On 30 August 2008, PMSSMP organised a trip to Sabah Tea at Ranau. This trip received great response from the 2nd year and 3rd year SSMP students. Around 70 students had registered themselves for this trip to widen their knowledge in the field of tea processing.
Around 8 am, the buses set off from UMS to the tea farm at Ranau. The journey was about 3 hours and everyone arrived at Sabah Tea at 12pm. Students were welcomed by the representatives from Sabah Tea. Before the students visit the factory, they were arranged to have a video session. The video session introduced the history of the Sabah Tea factory, the procedure of tea processing and the type of tea produced by Sabah Tea. The representatives also told the students that there are a lot of events organised in Sabah Tea such as Sabah Tea Adventure Race, 24 hours Non Stop Mountain Bike Race and so on. These events had attracted many participants including foreigners who took part in them.
After the video session, the students were divided into two groups to enter the factory, leaded by the factory representative. Representative explained to students how the machines operate and the procedure step by step. The tea leaves which harvested manually or mechanized were undergo withering process to let the leaf to absorb moisture and concentrate the juices in the leaf. The withered leaf is then passed through machines which twist and squeeze the juices to the surface of the leaf. After that, the tea leaf undergoes fermentation process. It is an oxidation process where the tea juice in the presence of air oxidizes. It is essential for tea to be palatable. Fermented teas are transferred to oven to remove the moisture and arrest fermentation. The tea turn into black colour after this. Sorting process is the last step of processing. It is sorted according to sizes and shapes for identification by various specialists involved in tasting, buying and exporting of tea. The tea finally goes through the packaging process.
Around 1.30pm, students were invited to have lunch in the long houses which were prepared by Sabah Tea. After enjoying a luxuriant lunch, students were on the way back to UMS. There were many students who are not able to join this trip have express their opinion to the organiser that they hope there will be another trip like this in the future. Above that, it was an educational and fun trip.
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