Everything you need to know about an organic tea plantation in Sri Lanka
During my trip in former Ceylon, I dedicated a day to discover the life inside an organic plantation in Sri Lanka. As a tea lover and conscious consumer, I always buy organic and fair trade tea. So I couldn’t let the occasion of discovering more about my relaxing time beverage by visiting a plantation. Approaching Nuwara Eliya, the surrounding landscape offered an introduction to the history of this cultivation. Estates like Edinburgh, or Somerset, tell about the origin of the tea industry in Sri Lanka. As my guide Ashan explained, around 1882 Scottish tea plantations replaced the previous coffee estates destroyed by fungi. The choice of this new cultivation was appropriate as tea plants need the foggy weather typical of Sri Lankan central Highlands that raise 6561 feet (2000 mt) above the sea level. However, as I noticed during my one week in Sri Lanka, this region is becoming drier due to global warming.
A fair trade organic tea production
After visiting the historical places in Polonnaruwa and the botanical garden of Kandy, I reached the Highland region. Tons of Sri Lankan tea plantations dot the landscape of this region surrounding Nuwara Eliya. Among them, I visited the Pedro estate where kids are not involved and who has a fair trade and an organic certification. My visit to this organic tea plantation in Sri Lanka started from the production process. Kalaivani, a third generation Indian girl, toured me around the production area. As Bengalese never bonded with British conquerors, the estate owners imported in late 19th century slaves from South Indian to work in their plantation. To this day the descendants of that slaves are working in the estate, while Sri Lankan people might work as supervisors. The working condition might be better though. Tea plantation employees work on shifts of 9 hours each including a half an hour break and a one-hour lunch pause.
Organic tea production in Sri Lanka
Behind a cup of Ceylon tea, there is a long process that starts with women picking tea leaves. They work every day from 8 am to 5 pm collecting these plants, made of two leaves and a bud, sometimes three leaves. On the amount of their harvest, depends their wage. Every two hours a tractor brings the collected leaves to the factory to check the weight and the health of the leaves. Once the plants surpass the quality control, they are treated on a dry machine. The drying process takes 11 hours, and this is why, inside the tea factory, there are some employees on a night shift that runs from midnight until 9 am. Other 80–250 people work outside the factory.
From the organic Sri Lankan plantation to the tea bag in your cup
Tea leaves are then broken inside a roller machine, that allows the beginning of the oxidation process. After the chopping, the leaves are then filtered and divided based on the size of the pieces in the shivering machine. After the shaking phase, there is a 20 minutes drying process at 194 F (90 C) degrees followed by the separation process. The smallest ones are used to prepare organic Ceylon tea, while the one reduced in the dust, are used to fill the tea bags. Tea picking and production is an all year-round process, and the majority of the treated tea leaves leave the Central Highlands for Colombo, the Sri Lanka capital, where they are sold to brands during auctions.
Visiting an organic tea plantation in Sri Lanka
Before entering the tea factory, like all the other workers, I wore a hairnet and a smock for hygienic reasons. Once inside I couldn’t take photos of the machines nor of the rooms. Even if my guide Kalaivani didn’t explain the cause of this ban, I suspect that this is because of the patent that protects the machinery. At the Pedro factory, the machines are 70 years old circa. What impressed me was the last room that indicated the labor wages. Including incentives and other voices, a worker can earn up to the equivalent of $ 4.6 each day. In the area of Nuwara Eliya, every tea plantation produces different varieties, like Ceylon black tea or organic Ceylon green tea. Moreover, Pedro estate has abundant production of cinnamon. In detail, Sri Lanka exports a 35% worldwide supply.
How do workers live
Women leave early in the morning their houses, known as line house from their narrow shape, similar to lines. On their way to the estate, they bring their children to the local schools. While visiting the area, I have noticed that there is a spread program supported by the Save the Children that provides early education to these children. Going at work, women wear a sac on their shoulders used to store the collected leaves. During their mid-morning snack, at around 10–10:30 am, they sit on the ground in groups and consume their prepared meal. To escape from the hot weather sometimes they meet under the shadows of acacia trees. The same occurs two hours later unless they decide to go back home for lunch.
The tea industry in Sri Lanka
Assisting the tea picking is an experience each visitor to the former Ceylon shouldn’t miss. Behind the relaxing green landscape of an organic tea plantation in Sri Lanka, there is a vital industry for the country’s economy. Started in the 1880s when Sri Lanka was the British colony known as Ceylon, tea constitutes the principal export. With a yearly production of 307.7 million kilos, Sri Lanka exported in 2017, 289 million kilos. Mainly known for its black Ceylon tea, whose name is connected with the fermentation process used to produce it, Sri Lanka offers other varieties. The more recent one is the organic green Ceylon tea. While the export story has just started, unfermented green tea belongs to the experimental phase of this cultivation in Sri Lanka. Green Tea is made using both Chinese and Japanese techniques. Sri Lanka also produces the third type of tea, known as oolong or semifermented.
Where is tea from?
According to the Sri Lanka tea board, this beverage was discovered by chance by the Chinese emperor Shen-Nung. The wind blew tea leaves into boiling water, marking the beginning of the story of this beverage, only second to water in popularity. Tea, initially used as a medical remedy and later consumed as a daily drink, was exported from China to Japan. Japanese tea cultivation started in the 13th century, and only several centuries later tea arrived in Europe. There are several versions of how this beverage was imported on the European market. The most renowned states that the first shipment of Chinese tea arrived in the old Continent in 1610 delivered by the Dutch East India Company. With the beginning of British tea estates in Sri Lanka, Mincing Lane near the Tower of London became the center of the tea trade.
