Tea Plantation and Factory
Sri Lanka’s largest export is tea. The humidity, cool temperatures, and rainfall of the country's central highlands provide a climate that favors the production of high-quality tea. We learned about how tea is hand picked. The end three leaves are picked, and 7 days later new ones have grown and they are ready to be picked again. From these three leaves four different teas are produced:
First leaf = white tea
First and second = green
Third = golden
All three = black
We were shown the process to wash, dry, chop, sieve and sort the leaves. Then tasted the four types. White was by far the best.
I thought a lot today about modern day slavery. Tea was introduced to the country by the British when under colonial rule m. To help work the fields Tamils were brought over from India in the 19th century. These people are still same of the most disadvantaged in the country and face many hardships, with no power. Of course this wasn’t brought up in our tour. Read more here: https://www.aisls.org/resources/teaching-about-sri-lanka/teaching-about-tea/tea-and-immigrant-labor/