TEA GARDENS OF SRI LANKA

     Sri Lanka is a mountainous tropical island in the Indian Ocean south of India.  Tea was first introduced to the island after coffee, the island's main crop, was mostly destroyed by the coffee rust fungus in 1869.  The person maily responsible for the production of tea on the island was James Taylor, a Scot who acquired some knowledge of tea cultivation in North India.  Since 1880, when the tea production was 23 pounds, Sri Lanka has grown to be a major producer and exporter of tea in the world. 

     The tea plant, Camellia Sinansis, takes 5 years for the seed to grow into a tea bush that produces leaves for plucking.  One tea plant produces about 154 pounds of black tea a year, and will produce tea for at least 50 years.  A suitable climate for cultivation has a minimum annual rainfall of 45 to 50 inches with acid soils.  Tea likes hot days, cool nights and plenty of rain, most high quality tea is grown in mountainous regions.

     Everyday, around 300,000 estate workers pluck several million tea leaves by hand.  This is the first step in the manufacture of quality Ceylon tea.  Only the bud and the two youngest leaves are plucked, for it is only these leaves that have the flavor and aroma.  The plucked tea leaves are then brought to the muster sheds where they are weighed and first quality inspection is made.  The leaves are then moved to the factory where they are witherd using large blowers.

     The next step in the manufacturing process involves, cutting the leaves.  This brings out the juices and begins the fermentation process.  Fermentation is the critical step in the production of tea.  The humidity, temperature and fermentation time has to be well controlled or the flavor is lost.  After fermentation is completed, the leaves are fired, to lock in the flavor, to dry them and to improve the keeping qualities.

     Most of the Ceylon tea gardens are situated at elevations between 3,000 and 8,000 feet in two areas of the southwest part of the island.  Sri Lanka's finest teas are produced mainly from bushes that grow above 4,000 feet.  The bushes grow more slowly in the cooler, mistier climate and are harder to harvest because of the steep angle of the slopes on which they are planted.

     There are six main tea-producing areas.  The teas produced in each region have their own individual characteristics of flavor, aroma and color.  When it comes to tea experts, Sri Lanka ranks among the world's undisputed leaders.