Cocoa Girls take a trip to China!- A day at the Tea Plantaion

So it's been a few months since Kate and I got back from China and I wanted to share some pictures of a special day we had in Yangshuo. We went to China to visit our friend Jamie (his sister Emily also works in Cocoa) and he had managed to find this amazing tea plantation.


Yangshuo is a beautiful part of China, full of karst mountains, rice fields and tea. You can't really see from this picture but it was really hot!

This is called the Treasure Bowl, it's where the tea shrubs grow.

This is me (Anne) picking the tea leaves.



And Kate picking tea leaves.



You only pick the young leaves; the upper lead bud and the next two leaves.



Sometimes they call these leaves 'Green Feathers' and you can see why.



Here is a close up on the tea leaves.




To the tea factory...Here the leaves are withered and rolled.



Then they will be fermented, dryed & sorted.



Here is the rolling machine.




Next up...Tea tasting! Kate and I are very excited.



Our wonderful host Annie shows us how to hold our teacups (like a lady).



Kate and I smell all the different kinds of tea Annie sells in her shop.



The fresh green tea leaves are washed first, then they use the cups to brew the tea. We didn't actually see a teapot in sight!


Once the leaves are brewed Annie strains the tea.



And pours it into tiny tasting cups.



This is Annie's Tea shop.




And this is the Chinese symbol for tea.



We say goodbye to Annie and China....



But not before one last brew, look how amazing this table is!


If you are interested in going to China, check out Jamie's website :www.internchina.org
for a great time.