Altitude
Altitude is another vital indication of tea quality. Udawatte (high-grown
tea) is considered the finest; it grows slowly but has a delicate, subtle
flavour that makes it greatly sought after – Dimbula, Nuwara Eliya and
Uva are three prime growing districts. Udawatte is grown above 1200m.
Medawatte (mid-grown tea) has floral and malty notes and a fullness
of body but is less refined; Kandy is the main centre of production. It’s
picked at altitudes of 600m to 1200m, and occupies the middle ground
in price and quality.
Yatawatte (low-grown tea) is stronger, higher in caffeine and more
robust, but it’s not considered as complex; it’s found below 600m.
The foothills inland of the coast are centres of low-grown production:
Ratnapura and Galle are two important districts.
Cultivation
Tea bushes are typically planted a metre or so apart on contoured terraces
to help irrigation and to prevent erosion. A tea bush is around 1m (3 ft) in
height, and is regularly pruned to encourage new shoots, prevent flower-
ing and fruit formation and maximise leaf production. Adequate rainfall
is essential, as is fertilisation.
Tea leaves are plucked by hand every seven to 14 days, a task tradition-
ally carried out by Tamil women in Sri Lanka. The pluckers have a daily
target of between 20kg and 30kg (44 to 66 pounds). After plucking, the
tea leaves are taken to a factory where they are left to wither (demoistur-
ised by blowing air at a fixed temperature through them). You’ll spot the
huge factory buildings throughout tea-growing country. Many are more
than 100 years old.
The partly dried leaves are then crushed, starting a fermentation pro-
cess. The green leaves quickly turn a coppery brown as additional heat
is applied. The art in tea production comes in knowing when to stop the
fermentation, by ‘firing’ the tea at an even higher heat to produce the
final, brown-black leaf that will be stable for a reasonable length of time.
Finally the tea is separated and graded according to leaf size.
The workers who regulate the myriad variables to take a day’s pickings
and produce proper tea, which will demand the premium prices Sri Lan-
kan tea producers count on, are high up the ladder on the plantations.
There is a definite art to the process, which has been refined over decades.
It only takes 24 hours from the time tea is picked to process it and load
it in bags for shipment.
All the island’s
teas are branded
with a ‘Lion Logo’,
which denotes
that the tea was
produced in Sri
Lanka.In a (probably
unintentional) bit
of honesty the
nation’s main tea
producers funded
a marketing
arm in 1932: the
Ceylon Tea
Propaganda
Board.DRINKING BLACK TEA
Although black tea is usually forgiving, there are still right and wrong ways to prepare a
cup. For maximum enjoyment, keep the following points in mind.̈ (^) Store tea in an airtight container, whether it is loose or in tea bags. It’s prone to
absorbing odours, which are especially harmful to some of the delicate blends or
flavoured teas.
̈ (^) Use fresh water and boil it (water that’s been boiling for a while or which was previously
boiled gives you a flat-tasting cup of tea).
̈ Too accustomed to tea bags? With loose tea, it’s one teaspoon per average-sized cup
plus one extra if you’re making a pot.
̈ Let the tea brew. It takes three to five minutes for tea to fully release its flavour.
̈ Conversely, once the tea is brewed, toss the tea leaves, whether they were loose or in a
tea bag. Tea leaves quickly get bitter once brewed.
̈ (^) For milk tea, pour the milk into the cup and then add the tea: the flavours mix better.
Sri Lankan Tea
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