Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka
I took a bus out of Colombo to visit a tea plantation.
First – oh my gosh the traffic in Colombo. I’m sure it did not help that it was early Monday morning. And I’m sure it did not help that we drove by some famous local buildings on the way into the hills. But I’d rather walk blind-folded and naked in Ho Chi Minh City traffic then drive a tank thru the traffic in Colombo. The whole time we were surrounded by Tuk-tuks – one had a bumper sticker that said “No air bags – if we crash we die like men!”
After two hours we arrived at the low hills. Tea is grown in the bushes and the leaves are picked by hand. The taller trees provide shade for the tea bushes. Tea leaves are then carried to the central building and lifted to upper stories.
The company asked that we don’t take pictures inside, so I’ll talk a little about tea processing.
- First step is drying, called “wilting.” They are placed on long mesh beds where dry, hot air is blown under and thru the leaves for about 18 hours.
- Next, they are “disrupted”, where the leaves are torn as they are poured into a hopper. This seems similar to how grain is split within a millstone.
- Then the leaves are moved to tables where they are left to age, or “oxidize” for some time. When we visited to company was making black tea, so the leaves are left to age for 90 minutes.
- The leaves are then rolled, dried and sorted.
After returning to the ship the Dilmah tea company further educated us about tea. Our presenter explained four different types of tea:
- Black tea (fully oxidized)
- Green tea (not oxidized)
- Oolong tea (partially oxidized)
- White tea (only leaf buds)
There is also a difference in the elevation where the tea is grown. Our presenter divided them into low, medium and high elevation. In the below picture the top four cups are of different types (black, green, oolong and white), where the four lower were teas from high elevation (gold and red boxes), medium and low elevations.
The final form of tea ranges from sugar-like fine granules to inch-long stubs. The smaller the final tea leaves are the stronger the liquid drink.
At home I drink Arizona diet decaffeinated green tea because if I drank anything caffeinated after 8:00pm I’d stay away until 4:00 in the morning. So, while I enjoyed learning about tea today, I don’t know if I’ll ever use any of it.
That night the world cruise guests were taken to a local hotel and enjoyed dinner and a show. There was a lot of Bollywood-style music and dancing, but it was great fun.
So, my thoughts on Sri Lanka – many experienced world cruisers mentioned how amazed they were at the positive changes to Colombo and Sri Lanka just in five years. Seems the end of the civil war has really changed things. I hope the economic improvements are also affecting the areas of the island we did not see.
All of the history/knowledge stuff were two hours from the ports our ship docked in. I now understand why there was a two-night field trip offered here, as with both of my tours the round-trip driving was longer than the actual tour.
Bottom line – I won’t make a special trip just to visit Sri Lanka, but if I am in this area of the world again, I’d happily spend a few days here.
Coming up – we are crossing the Indian Ocean!