“Two Leaves And A Bud” is a color Countryman Film that educates the viewer on the transformation of jungle into land capable of producing exquisite teas. It opens with heavy machinery cutting through tall grasses (mark 00:40) in East Africa as the narrator explains those lands will soon be developed “into an estate of mature tea.” But it is a long, costly process — not unlike fighting a war, we are told, and we see men hack their way through dense jungle growth. Now looking at a flat expanse (mark 02:08) the narrator discusses the importance of selecting a location for a nursery close to a perennial source of water and then digging trenches. We learn of flowering tea bushes and larger trees and how the fallen seeds are collected by local children to provide them with “pocket money.” The seeds are transferred to the nursery and within a few months healthy plants begin to poke their way from the ground (mark 04:25). After two years plants are moved to a garden as scenes from a Ceylon nursery play out (mark 05:05). The ground is weeded and pants are pruned, and at mark 09:40 we hear of the importance of growing shade trees to protect the plants from burning in the sun.

Tea grows best in hot, tropical regions, we’re told starting at mark 11:10, with a high annual rainfall. “Wet and warm describes a bad cup of tea and a good tea growing climate,” says the narrator, with more flavorful tea growing in higher altitudes. We watch skilled “pluckers” collect tea leaves (mark 15:00) and transported to factories (mark 16:30) where we see the process in which it is prepared for waiting cups.