What is the best tea to buy in Sri Lanka. Where to buy Ceylon tea in Sri Lanka and at what price? Ceylon tea from different plantations
tea plantations
tea houses
Kandy
Tea varieties
Where to buy
If you remember that 45 years ago Sri Lanka was called Ceylon, then the phrase “Ceylon tea” will immediately pop up in your head. Ironically, the Sri Lankans, like the inhabitants of the USSR, drink the smallest, low-grade tea, although they really have Ceylon tea;)
Where to see tea plantations in Sri Lanka
Before the colonization of Sri Lanka, neither tea nor coffee grew on the island. In the first decades, Europeans unsuccessfully tried to grow coffee here, but the climate of Sri Lanka was not suitable for this energy. The next attempt was tea, and the Golden Age of Ceylon tea began.
Plantations cover a significant part of the island, they are located in the center, in the highlands. The higher the height, the better the tea. To look at tea plantations as close as possible to Colombo, you need to go to the vicinity of Kandy. Well, the main plantations are located in Nuwara Eliya. By the way, one of the most beautiful railway routes is located exactly between Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. So if you have the time, I highly recommend using it.
We were limited in time, so we admired tea near Kandy. In the photo below - a tea flower, it, unlike the leaves, has a pronounced smell of tea with bergamot. And the leaves don't smell.
Tea berries are inedible. Tea blooms and bears fruit all year round, and in general, tea is a tree, only, as in a joke about another valuable product, they don’t let it grow :)
Every day, thousands of tea pickers come to the tea plantations, picking the best, young and tender tea leaves. For a 12-hour working day, one woman can gain up to 7 kg of fresh leaves. Hell of a job: I tried it, and my speed was 10 times slower than the pros.
Our guide shows which leaves are suitable for harvesting. The first crowded leaf after drying and fermentation turns into white tea, the most expensive and exclusively export-tourist option. Golden needles, silver needles is the first leaf.
The second and third leaves turn into black and green tea, also for export. But the hard bottom sheets are what the Sri Lankans themselves drink (well, the former residents of the USSR). It is turned into dust, which becomes very strong when brewed.
Look, the height of a tea tree can exceed 2-3 meters, but on plantations the trees are not higher than a meter, all young leaves are regularly cut off.
The plantations near Kandy are not very impressive and are heavily geared towards visiting tourists. For a cursory acquaintance, this is ok, but for real beauty you need to climb higher in years, of course.
But you can feel the contrast between what tourists buy and what Sri Lankans drink. Do you want this tea? Do not rush to answer, I will talk about the categories of tea and tastes a little later.
Tea house tours in Kandy
There are several tea houses in Kandy, one of the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka. They are engaged in the production of tea, in parallel with this, conducting tours and tastings for tourists.
The tour itself is free, but you are expected to visit the shop at the end and buy some very overpriced tea. And leave a small financial thank you to the person who gave you the tour.
This is how hand-picked tea is dried.
And so it is fermented. The fermentation process is the process of decay :) This is how the tea leaf rots and rots, turning into black tea.
And if it does not go out and does not rot, then after drying it will become green tea.
Below is a sorting machine. Small particles - for domestic consumption, large leaves for export.
tea classifier. Now it's time to tell what is what:
BPOF - tea dust, small pieces of tea leaves.
BOP is a tea made up of pieces of leaves, not whole leaves. Also strong, the taste of tea is very pronounced.
FP - rough but whole leaves rolled into balls.
OP - the first three sheets, twisted into balls.
I became a fan of BOP and BOPF - they give a strong, rich taste when brewed, BOPF is generally drunk only with milk.
At the tasting, only one type of tea is offered, and this is BOP. It is strange that I liked the cheapest varieties and categorically did not like the elite needles (white tea). Light yellow liquid, what kind of tea is it?
Where to buy inexpensive Ceylon tea in Sri Lanka
There is also a shop in the tasting room. The prices are high, the tea is very good (already tested at home and in the families of friends and relatives). But in the future I will not buy tea in tea houses - the prices there are higher than in duty free, and the assortment is the same.
Gift-wrapped teas are the cheapest to buy in tourist shops in Negombo, and you can save a lot if you buy tea in shops for Sri Lankans. But it will be BOPF grade.
Few people know that all products made in Sri Lanka must be printed with its value, and if you have this fact in your piggy bank, you will not overpay for being a tourist.
So, on teas bought in Kandy, the price was not indicated, but on the packaging of ordinary tea from a regular store, it was printed on the back. Needless to say, a half-kilogram bag was cheaper than a 30-gram bag with a tourist design?;)
What kind of tea do they drink in Sri Lanka
According to our guide, in everyday life, Sri Lankans buy huge bags of BOPF tea in the vicinity of Nuwara Eliya. But even here the modern world takes its toll, and more and more often in the tea-producing country, local residents opt for tea bags from an ordinary supermarket.
There are brands both global and local, Highline tea was my favorite.
It is almost impossible to try freshly brewed loose leaf tea in cafes and restaurants of the middle price category, bags are everywhere. Elite varieties are served in expensive restaurants and tea houses, cheap varieties in very simple eateries for locals.
Finally, I want to talk about whether it is possible to collect and dry tea yourself. I collected these leaves on a tea plantation in a race with a picker and carefully dried them throughout the trip.
What can I say… Grass is grass, properly drying tea leaves and turning them into normal green tea is not so easy.
Tea in Sri Lanka can be divided into highland and lowland. Alpine has the highest taste characteristics and has a very delicate aroma. In color, its infusion is much lighter than the plain. Plain is much stronger and darker. It is recommended to drink it with milk. Well-known world brands mix this inexpensive tea with mountain tea.
Tea in Sri Lanka is produced in different regions, with different climatic conditions:
Nuvara Eliya is located in the heart of the island. The highest quality tea is grown here - it is highly valued all over the world, but it is not so easy to find it for sale. Plantations are located at an altitude of up to 2800 m. The mild, cool and humid climate provides ideal conditions for growing tea here. It is also believed that the eucalyptus and cypress trees that surround the plantations give a special taste and aroma to tea from Nuwara Eliya. This tea is different from all Ceylon teas, it is less strong and has a bright aroma.
Dambulla- famous plantations, located in the western part of the island at an altitude of 1000-1650 m above sea level. Tea with a light infusion, fragrant, with a slight astringency.
Uva- East of the central highlands, plantations are located at an altitude of 1300-2000 m. High quality tea is grown here, gives a rich golden-red infusion and excellent taste and aroma.
Kandy- Strong, rich-tasting tea is produced here. It is grown at an altitude of 600 -1200 m.
Ruhunu is a region in the south of the island. Tea plantations are located here at an altitude of 700 m. The climate of this region is hot. Ruhunu tea is a strong, very dark infusion.
Sri Lanka produces white, green and black tea. Green does not undergo fermentation, that is, immediately after collection, it is sent for drying. And black lies and oxidizes for some time, then the fermentation process is stopped by drying.
Green teas are divided into:
Leafy - it is difficult to divide into various categories according to the shape of the leaf twist.
Broken - broken, cut teas.
Black leaf teas are divided into:
FP – Flowery Pekoe
OP - Orange Pekoe, whole twisted leaves.
P - Pekoe, twisted leaves, with a delicate taste and aroma.
PS - Pekoe Sushong
Then come broken (cut, broken):
BOP - Broken Orange Pekoe, tea from a twisted, broken leaf. The most popular cutting method, and optimal in strength.
FBOP - tea from a broken leaf with the addition of tips.
BOPF - tea from a smaller broken leaf, gives a more tart taste.
BP - Broken Pekoe
BPS – Broken Pekoe Sushong
PD - Pekoe Dust
And very small teas:
Fngs - Fannings (seedings)
D - Dust (crumb), the smallest tea, quite strong.
White or silver tea:
In Sri Lanka, in addition to black and green, Silver Tips tea is on sale - this is “white” or “silver” tea. For this expensive tea, only the top, unblown leaves (tips) are collected. These leaves are velvety, covered with dense white fluff. Tips are collected in small quantities and, unlike black tea, are not crushed and undergo minimal fermentation. The tea itself gives a very light infusion and a light, refined aroma.
What do the letters in the labeling of tea mean:
T. (Tippy) - basically, unblown buds (tips) of the tea leaf, giving a delicate taste and aroma.
F. (Flowery) - buds and leaves growing next to the buds.
P. (Pekoe) - shorter and coarser leaves without tips.
O. (Orange) - tea from young whole twisted leaves.
S. (Sushong) at the beginning of the abbreviation, the lower leaves, giving the tea bouquet a specific shade.
B. (Broken) - tea made from cut leaves.
S. (Special) at the end of the abbreviation is a special, selected tea, which is exclusive for some characteristics.
G. (Golden) - a mixture of leaves of the best, "golden" varieties.
If we simplify it very much, everything can be reduced to the following scheme:
There is also a huge selection of teas with natural or aromatic additives: with soursop, jasmine, ginger, various flowers and fruits. We would not recommend buying such teas. As a rule, the best varieties come in their pure form, and additives only clog the taste, and in some cases, on the contrary, they mask poor quality. But some specimens are still worth trying, for example, green tea with soursop (here it is fresh and very fragrant), or black tea with ginger (very spicy, familiar to the Sri Lankans, but an unusual taste for us).
Tea at the Glenloch factory.
Where could I buy:
Of course, tea in Sri Lanka is sold everywhere - in factories, supermarkets, branded tea shops, such as Mlesna and Chaplon. On the street, you can even find tea packaged in a funny elephant carved from a coconut. You should not buy in supermarkets and on the market, because you have a unique opportunity to buy the highest quality and freshly picked tea directly at the factory, in close proximity to tea plantations. If you didn’t have time or forgot, buy in Mlesna, in Chaplon - these are well-known stores offering good quality tea. If you completely forgot, the same shops at the airport will help out.
And do not forget that the most delicious Ceylon tea is fresh (which is not yet a month old), so do not put off the last cherished pack for ten years, but rather come to visit the tea masters again!
Glenloch factory plantations. 
Ceylon tea is called tea that is grown on the island Sri Lanka, previously called Ceylon. Black tea is mainly produced here, famous for its bright aroma and spicy notes in taste, amber-colored infusion. The island of Sri Lanka has some of the cleanest highlands. The tea leaves are harvested here throughout the year, resulting in high quality, world famous Ceylon tea.
There are six agro-climatic zones of tea cultivation in Sri Lanka, each of which is distinguished by certain geographical and climatic features, different air humidity and soil properties. Therefore, tea grown in each region has its own characteristic shades of taste, aroma, strength and color of the infusion.
Ceylon tea leaves are harvested and sorted by hand. The collection of tea begins in the early morning, when the night fog has not yet melted.
Brewing Ceylon tea
It is recommended to brew tea at a temperature of 95 ºС, while pouring 1/3 of the volume of the cup, after which, after 2 minutes, the remaining 2/3 is poured and a place is left for foam. The formation of foam indicates the high quality of the product. After brewing, the tea leaves are removed so that the drink does not acquire a bitter taste.
Tea is the hallmark of Sri Lanka. The island produces 9-11% of the tea produced in the world. More than half a million people work on the plantations. Almost all tea produced on the island is exported. It turns out that getting to the factory to make a report is not so easy. At all the factories where I came without an agreement, they kicked me out and did not let me shoot. There are several "tourist factories" on the island, where anyone can go, but the show was not interesting to me, I needed a real tea factory. Thanks to the acquaintances of our cook, we managed to find such a factory, and even take pictures for a while, until the bosses of a familiar manager arrived.
"The tea plantations of Ceylon are as much a monument to the courage and bravery of the planters as the statue of a lion in a field near Waterloo." Arthur Conan Doyle
In the central highlands of Sri Lanka, there are plantations of the famous Ceylon tea. Tea was first brought to the island in 1824 from China, and in 1839 from Assam (India). It turned out that the Chinese variety adapted better to the highlands, while the Indian variety adapted well to the plains of the island. In 1867, Scottish planter James Taylor began commercial tea cultivation for the first time, planting 80 hectares of seedlings in the Nuwara Eliya region. Now Sri Lanka ranks third in the world in tea production and first in export. For its unique characteristics, Ceylon tea is recognized as the best in the world. Due to climatic conditions, local tea has a delicate taste and aroma. Tea is cultivated all year round and grown at three levels: up to 600 m above sea level in the regions of Balangoda, Ratnapura, the Kelaniya river valley and Galle; from 600 to 1200 m and above 1200 m in areas around Nuwara Eliya.
01. The raw material for making tea is the leaves of the tea bush, which is grown in mass quantities on special plantations. For the growth of the tea bush, a warm climate with a sufficient amount of moisture is needed, which, however, does not stagnate at the roots. In Sri Lanka, the collection is held up to four times a year. The teas of the first two harvests are most valued. 
02. The best quality is considered to be tea from the high-altitude plantations of the southern part of the island (altitude 2000 m above sea level and above). Teas from other plantations are average in quality. 
03. Tea leaves are harvested and sorted by hand: for teas of the highest grade (and value), unblown buds and the youngest leaves are used, only the first or second flush (the first or second group of leaves on the shoot, counting from the end); more "coarse" teas are made from mature leaves. The work of pickers is quite hard and monotonous: the ratio of the mass of finished black tea and raw leaf is about ¼, that is, it takes four kilograms of leaf to make a kilogram of tea. 
04. The production rate for pickers is 30-35 kg of leaves per day, despite the fact that it is necessary to comply with quality standards and take only the necessary leaves from the bushes. Raw materials for high-grade teas often grow in small plantations located scattered on mountain slopes, so the need to move from one plantation to another is added to the assembly of the leaf. 
05. The need for manual assembly limits the possibilities of tea cultivation. Repeated attempts were made to mechanize the assembly and sorting of tea leaves, in particular, in the USSR, a mechanized tea-harvesting unit was created back in 1958, but the technology of mechanized assembly has not yet been brought to fruition. 
06. Depending on the location, new shoots are harvested once a month or every few weeks. 
07. Women collect tea. 
08. A kilogram of green leaves costs 150 rupees. This is about 50 rubles. 
09. Anyone can collect tea. But from each kilogram the collector must give 100 rupees to the owner of the bush and the earth. 
10. After assembling, the women bring tea to the control point, where the owner checks what they have collected, if there are any foreign objects in the bags. 
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14. In total, a tea picker earns up to 500 rubles per day. 
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16. Tea bags are brought here. 
17. Few men work at the factory. They perform only the most difficult work, such as chopping firewood for stoves or repairing machine tools. 
18. The temperature in the oven is maintained at 120 degrees, the leaves are dried with this air. Deviations greater than 5 degrees are not allowed. 
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20. The factory has an ideal organization, there are markings on the paths for employees, signs and diagrams everywhere, robot people. 
21. Ladder markings. 
22. The first stage in the production of tea is drying. Tea leaves are laid out on nets and blown with warm air, the temperature is 32-40 ° C for 4-8 hours. The tea leaf loses some of its moisture and softens. 
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24. The leaves are turned over by hand. 
25. The most expensive tea is white. It is made from tips (unopened tea buds) and young leaves that have undergone a minimum number of processing steps during the production process, usually only withering and drying. Despite the name, white tea has a higher oxidation state (up to 12%) than most green teas. Among white teas, there are pure tips and those made from a mixture of tips and leaves. When dry, it has a light, yellowish color. 
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29. Then the leaf is twisted on special machines, rollers. When twisting, some of the juice is released. The blades of the tea leaf rolling machine are made of Kitul wood. 
30. Twisting tea leaves, on the one hand, preserves the best qualities of tea, significantly increasing the duration of storage, on the other hand, it allows you to control the extraction of essential oils and other active ingredients that the tea “gives away” during the brewing process. 
31. Depending on the intensity, time and temperature of twisting, a different taste of tea is obtained. The most saturated and strong teas are obtained from strongly twisted leaves, and softer in taste and fragrant - from weakly twisted tea leaves. 
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33. After twisting, fermentation occurs - the process of oxidation and fermentation of cell sap. Tea leaves are laid out on a flat surface and placed in cool, damp, darkened rooms. During the fermentation process, the tea leaves turn dark brown and give off a characteristic spicy aroma. Ideal conditions for high-quality fermentation are a combination of an air temperature of about 15 C with a humidity of about 90 percent. Fermentation can last from 45 minutes to several hours. 
34. Many machines are from the British, they are over 100 years old. 
35. Next, the tea is dried at a temperature of 90-95 ° C for black tea and 105 ° C for green tea. This stops the oxidation and reduces the moisture content of tea to 3-5%. 5. Drying the tea leaf at high temperature stops the fermentation process. At the same time, it is very important to catch the stage when the tea leaves begin to give off their aroma, otherwise you can get an over-fermented product, the taste of which will be much worse, and the infusion less transparent. This point is very delicate: if the tea is not dried, it will simply become moldy and rot. And if you overdry - the leaves will char and the drink from them will get a burnt aftertaste. 
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45. Here tea is sorted by the size of tea leaves 
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53. Ready tea is passed through this machine. She catches tea leaves of the wrong color and weeds them out. 
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57. And that machine sorts tea by size. 
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63. Ready, sifted tea is packed in paper bags. 
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65. Labeling - an important point when buying tea - information on the label. It must be marked on it: the place of collection, information about the manufacturer, weight, expiration date, type of tea, variety and international marking of the tea leaf. 
66. Women, factory workers, load bags of tea into a truck that will take him to the port. 
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What is the most beautiful place in Sri Lanka? In my rating, the first line is occupied by the surroundings of the city of Nuwara Eliya. Beautiful alpine landscape, temperate climate, and most importantly - endless tea plantations. In this part, I will show the beautiful landscapes that open up on the way from, and also talk about the production of tea at the famous Bluefield tea factory.
Let me remind you that we traveled around Sri Lanka by car with a driver, which we ordered from a travel agency in. It was not a strictly organized tour. We had complete freedom of movement and stops, taking into account the rental time and the end point of the route in Weligama. And, we fully realized how cool it is when we drove from to Nuwara Eliya. At every turn the views were one better than the other. “Let’s stop here to take a picture”, “Rua, turn to that hill, the view is cool”, “Wait for us for half an hour, we’ll take a walk between the tea bushes”. Approximately in this mode, the transfer from, which in the end, instead of two and a half hours, took almost the whole day.
Our driver Rua against the backdrop of tea plantations. A few facts about this worthy gentleman:
1. Rua has over 2,000 Facebook friends.
2. Rua knew only two Russians before us, however, they were not from Russia, but from Lithuania.
3. At the Rua school they talked about Lenin and Gagarin.
4. Rua loves Putin and dislikes Obama (hmm-hmm, it would be interesting to hear his version for American tourists).
5. Rua does not like the President of Sri Lanka, because he, on the contrary, prefers Obama (it was two years ago).
6. Rua is a terrible nationalist, he doesn't like Muslims (very much) and doesn't like Tamils.
7. Rua also really dislikes the British, because they are colonizers and imperialists and treated the Sinhalese badly when they captured Sri Lanka.
8. Rua doesn’t like Sinhalese either, but only when they get behind the wheel of a car and turn from Buddhists into a “herd of crazy elephants” (c) Rua
9. Rua does not like the President of Sri Lanka because he gives Tamils and Sri Lankan Muslims more money than Sinhalese (see point 6).
10. Rua loves his wife, on his wedding anniversary he took her to an Italian restaurant where she first tried pizza.
11. Rua stole his wife because her family considered him a gouge and did not give her in marriage, but now he has become rich, and his family loves and appreciates him very much.
12. Rua took two German women to Adam's Peak (the highest mountain in Sri Lanka) and there they had an affair, according to his stories, old German women go to Sri Lanka for the same things that old Germans go to.
13. Rua is an orthodox (or as it should be) Buddhist, near each Buddha statue he slowed down, released the steering wheel, folded his palms and whispered prayers. Near the statues of Ganesha or Hanuman, he also slowed down.
Rua, you are a Buddhist, and Ganesha is the god of Hinduism, why do you revere him?
- Sergey, this is a very interesting topic, I will explain it to you a little later (I hushed it up in the end, but I was too shy to get into it).
14. Rua knows his own worth and treats the rest of the Sri Lankans employed in the tourist service sector a little condescendingly.
Rua, why are you addressing everyone " mali"? What does it mean?
- "Mali"in Sinhala means little brother, little brother.
- Rua, what about the elder brother?
- Big brother will aua". So we address those who are older than you.
- Rua, but this waiter suits your father, why did you call him mali (brother)?
- So he's a waiter, what the heck is a "big brother".
So in the whole trip I never once heard Rua call someone "big brother"
For us, tea plantations are beautiful, but for these pickers, they are hellish and extremely low-paid jobs. According to Rua, normal Sinhalese would never agree to such work, and even Sri Lankan Tamils would not agree, so the British once imported Tamils from southern India to assemble tea. Rua himself treats tea with coolness and does not consider it a national drink.
But the most beautiful point on the road from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya was the valley where Kotmale reservoir.
Enterprising Sri Lankans set up a restaurant, an observation deck and several shops here. Handsome!
Oh, I really wanted to be there again, but it's time to move on to tea. Neighborhood Nuwara Eliya is the main region for growing and producing tea in Sri Lanka. It's just perfect conditions for him. Warm, but not hot, highlands, ideal humidity. Tea appeared on the island relatively recently, in the 19th century it was brought to Ceylon by the British. Moreover, at first the colonialists (then still the Dutch) massively grew cinnamon here, then they switched to coffee, and only after the epidemic that swept the coffee plantations did tea become the most popular culture in Sri Lanka in the second half of the 19th century. Now Sri Lanka ranks third in the world in terms of tea exports, and tea provides almost 15% of the income of the local treasury.
There are several factories and plantations in the Nuwara Eliya area, where an ordinary tourist can go to observe the production process and buy tea directly at the factory. On the Vinsky forum, many recommend Bluefield factory as the place to buy the best tea in Sri Lanka. That is where our Rua brought us. Link to factory website
http://www.bluefieldteagardens.com/
At the Bluefield factory, you can take a free tour of the production. What is nice, you are allowed to shoot freely. Although the tour itself is quite primitive, but still, in my opinion, it is worth seeing once.
The story begins with tea collection. Tea in Sri Lanka is harvested by hand. Usually women do this. They pluck only the top two leaves from each bush and an unopened bud. So they need to collect about 20 kg per day, for this they receive something like a hundred rubles a day with our money. Horror, of course.
Then comes the manual sorting collected leaves. Any rubbish is removed from the tea, the leaves are selected by size and type. The next step - wilting. Excess moisture is removed from the leaves, sometimes with the help of thermal fans. This may take up to 10 hours.
The most responsible process is drying and fermentation.
Baskets for sifting tea.
Mechanical tea conveyors.
After drying, the tea is sent to machines for twisting.
From above, leaves are poured into these vats, then the machine starts to spin, the press presses from above, and crushed and twisted leaves are poured into the pan from below.
Rua did not deceive, indeed, judging by the altar with Ganesha and Vishnu in the factory, tea business is mainly the lot of the Tamils, who, as you remember, are Hindus.
After rolling, the tea is sent to fermentation. During fermentation, damaged and twisted (which speeds up the process) leaves are oxidized in the air. Tea acquires that very rich brown color in just a few (3-4) hours. Green tea is not fermented, but immediately sent for drying.
Then a few more stages of sorting the almost finished tea and packing it into bags and packs.
Sri Lanka mainly produces black tea (red in Chinese terminology). Here are clearly presented the varieties of tea produced by the Bluefield factory (Indian and Ceylon classification).
1. BOPD - Г D from the word dust, literally dust. The finest grind and usually (but not always) the poorest quality. Comes in bags, usually very strong.
2. BOPF is no longer dust, but rather dust. Higher in rank than dust, here in the dust pieces of leaves are already distinguishable. It also usually comes in bags. As a rule, these are waste products from the production of higher quality teas.
3. BOP - medium leaf tea. Stands for broken orange pekoe. Broken means broken (sliced), Orange is not orange, but in honor of the Prince of Orange, i.e. tea worthy of the kings of the Netherlands, Pekoe - the name of the leaf variety, no one really knows where the name came from.
4. Pekoe - large-leaf tea of the Peko variety.
5. OP - very good Peko (see above).
6. Green tea - I think it's understandable. Connoisseurs of Chinese teas here will only frown with skepticism, in China there are thousands of these green varieties, and in Sri Lanka it is all just green.
7. Silver tips - selected leaf buds (more precisely, the upper shoot, top), acquiring a velvety silver color when dried. The most expensive variety in the factory.
8. Golden tips - the raw materials are the same as for silver tips, but with a fermentation process.