{"id":858561,"date":"2024-10-03T15:28:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T12:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tourism.com.de\/?p=858561"},"modified":"2025-02-07T11:21:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T09:21:27","slug":"ceylon-tea-a-journey-through-tea-plantations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tourism.com.de\/en\/ceylon-tea-a-journey-through-tea-plantations\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83c\udf75 Ceylon tea: a journey through tea plantations"},"content":{"rendered":"

I, like many of you, associate Sri Lanka<\/a> with tea. Therefore, once on the island, I decided to see the notorious plantations with my own eyes and learn about the production process of a world-famous product. Lipton Yellow Label, Richard Royal Ceylon, Ahmad Tea Ceylon, Dilmah use tea leaves from Sri Lanka for their drinks. But what tea is truly Ceylonese?<\/p>\n

\"Travel<\/a><\/p>\n

Why is tea from Sri Lanka called Ceylon?<\/h2>\n

In the 1st millennium BC. e. a people arrived on the island who called themselves “Sinhalese”, which translates as “lions” – that\u2019s why this animal is depicted on the coat of arms of Sri Lanka, even though there are no lions on the island. The Sinhalese gave the new territory their name “Sinhala Dwipa”, which means “land of the Sinhalese”.<\/p>\n

In the 15th century, these lands were opened to the port<\/a> by the Galians. The game of broken telephone began: they heard the word “Sinhala” as “Seilao”. In the 17th century, the Portuguese were supplanted by the Dutch, who changed the name in their own way: “Zeylan”. And at the end of the 18th century the British conquered the island, assigning it the name “Ceylon”. Tea began to be grown on the island during the English colony.<\/p>\n

\"Travel<\/a><\/p>\n

In the mid-20th century, Ceylon gained independence. And in 1972, with the adoption of a new constitution, the state was renamed Sri Lanka, which means “glorious\/shining\/blessed land<\/a>.” But the tea packaging still bears the signature “packed in Ceylon”.<\/p>\n

How did tea begin to be grown on these lands?<\/h2>\n

At first, the British used new territories with a humid and warm climate to grow coffee. And, it is worth noting, Ceylon grains are in great demand in Europe. But in the second half of the 19th century, the fungus destroyed all coffee plantations.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, at the beginning of the century, the English entrepreneur James Taylor brought the first tea seedlings from China to Sri Lanka. And just in time for a terrible fungal infection, he managed to turn his experiment into<\/a> an industrial-scale business. True, the first batch of Ceylon tea reached London<\/a> only in 1891.<\/p>\n

\"Travel<\/a><\/p>\n

At this time, another Briton, Thomas Lipton, became interested in the tea potential of the Sri Lankan lands. He bought many hectares of plantations at a low price, gaining the opportunity to supply tea to his stores without intermediaries. Thanks to inexpensive products, Lipton conquered not only the European market, but also entered the US<\/a> market.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka now ranks third in the world in tea production, after China and India. Mostly black tea is grown here. Sri Lankan klimata<\/a> makes it especially tasty and more tart. Green, white and oolongs are also available on the island, but their taste characteristics are noticeably inferior to their competitors.<\/p>\n

\"Travel<\/a><\/p>\n

Where can I see how Ceylon tea is produced?<\/h2>\n

The island has more than 200 thousand hectares of tea plantations, which belong to both large and small factories. The aroma of leaves collected from different regions varies slightly. If you want to know the taste of the perfect Ceylon tea, go to the highland provinces of Nuwara Eliya or Dimbula.<\/p>\n

I did just that: I looked at the Pedro Tea Estate<\/a> factory, which is located four kilometers from the city of Nuwara Eliya. There you can get acquainted with the complete process of tea production: manual picking of leaves (if you are in season), withering ,<\/a> rolling, fermentation, drying, sorting and packaging for export to all corners of the world.<\/p>\n

On the lands that now belong to the Pedro plantation, James Taylor planted the first tea bushes, marking the beginning of the era of Ceylon tea. The Pedro Tea Estate factory was founded in 1885. It is still equipped with 19th century equipment. Tea leaves are collected from local plantations up to four times a year. For 1 kg of dry tea, up to 4 kg of harvest is used. In the local cafe you can taste the factory\u2019s teas and immediately buy the ones you like.<\/p>\n

How to choose the best Ceylon tea?<\/h2>\n

As you already understand, it is important to know where the tea grew. The most valuable varieties are considered to be high mountain ones. In second place are mid-elevation ones, in third place are lowland ones.<\/p>\n

The next factor influencing the cost is the size of the tea leaves. The highest category includes teas made from large whole leaves. To medium – from small or small ones<\/a>. Cheaper is tea made from small pieces that remain after sorting. The last two species also have subspecies, but I won\u2019t go into so much detail. Let me add that the most elite tea is made from the top leaves that have not yet blossomed.<\/p>\n

\"Travel<\/a><\/p>\n

They say that only the one in packs with the lion's coat of arms can be called real Ceylon tea. It really was like that before. But now the packaging design is chosen by the tea brand – there may be no lion, but the quality remains. Today, Ceylon tea is the tea that is 100% produced from raw materials grown on one of the Sri Lankan plantations, packaged without the addition of<\/a> other leaves.<\/p>\n

How to brew black Ceylon tea?<\/h2>\n

Since its ancestors are the British, tea should be prepared in the classic English way. To do this, you need to bring the water to the first bubbles and rinse the teapot with it. Then pour the required amount of tea into the bowl: at the rate of 1 teaspoon per 200 ml cup. To clean the tea leaves from dust, pour a little boiling water into the teapot and immediately drain it. And only after this can you fill the kettle with the amount of hot water needed for tea drinking. You only need to brew black tea for a few minutes\u2014you can\u2019t hold it for more than five, and you can\u2019t dilute the infusion remaining in the teapot with boiling water. If after the first brew you pour the drink completely, you can infuse the same tea leaves again.<\/p>\n

\"Travel<\/a><\/p>\n

In English, it is customary to drink tea with milk. To do this, it is important to warm up the cups – rinse them with boiling water, then fill a quarter of the dishes with milk or cream, and then add the tea itself.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the Sri Lankans themselves love finely chopped tea, brewing it quickly without any complicated ceremonies.<\/p>\n

\"Travel<\/a><\/p>\n

And of course, since you are going to fly to Sri Lanka, it is important to know where to go to enjoy the warm Indian Ocean – I talked about a beach holiday<\/a> on the island in a separate article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you dream of learning everything about the famous Ceylon tea? Take a trip to the tea plantations of Sri Lanka! Learn about the production process, the best varieties and the island’s unique tea traditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":834491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[2729,1179,2089,2519,2509],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-858561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indien-en","category-miscellaneous","category-ozeanien-en","category-reisetipps-en","category-reisen-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourism.com.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourism.com.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourism.com.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourism.com.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourism.com.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tourism.com.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourism.com.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourism.com.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourism.com.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourism.com.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}