Where to Find the Top Tea Experiences in Sri Lanka
Sampling the local food and drink is a great way to explore a new culture as you travel. For several years now, wine tasting has been one of the top things I like to do when visiting a new place. Sri Lanka however is the first country I’ve visited where instead I sought out tea. There are actually a lot of similarities between tea tasting and wine tasting, so perhaps it was a natural transition?
Sri Lanka actually has a rich – if relatively recent – history of tea production, dating back to Sir Thomas Lipton. He started his own plantations there in the late 1800s, to have a direct source of tea to sell in his UK-based grocery stores. Lipton basically undercut prices this way, making tea affordable for the British masses for the first time, and cementing the widespread UK tradition of tea drinking.
While there are a lot of tea factory tours across Sri Lanka that range from mediocre to quite informative, there were only a small number of places where you could actually taste the tea or walk through the tea plantation grounds. The spot where I saw the most stunning tea landscapes and also had a great hike was around Haputale, while my favorite tea tastings were in two of the more unexpected locations: a tea shop in the center of Ella & at a tea plantation close to the coast.
Tea Landscapes & Hiking
Dambatenne Tea Factory & Hike to Lipton’s Seat (Haputale)
If you are visiting the nearby tea meccas of Ella and Nuwara Eliya, it is an easy train ride to Haputale. The tour of the tea factory was pretty interesting even after other similar tours, although unfortunately you don’t actually get to taste any tea. The real highlight here is seeing the surrounding plantation of rolling hills with workers shifting along the rows of plants as they pick the leaves, loading up the giant sack they carry on their backs.
There is also a lovely hiking trail to the lookout point known as Lipton’s Seat. On the day I visited, there was rolling rain and fog that only lifted for a second at the top, but the trail itself was wonderful to traverse and the bad weather became an excuse to befriend fellow hikers as we huddled under an awning to avoid the rain at one point. It was obvious at the top why Sir Thomas Lipton sought out this vista when visiting his tea plantation, a spot where you can take in the entire landscape on a clear day. It’s also possible to take a tuk-tuk to the top if hiking is not your thing. There are plenty available for hire in the town center of Haputale and at the main entrance to the Tea Factory.
Tea Tasting
Ceylon Tea Center, entrance inside Ella Village Inn restaurant (Ella)
Over a several-night stay in Ella, I popped into quite a few tea shops. But the only one where I could taste a large variety of tea all at once was at the Ceylon Tea Center. It’s a good thing I did a bit of online research to find them, because otherwise the location is the least conspicuous tea store in town, with the entrance actually inside a restaurant. I popped in at the tail end of lunch inquiring about a tasting, and within 15 minutes or so, a huge line of tea cups was laid out in an enticing line. After careful brewing of each variety of tea, the tasting began in the proscribed sequence. Some sips were more traditional Ceylon teas, other were aromatic infusions of ginger and flowers, and there were also some delicate, light versions of green and black teas. I’ll admit that offering tea tastings is also a brilliant marketing strategy, as I walked out with an armful of tea purchases, most of which I would not have bought without the opportunity to taste and enjoy them first.
Handunugoda Tea Factory (near Galle & Mirissa)
If you only go to one tea factory during your time in Sri Lanka, this should be it! Although it is not in the central ‘Hill Country’ where most plantations are located, it was the best overall experience and the most tea I was able to taste in conjunction with a tour. The tour at Handunugoda operates like a well-oiled machine, starting with some tea and cake, then progressing through the tea plants and factory machines for processing the tea. The guide was incredibly informative, and I was lucky that this was my first tea tour as I then had this information as a reference point for all of the subsequent tours. For example, they use parts of the same tea leaves to make both black and green tea, with the difference being in the processing method, which I didn’t even know was a possibility. This was also by far the most amount of teas I was able to taste at any tea factory, with dozens of teas available for tasting, from tea made with flowers to their signature ‘sapphire’ oolong to the renowned virgin white tea that is picked by hand by workers wearing gloves to protect the tea leaves! Just be aware that the teas are all pre-brewed, so were room temperature when I did the tasting.
Which tea experience appeals to you the most? Is there anything else you’d still like to know about tea tasting in Sri Lanka? Ask away in the Comments.
