Have you ever seen a Chinese or Japanese person with missing teeth?

This was one of the lines by our guide at the tea museum in Munnar, Karela, India.  The guide was trying to convince us to drink green tea.  Have you ever seen a Chinese or Japanese person with a belly?  How come Chinese and Japanese people look younger than their years?  It is all because of green tea.

He suggests that you put a few green tea leaves in room temperature water in the morning, and drink from the bottle all day, topping it up as needed.  He suggests that the different substances will be extracted from the tea at different rates throughout the day.  And without using hot water, it will never taste bitter.  Good for your teeth, heart, skin, cholesterol, diabetes, and entire body.

The Brits brought the tea to India and planted it on mountainous land that was too steep for much else.  Some of the plants in Munnar are 150 years old, and in China and Japan there are 400 year old plants.  If you did not prune it, the plants would be 30 foot tall trees!  In India, each bush/tree is pruned every 7 days, year round, forever.

Because of the constant pruning, the view of the hillsides is constantly the color of the fresh bright spring-green leaves that have been growing only a few days.  It is an incredible view, kilometer after kilometer, up into the mountains.  In Japan the tea is grown in straight rows (no surprise there).  In India it is grown in more of a quilt pattern.  This quilt becomes particularly festive when the women are there picking the tea.

In fact, it is not so much picked these days as pruned.  They have clippers with a bag attached for collecting the prunings.  Originally women picked the tea because of their fine motor dexterity; they still have this job.  In fact, one man "controls" a crew of 25 women.  Before they pick, they wrap their lower body in oilcloth or thick cloth, put on a long sleeve shirt, put cloths on their heads to protect from the sun, and put on gloves.

The original plantation that was the site of the tea museum was established quite early.  As with other company towns around the world, workers were paid in company-specific coins.  They were given health care and day care.  Cows were introduced to give milk, and a veterinarian was hired.

What is the situation today?  The workers own the plantation, and there is a veterinary research institute nearby.  I cannot tell you what they are paid, and what expenses that needs to cover.....