Yes, I have bought a tea rolling machine in hopes it will help our arthritic hands while processing tea. It had gotten where we just stopped hand rolling our teas. It is a Chinese machine but I bought it from Table Rock Tea Company in South Carolina who specializes in food processing machinery. We do not use any other machenery. It is heavy and required some set up time and expense but it works very well. It took a two bushel test batch of old leaves to learn just how to load and work the pressure at the right time to get the results wanted. We are very pleased.
Here is a sample of the green tea we made this past week and a sample of the green tea we made last month. What a difference and I actually rolled it about half as long as recommended. It also concentrates the tea and makes it a good bit stronger. It all has been a learning curve. When I put the rolled tea out in the sun to dry it felt more like Cole Slaw than tea leaves. And it dried out much faster. A new day has come to the Fairhope Tea Farm.