Ceylon Tea

Ah! The taste of a fresh cup of Ceylon Tea is all we ask for sitting atop a lush green tea estate. Now that is one of the coolest ways to sip and savor a cup of freshly brewed tea, if you happen to be in the cool climes of some part of the highlands in Sri Lanka.  Just imagine if you lived on a tea plantation it would be sheer bliss to wake up to a beautiful sun rise with a hot cup of tea.  Cozily sitting may be at the plantation window or your weekend getaway.  Tea will always relieve all the stress and tensions of the day, as you bask in the early morning rays of the sun that glistens and shines among the window pane, and the gorgeous green tea bushes dotted among the hills beyond.

Now that is what we would call a picture perfect advertisement for our island’s tea!

Look out of the window, and you get to see the gaily dressed early morning tea pluckers meandering their way among the tea bushes in a most systematic way   plucking their tender green leaves and putting them in their baskets.  Tea has to be picked in the very early hours up to about 12 noon.  It is indeed, a very colorful sight watching the efforts of these beautiful women at work on a tea estate plantation.

Ceylon Tea has a million and one health benefits that can combat and fight against diseases.  It is also a great stress buster.  Drinking green tea can burn a lot of fuel in our body, making our body and muscles stronger.  It can also help reduce the risk of getting heart disease.

Ceylon Tea

Have you tasted our Ceylon Tea Brands?

Sri Lanka is proud to say that it has many famous and good brand of tea a few of the top favorites being:

  1. Lipton Ceylon Tea
  2. Dilmah
  3. Mlesna
  4. Zesta

A lot of these brands are available in all the grocery and shopping malls. But it’s best that you buy some very good tea straight from the tea factory itself.  Mlesna Tea Center has their show rooms in Kandy and about everywhere else in the island.  Did you also know that the name Mlesna spelled backwards, will give you the name Anselm?  Who incidentally are the owner, and Chairman of this great tea center. Fun fact!  You can buy your tea from here, or shop at Laksala Island wide for your tea.   These tea boxes come in very attractive gift boxes and tins, which can only be found in tourist shops.

 

Ceylon Tea Plantation

The Ceylon Tea Plantations is managed by the tea Planters Association.  Tea is exported from Sri Lanka to other countries and is a big business and economy puller for Sri Lanka. Tea was first brought down as a plant and planted by Sir James Taylor on the Tea Estates of Loolcondera in Kandy in 1867.  From there onwards, the tea industry has thrived very well in Sri Lanka and remains the number 1 in tea exports to other countries.  There are about 28 varieties of tea production in our country.

Kandy is the famous birth place of tea and can boast to about 4,000 ft. elevation of tea growing on this island.  Tea grows in a good dry and cool area. Nuwara Eliya is also known to produce high quality tea on its high plains of 6000 ft. one of the coolest climes in the country.  The most highly produced and popular tea leaf is the broken orange pekoe leaf, (BOP).

Uda Pussellawa is another good location for tea growing also a cool place for tea production.  Uda Pussellawa is between Kandy and the Uva district.  These are some of the areas that grow tea among the other vast areas in the island.

Ceylon Tea Plantation

 

Tea factories in Sri Lanka

There are many tea factories in Sri Lanka which is too numerous to mention here.  Here, is just a handful for you to get know about.

The Bogawanthalawa Tea Estate- is one among many other tea estates in Sri Lanka.  This tea estate is one of the finest when it comes to its tea processing sticking to the old Sri Lankan customs of tea making.  They have the best soil for planting and nurturing of tea bushes in Bogawanthalawa estate.

Norwood- is another estate managed by Bogawanthalawa.  This estate too is an exquisite piece of acreage filled with tea bushes with idealism and scenic surroundings.

Just to name a few. All of the above tea estate grow and produce tea. These are all the places that export tea to foreign countries and also have their own shops within the location.

 

Is Ceylon Tea Caffeine dangerous to drink?

Caffeine is prevalent in all Teas, some products have more but some have less.  If you take the black tea it has a very high content of caffeine while, the green tea is of a much lesser content.  The white tea has very much less caffeine.  All caffeine depends on where it was made.

Ceylon Tea .

 

High and low Caffeine content may include in the following:

Green tea has 35-70mg

White tea has 30-55 mg

 

The different types of tea grown in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has a high rate of tea growing and its production.  Tea that is currently being yielded is about 298,000 tones tea which is made here and about 19% of this is exported abroad.  The tea is divided into various grades, according to size and manufacture of same.

BOP – this is a well made tea leaf not too small or big in size.  There are no fanning’s and or dust.  It is a well proportioned tea leaf.  If it comes as dust, then it is of not a good quality.

BOP Sp- this leaf is very much larger than the medium sized leaf above.  It is a clean leaf.

Dust- is definitely off grade. It is powdery and heavy like fiber

Golden Tips-this leaf is true to its name and golden in color.  It is a long leaf and has no black leaf among it.  This kind of tea type is sold separately and privately hence its name golden tips I suppose.

Silver tips-this leaf is silver in color and it is a long tip and has no black leaf, silver and gold I think will make a good couple for tea lovers!

Peko-this leaf is short and curly and it is large in and compared to the other BOP leaves.