Ceylon Tea: How to Drink It, Where to Try It, Why It Matters

Ceylon tea is one of the most recognised exports in the world but most people who drink it abroad have never tasted it the way it is drunk here. In Sri Lanka, tea is brewed strong and served in small glasses, sometimes with a rim of condensed milk and sometimes completely plain. At a roadside tea stall in the hill country, a glass costs about 30 rupees and it is one of the best things you will drink on the island.

The tea country centres on Nuwara Eliya and the surrounding highlands, which sit at nearly 2000 metres above sea level. The air here is cool and clean and smells of eucalyptus and grass in the morning. The tea estates cover the hillsides in a deep, groomed green that is unlike anything else — each bush trimmed level, the rows following the contours of the land in long, curving lines.

Visit a working factory, not just the gift shop attached to one. Pedro Tea Estate and Mackwoods Labookellie both allow visitors to walk through the processing facility and see the tea move from leaf to finished product: withering, rolling, oxidation, firing, sorting. The smell inside a tea factory is extraordinary — grassy, warm, slightly sweet. The tasting at the end is never just one cup.

High grown teas from Nuwara Eliya are lighter, more golden, delicately flavoured — the ones that win international competitions. Mid-country teas are fuller and bolder. Low-country teas from Ratnapura and the south are the strongest and most robust, the ones used in the roadside glasses. Each category tastes completely different and each has its proper time and mood.

If you want to bring tea home, buy it at a factory rather than an airport shop. The freshness is the difference. Ask for the most recent flush, specify your preference for whole leaf over broken, and take more than you think you need. You will run out faster than expected and the regret of not buying enough is a particular kind of sad.