Tea leaves that are worth a detour
In the south of Sri Lanka, tea is mostly grown by individual farmers who cultivate their own land. They sell the tea leaves just after the harvest, as they don’t have the infrastructure to process...
View ArticleTo select a tea, you have to taste dozens
When we attend professional tea tastings, there is a great number of teas to assess. It can range from three or four to several dozen. Sometimes the teas we taste are all quite similar, like here in...
View ArticleOn a tea plantation, trees need to be pruned too
On a tea plantation, tea plants are not the only ones that need care and attention: the trees do too. If you want their leaves to give a little shade to the camelias, the trees have to be prevented...
View ArticleIn Colombo, weekly tea auctions are held
I am writing this in Colombo, in the room where the weekly tea auctions are held. In fact there are many auction rooms like the one I’m sitting in now, where different grades are sold. The three...
View ArticleTea tasting with Dilan and Vidusha
Last week, in the company of Dilan Wijeyesekera and Vidusha Wakista, I tasted teas from the regions of Dimbula, Uva and Nuwara Eliya, side by side. Dilan and Vidusha work for the company Mabroc and...
View ArticlePalm trees giving shade to tea plants
Here, in the south of Sri Lanka, in the “low grown teas” region, the sun is very intense, and it is best to protect the tea plants from its rays for at least a few hours a day. Curiously, palm trees...
View ArticleA planter’s estate typical of the British era
When the British were in charge of tea production they created vast estates and put in place systems to manufacture large quantities of tea. On each estate they built a bungalow, which might be small...
View ArticleA winter harvest in Sri Lanka
The low sun illuminates these bags filled with freshly plucked tea leaves, creating a contrasting effect of light and shadow. The men work quickly, emptying the bags and spreading the leaves out on...
View ArticleMagnificent Sri Lankan landscape
For those lucky enough to visit the beautiful country of Sri Lanka, this is the type of landscape found around the Sinharaja reserve in the south of the island. This is the region where the low-grown...
View ArticleThe tea harvest in the south of Sri Lanka
Sometimes the people who harvest tea don’t have the necessary equipment to process the leaves. In this case, they sell their crop to another farmer who is able to process it. This is what happens in...
View ArticleSmall-scale tea producers in Sri Lanka
In the south of Sri Lanka there are many small-scale producers who grow tea and then sell the fresh leaves to one of the local factories. For them, tea represents one source of income among others,...
View ArticleTasting many teas
It is no more difficult to taste thirty or forty teas than to taste two or three. On the contrary: you move quickly from one to the next, you spit each one out, you concentrate so you can compare...
View ArticleEscaping the city
I don’t like cars. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to get out of town by train, escaping the crowds, and, through the open windows, feeling the factories, the dust and the noise becoming more...
View ArticleThe art of picking leaves
To produce a high-quality tea, you must start by harvesting the leaves carefully; in other words, picking off the end shoot, the bud and the next two leaves. If you take off more leaves, the quality...
View ArticleA very broken tea
In some regions of Sri Lanka, they produce a tea that is so fine, so broken, so black, it is undrinkable. Or else you have to add milk and sugar, or dilute it with water.
View ArticleA tea field in Sri Lanka
The plantations in central Sri Lanka don’t produce particularly good tea, but they are extremely beautiful. Here, the Maussakelle reservoir really enhances the soft green expanses of the tea fields.
View ArticleA magnificent bungalow
The British had an instinct for comfort. They built magnificent bungalows during the colonial era. These buildings still exist today, surrounded by tea fields, like here in Gorthie (Sri Lanka). I was...
View ArticleA terrible machine for tea
It is difficult to find good tea in Sri Lanka, and here is a photo of the guilty party. Known as a rotorvane, it puts the leaves under enormous pressure and can roll three times the quantity of...
View ArticleAdam’s Peak
Many Sri Lankans have climbed the slopes of Adam’s Peak at least once in their lifetime. It is a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists, who worship Buddha’s footprint at the summit, but also for Hindus,...
View ArticleLittle Adam’s Peak
I was incredibly fortunate, when I woke yesterday without knowing exactly where I was, to discover this sublime view from my bed. I’d arrived in Ella late the night before, from Ratnapura, and without...
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