From the bustle of Colombo to the hilltops of Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka is an amazing kaleidoscope of colour and culture.
After many years of being a “Coffee Widow”, it was my turn to visit a country of Origin. For me it was tea and the beautiful island of Sri Lanka!
With my love of tea and an invitation from Andrew Mackay of Cofi-Com to tour a plantation, I started to plan my trip. With my dear friend Tracey, jumping at the chance to join me, it was just a matter of booking hotels and a driver. I have no doubt that our experience in Sri Lanka was enhanced by our driver, Ashok, a very gentle and spiritual man, with an endless wealth of knowledge!
From the bustle of Colombo to the hilltops of Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka is an amazing kaleidoscope of colour and culture.
Most of the tea production in Sri Lanka is in the Central District, around the city of Nuwara Eliya. At an altitude of 1,868 m and with a temperate climate, it is ideal for growing tea. After choosing to visit Sri Lanka in July, monsoon season, we were treated to the continual light rain and eerie mists that added a mystical quality to the hillsides. The photos of the plantations I had seen did not do justice to the countryside. Rolling hills with perfected aligned rows of tea plants, all plucked by hand, yet amazingly even!
Tea was introduced into Sri Lanka (previously known as Ceylon), by the British in the 1860s. Many of the early tea estates were originally coffee plantations. Due to a lack of coffee knowledge, and as the demand for tea grew, by the 1880s the British had converted the crops to tea. In 2012 Sri Lanka produced approximately 325 million kilos of tea, a mere 10% of the world’s tea production. The country is best known for its black tea and exports 94% of the tea grown.
I had the pleasure of visiting several plantations, learning about the different methods of fermentation and processing. I was surprised to learn that for every 100 kg of tea picked, less than 25 kg is yielded. Most of this is lost in the withering and rolling of the tea leaves. Whilst visiting the Pedro Tea Estate in Nuwara Eliya, I was given the opportunity to experience tea picking! This 546 Ha estate was most impressive, with its pristine processing plant and the cupping room proudly displaying some of Sri Lanka’s best tea awards. The staff from Lovers Leap Boutique were excited to dress me up in some protective gear for picking and send me out to ‘pluck’ a basketful of tea! Ten minutes and 100 grams later, I was frustrated by having to push my way through the tightly planted rows of tea plants, suffering scratches and being rained on the whole time. It certainly gave me a new appreciation of tea!
Tea plants from the South of India were the first to be introduced to Sri Lanka. For this reason the local Indians, known as the Tamils, were also brought to Sri Lanka to cultivate the crops. To this day it is the Tamils who work the tea plantations. Most of the tea pickers are women, while the Tamil men work in the vegetable gardens. Every imaginable plot of land has either tea or vegetables growing on it. I was fortunate enough to see what happens at the end of a shift in the estates. Ashok pulled our car over just as the women came down from the fields to a weigh-in point. As they unharnessed their baskets, they were weighed on old scales. The pickers earn a monthly wage, and then are paid a per kilo price on the tea they pick. A fast and efficient woman can pick up to 10 kilos in one shift, sometimes 25 kilos in a day. The weight of their basket is written into their personal log books and a bonus is paid to them at the end of the month.
I was humbled by the harsh conditions these women work in and how hard working they are for minimal wages. The people were also quick to pose for a photo and just as quick to ask for some Rupee to supplement their wages! Sri Lanka is a country still trying to rebuild after the devastation of the 2004 Tsunami, when over 56,000 people were killed. Add to that a 26 year civil war, and you can understand the poor conditions some people still live in.
For Ashok, our driver, nothing was too much trouble to organise. After a conversation with him about a lady we had heard of from Melbourne now living in Sri Lanka and running an ophanage, we made a few phone calls and found her! We were very honoured and blessed to spend the day at the Boys Home in Hewadiela, Central Sri Lanka. St. Anthony’s Boys Home is home to 30 beautiful boys aged between 4 and 16 years old. The Home is run by a remarkable woman named Ollie, who had lived in Melbourne for over 30 years, before deciding to go back to Sri Lanka in 2004 to support and help the poor. The boys called me “Auntie”, played cricket with me, borrowed my mobile phone and took hundreds of “selfies”, proving children are the same the world over! They were bubbly, well mannered and couldn’t wait to show us their dormitories and small collection of possessions. The pure joy on their faces as we offered each boy a bag of school books, pencils, erasers and chocolate biscuits will stay with me always. www.kkcf.org
So if you are looking for a holiday that offers golden beaches, rainforests, tea plantations, scrumptious cuisine, and beautiful people, try Sri Lanka. You can visit temples, the Elephant Orphanage, climb Sigiriya Rock or go stilt fishing! Every day was an adventure.
I would like to thank Andrew Mackay from Cofi-Com and Ashok Dias from Tea Drop for their assistance during my stay at the Tea Estates.
Written by Patrina Metcalf
