Makaibari Tea Manufacture

• The Makaibari harvest starts with the first flush in March and continues till November.   The first day of the season, “Paila Pati” (first leaf) is usually celebrated with special gifts and blessings.
• Workers pick 90 acres of tea fields daily, covering the entire farm in 6 days.
• All the bushes are picked once a week from the commencement of harvest till its close in late Fall.
• Typically, about 200 women and 100 men pick the leaf daily.
• Makaibari employs about 600-625 workers each year.  Together with their families, about 1100 people live at Makaibari.
• Makaibari produces Black, Green, Oolong, Silver Tips and White Tea.
• Tea grades include FTGFOP1S Leaf, TGBOP1 Brokens and GOF Fannings
• Limited Production teas are produced when conditions are ideal.  These may include Silver Tips Imperial, Crystal Flush or Silver Tips Muscatel.  

Makaibari Tea High in Antioxidants

Organic Functional Ingredients:  Doubling Down on Health and Wellness
by Mark Crowell, CRC
Organic Processing, July-September 2007

An-TEA-oxidants:  Antioxidants can be found in everything from blueberries, cranberries and pomegranates to dark chocolate - but out of all the sources, one of the most well-known and researched is green tea.  Studies have linked a wide range of health benefits to green tea including lowering the risk of certain cancers and heart disease, as well as weight loss and protection against Alzheimer's.

One way to measure the strength of an antioxidant is by its Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity of ORAC value.  The ORAC value is a measure of the capacity of the product to subdue free radicals that damage cells.  Green tea has a very high ORAC value, outranking blueberries and more than two times as powerful as pomegranates.

Red rooibos and white Fujian teas also have comparable ORAC values to that of green tea, and Darjeeling Makaibari extract boasts almost two times the ORAC value of green tea according to data from Moore Ingredients.