozen or so estates I'd visited so far on my trip and concluded that I could not provide evidence to dispute this claim.

As if the wild surroundings of Glendale were not enough, we were billeted in the guest house of another estate in the group, Adderly. From there the views 3000ft (or is it 5000?) down onto the plain, framed from the West by the mountains, were spectacular. And after dark it was no less remarkable with the lights of the city of Coimbatore engulfing the plain with what seemed like countless tiny fires.

Next week I'm back in Cochin to spend a week in the Tetley factory...

Week 26: So far in Kerala, in Southern India, I've seen tea growing, tea buying, tea distribution and tea tasting. But there's still one crucial step I'd missed out, tea packing, so this week it was time to visit the Tetley factory...

Cochin is the location for one of the four Tetley packing facilities (along with the UK, USA and Pakistan). If you're a Tetley drinker in Australia, Poland or Kazakhstan, or a Tata Tea drinker in the Middle East, the tea in your cup will have been packed here. The Tetley blends are sourced and blended by the tea tasting team in London (of course already you'll know all about that from the video on this website), so it's a useful visit from my point of view to get an idea of how the work we do in the UK relates to the practicalities of making tea bags and delivering a great tasting brew just the way you like it.

This is in fact my second visit to Cochin with Tetley. I came out here in 2006 while working on secondment to the Quality Assurance department - they're the ones who make sure Tetley is at its very best. This means ensuring that not only the tea, but also the tea bags, the packets, the machines and even the building itself are in tip top condition.

My host this week was Cochin factory QA manager, and resident Tea Taster, Angelos. He's a familiar contact for the tea buying team in London, as he's the man to speak to about the blends that were created by the tea experts in London. This means plenty of tasting for Angelos, and for us, along with an exchange of ideas and opinions on the teas, over the phone, by email or when we get to make trips such as this. It has been an interesting change from the buying office, and something of a return to my old job as blending assistant. Angelos will taste samples of the teas that arrive in the warehouse along with all the blends that are packed. Without his expert slurp and say so, the tea won't make it out of the factory door.

By the end of the week, at the request of Angelos, I put my QA hat on again and did a quality audit of the whole plant. This meant lots of looking at tea bag machines (which fill hundreds of bags a minute making for quite a hypnotic sight), checking warehouses, blending rooms and even the staff canteen. After writing this blog I'll be going through my findings with the team here. Needless to say the standards have remained very high since my last visit, and as I look down from the office, the packs of Tetley are rolling out along the conveyor belt, and will soon be in a store near you (if you're in Australia or Poland that is!)

After one long day tasting teas, this week Angelos and I, along with the factory Finance guru, Jimmy, headed out to sea. 8 km out to sea to be precise, on an evening boat cruise. Not quite flush enough to afford our own yacht we hopped aboard the good ship Sadaya Rani with a couple of dozen other eager tourists and sightseers. On the way out we did a lap of the harbour, complete with sights of the container terminal on manmade Willingdon Island (behind which the factory is situated); after this symbol of modern seafaring we soon saw some signs of a bygone age. On the shore of the island of Fort Cochin stand a row of Cheena vala or Chinese fishing nets, the design for which came from China as the name suggests, back in the 14^th Century.

Fort Cochin also has a link to an illustrious navigator whose path I have already crossed once on my trip. On his third voyage to India in 1524 Portuguese mariner Vasco Da Gama died in Cochin, and he was originally buried at St Francis Church on the island, though his remains were subsequently returned to Portugal. We then made our way out into the Arabian Sea, 8 km from the shore (as the guide reminded us). The price of the ticket included some tea, sweet, milky and flavoured with cardamom, along with a plate of local cakes (it reminded me of the snack box served in the Cochin tea auction).

As we approached the all important 8 km mark, we witnessed what we'd come out here to see, namely the sunset. The glowing orb raced towards the horizon, and I managed to coax enough juice out of my camera battery to take a few snaps before it disappeared behind a bank of cloud. This turned out to be a salutary reminder of the changing weather conditions, as in the next few days the monsoon will be here. And in the sky over the Arabian Sea, heading inland, were columns of not quite yet angry clouds. Someday soon, however, it will start raining and pretty hard by all accounts.

Next week I'm going to be getting wet (weather permitting) on the tea estates, to see just how they get the tea plucked and processed during the monsoon...