It is no wonder that many concur that Sri Lankan tea, with its fine, rich flavour and bright, golden colour, is the best in the world. After textiles, tea remains Sri Lanka’s second biggest export, and you if you have been blessed to traveling through the island you will notice the distinctive cropped bushes all across the hill country. Although introduced by the British, the tea industry is a source of immense national pride, and recent years have seen some ingenious methods of capitalizing on the country’s heritage. Near Nuwara Eliya, an old factory has been converted into a magnificent hotel, retaining its original features, while the world’s first tea museum is open up near Kandy. A visit to working tea factory is also recommended.

Tea famously originated in China (though one legend suggests it was introduced by an Indian missionary) but it was not until 1833 that the Chinese monopoly on exporting tea was abolished, and the East India Company began to grow tea in Assam in India. In Sri Lanka, the first tea bushes were planted in 1849 by James Taylor on a cleared hill top just southeast of Kandy. It was an attempt at experimenting with a crop to replace the unfortunate diseased coffee plantations that covered much of Sri Lankan hillsides then. The experiment paid off and Sri Lanka today is the world’s third biggest producer of tea, and the largest exporter, with a 20% share of global demand. The bushes now grow from sea level to the highest slopes, though the lush ‘low-grown’ variety lacks the flavor, colour and aroma which characterize bushes grown above 1000m. The slow-growing bushes at greater heights produce the best flavor and aroma when picked carefully by hand – just two leaves and a bud.

The old ‘orthodox’ method of tea processing produces the aromatic lighter coloured liquor of

the Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe in its most superior grade. The fresh leaves are dried by fans on ‘withering troughs’ to reduce the moisture content and then rolled and pressed to express the juices which coast the leaves. These are then left to ferment in a controlled humid environment in order to produce the desired aroma. Finally the leaves are dried by passing them through a heated drying chamber and then graded – the unbroken being the best quality, down to the ‘fannings’ and ‘dust’.

The more common form of tea found on the island is the “crushing, tearing, curling’ (CTC) method produces tea which gives a much darker liquor. It uses machinery which was invested in Assam in 1930. The process allows the withered leaves to be given a short, light roll before engraved metal rollers distort the leaves in a fraction of a second. The whole process can take as little as 18 hours.

The entire process is so fascinating that a visit to a working tea factory is a “MUST” when you visit Sri Lanka. Ranfer Travels Sri Lanka will organize special tours into factories en route to Nuwara Eliya and take you through this intriguing process of making that perfect cup of Ceylon Tea. What’s more if you are a true Tea connoisseur, Ranfer Travels Sri Lanka can organize a full tour to meet the tasters at Ranfer Teas, who will take you through the detailed processes of identifying and blending teas to different regions of the world, our tea bagging department, packing and an introduction to the world’s fastest auction, the Sri Lanka Tea Auction.