Mist over Nuwara Eliya, pickers on the slopes and a fresh cup on the veranda: a morning in Sri Lanka’s tea hills explains why Ceylon tea is famous – and why the hill country is a highlight of every Sri Lanka tour.
From coffee to Ceylon tea
Before Sri Lanka was famous for tea, it was a coffee island. British planters cleared whole mountainsides for coffee in the 19th century – until a fungus known as coffee rust swept through the estates from 1869 and destroyed almost all of them. By then a Scottish planter called James Taylor had already started experimenting with tea on the Loolecondera estate near Kandy. In 1867 he planted the island’s first commercial tea field, and within a few decades the hill country had turned into the green, terraced landscape you see today.
The name Ceylon stuck. Although the country has officially been Sri Lanka since 1972, the packets still say “Ceylon Tea”, often with a small lion logo as a mark of origin. Sri Lanka remains one of the world’s largest tea exporters, and for many families in the hills tea is still the main source of income.
Two leaves and a bud
Plucking begins early, while the air is still cool. Pickers take only the top two leaves and the bud from each shoot – the youngest, most tender growth – and toss them over their shoulder into the basket on their back. Because the climate is tropical, the bushes keep growing all year, so each section of an estate is plucked every week or two. A skilled picker gathers around 20 kilograms of fresh leaf a day.
Most pickers are Tamil women whose families came from southern India in the 19th century to work on the estates. Many still live in the long rows of estate housing known as line houses. The work is hard and poorly paid, so we ask our guests not to walk up to pickers for photos. Our guides ask first, and they are happy to explain what life on an estate is really like.
Inside the factory
In the factory the leaves are spread on long troughs and withered with warm air for up to a day, until they lose much of their moisture. They are then rolled to break the cells and release the juices – this is when the whole hall starts to smell of fresh tea. Next the leaves are left to oxidise, the step that turns them from green to copper-brown and decides how strong the tea will be. Finally they are fired in hot dryers, which stops the oxidation and turns them into black tea.
Sorting by leaf size gives the grades you see on tea packets: OP (orange pekoe) for long, whole leaves, BOP (broken orange pekoe) for smaller pieces, and fannings and dust for tea bags. None of these terms describe flavour – only the size of the leaf. Most factories welcome visitors and end the tour with a tasting, and it is a revelation how different teas from the same slope can taste, depending on the grade and the time of year.
Why altitude matters
Ceylon tea is classified by elevation. The higher the estate, the slower the leaves grow and the more delicate the flavour.
High-grown teas from Nuwara Eliya, at around 1,800 to 1,900 metres, are light, bright and floral – sometimes called the champagne of Ceylon teas. Dimbula, around Hatton on the western slopes, produces fresh, balanced teas. Uva, the area around Ella and Haputale, is known for teas with a distinctive, slightly spicy character, shaped by dry winds in the summer months. Mid-grown teas around Kandy are fuller and stronger, while low-grown teas from Ruhuna in the south are dark and malty, much loved in the Middle East. On our tours you taste all of them.
How to visit a tea factory
A tea factory visit is part of every trip to the hill country, and a few simple tips help you get the most out of it.
Come in the morning, when the factory is usually processing leaf and the machines are running. Ask to taste more than one grade – the difference between a whole-leaf orange pekoe and a broken grade from the same estate is striking. Check the day: some factories pause production on Sundays and public holidays. Bring a light jacket, because Nuwara Eliya can be below 10°C in the early morning even when the coast is hot. And ask before taking photos inside, as some factories prefer that you don’t.
The most beautiful factories lie along the winding road between Kandy and Nuwara Eliya, where the route climbs in hairpin bends through the estates, and around Ella, where you look out across the Uva hills.
Staying among the tea bushes
Many old planters’ bungalows are now small hotels with fireplaces, verandas and gardens full of roses. In the morning a butler brings tea to your room – from the estate’s own bushes. In the evening dinner is served by the fire, and at night you hear nothing but the wind in the eucalyptus trees. Stay in one and you understand why the British called the hill country “Little England”.
One of the most unusual places to stay is a former tea factory near Nuwara Eliya that has been turned into a hotel, with the old machinery still on display and rooms looking out over the tea gardens. On our luxury tours houses like this are part of the route, and even at our Comfort level you stay in the hills in hotels with real character.
Nuwara Eliya, Hatton or Ella?
Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka’s highest town, is the heart of tea country. With its red-brick post office, Lake Gregory and colonial hotels, it feels like a piece of England in the tropics. The valleys around Hatton are quieter, with lakes and old bungalows – perfect if you want to stay off the main route. Ella is livelier: you can hike Little Adam’s Peak, watch the train cross the Nine Arches Bridge and look down from the tea slopes towards the south coast.
On most of our tours we combine several of these places: by car from Kandy through the tea gardens to Nuwara Eliya, then by train to Ella. You can read more about that journey in our story about the Kandy to Ella train.
When to go
Tea is plucked all year, so there is always something to see. The clearest, driest months in the hills are usually January to March, when the long views are at their best. From May to September the southwest monsoon brings more rain to the western side of the mountains around Hatton, while Ella and the Uva hills often stay drier. Morning mist is part of the experience and makes the tea slopes especially atmospheric.
Tea country on our tours
Whether you travel on a small group tour with no more than eleven guests or on a private tour with your own driver-guide, the hill country is part of almost every route we plan. We leave enough time to visit a factory without rushing, walk through the tea gardens and sit on the veranda in the evening. If you would like two or three nights in a planter’s bungalow, just tell us – we will build the route around it and send you a proposal within 24 hours.
