Dressed in white blouses, hairnets, masks and gloves, two pickers gently snip away at tea bushes with a fine pair of scissors. They carefully harvest the most delicate of leaves and gently drop them into a small silver bowl.
These few precious shoots, the youngest and finest on the verdant bush, are special; they will produce one of the most expensive and sought-after teas available: the legendary Virgin White Tea.
Virgin White Tea
I find myself near Sri Lanka’s southern coast on the low-lying Handunugoda Tea Estate close to Galle and a plantation that offers a new dimension to the not-so-average cuppa.
Plantation manager Dudley Rodrigo explains:
“The pickers drop the shoots straight into the bowl to ensure there is no contamination or human touch from the tea bush to the mouth.”
Virgin White Tea is based on the story of a 5th century Chinese Emperor who desired 100 per cent pure tea.
Rodrigo continues:
“In fact, the Emperor decreed that the leaves should only be cropped by virgins using golden scissors.”
Leaves are still collected in a way that ensures the only human contact is when the tea passes the lips of the drinker.
High in antioxidants with low caffeine content, it is sold by the gram: 30 grams costs 18,000 Sri Lankan Rupees (£45 for 10x3g bags).
Fine tips
The estate owner, Herman Gunaratne, is a legend within Sri Lanka’s tea industry. Now in his 80s, he has worked in the industry for 65 years, at times managing estates of up to 100,000 acres.
In between, he has written books on the industry such as The Suicide Club, God’s Secret Agent and the Plantation Raj.
As well as Virgin White Tea, the Handunugoda Tea Estate also produces Silver Needles Tea, made from the fine tips of the leaf, Rain Forest Tea and Blue Pekoe among other flavours.
Tradition runs deep at the 200-acre lowland estate, where pepper, cinnamon and rubber also grow. The factory equipment and processes, which can be seen on plantation tours, are well over 100 years old.
With hundreds of tea factories in Sri Lanka, Gunaratne explains that there are three elevational categories of plantation across the country: lowland, medium and highland. And as we sip Sapphire Oolong tea, he emphasises:
“The tea industry is the largest employer in the country, and in terms of prices, low country teas get the highest price for tea in the world.”
High heartland
The landscape changes as you rise into the country’s high heartland.
Waterfalls tumble down hillsides gilded with tea bushes as the road switches back and forth and the altitude nears 2000m above sea level.
Tea plantations dominate the terrain, underlining the importance of the commodity to Sri Lanka with around some 2.5 million people (a tenth of the population) employed in the sector.
The green swathes are crossed by earthy red trails, laid down in the mid-1800s with precisely engineered gradients that enabled horse-drawn carts to transport plucked leaves to tea factories for processing.
Still used for that purpose today, they now also form an attraction that brings tourists into the fields along the hiking route known as the Pekoe Trail.
Embracing an historic infrastructure that remains pivotal to the country’s tea production, the 300km route is divided into stages, starting near Kandy and finishing at Kandapola not far from Nurawa Eliya.
Elevation gain
The driving force, designer and founder of the Pekoe Trail is well-travelled Spaniard Miguel Cunat.
I join him on Stage 22 and as we walk what is the final 11km stretch, he explains how the route evolved and has been re-purposed – whilst also retaining its original role – to advance tourism to this part of the country.
“When the British arrived in the mid-19th century, they built an infrastructure designed to transport tea leaves to the factories using horses. But without actually realising it, they also built a structure for tourism that was some 200 years ahead of its time; 21st century Sri Lanka has inherited this network of trails that are perfect for hiking, but still primarily used to take the tea to the factory.
“The basis of the trails is a 3 per cent elevation gain and loss, which is an engineering standard that still applies to the tea plantations the world over.”
The elevation difference on Stage 22 is around 300m, but it can be 1000m on some stretches.
As we walk in mid-May, the bushes rustle in the breeze. Overhead, the sky is grey with the sun occasionally breaking through, but we are soon reminded that we are in a part of the world where rain can be expected on around 280 days a year, from a short shower to downpours. But with the warmth, moisture and altitude, it is also the ideal location for growing tea.
Irresistibly photogenic
On the slopes, local women pluck young leaves, throwing them into bags on their backs. They pick around 18kg a day for as little as 1,350 rupees (about £3.50), with the factory providing food, water and accommodation.
Small villages dot the plantations, each with self-contained horticultural systems growing leeks, carrots and lettuce on raised beds with irrigation channels. But it is the bushes, a refreshing vivid green, that are irresistibly photogenic amid the relative quiet of the hillside.
The Pekoe Trail (the word pekoe refers to tiny hairs on fresh tea buds), opened in 2022 after several years of planning with a key aim:
“To bring tourist footfall into the local communities.”
Adds Cunat, who has lived in Sri Lanka for more than 20 years.
The whole route can take up to three weeks to complete but most people hike specific stretches, with around 70,000 people walking parts of it in the last 12 months. A $10 daily trail fee can be purchased on the Pekoe Trail app or website and an all-stage pass is $30.
Tea trail cathedrals
Tea factories are landmarks along the way, with Cunat saying:
“They are like the Cathedrals of the Camino.”
Drawing on his Spanish heritage as he makes the comparison with the pilgrimage trail to Santiago de Compostela in his home country.
They include the Pedro Tea Factory at the end of Stage 22, where you can learn how the tea is harvested, processed, packaged and sent to auction in Colombo for shipment across the globe.
Factory guide Kalaivani Sivakavi explains how the leaves are first spread on a withering trough for 12 hours to reduce moisture content and then rolled and chopped into increasingly finer leaves and graded before further drying.
They end up as varieties such as Orange Pekoe or Lover’s Leap Black Tea, named after a nearby waterfall, while the finest particles known as ‘dust’ make the strongest brews. Each estate worker receives 500g of this free each month.
Tamil workforce
Many of the tea workers are Tamil and descended from ancestors brought to the country from India by British plantation owners who oversaw the switch from coffee to tea in Sri Lanka in the mid-19th century following a major outbreak of disease in the coffee plants.
At a nearby village surrounding a Hindu temple we meet Suresh, his wife Priya and their neighbours for an introduction into Tamil customs, traditions and cuisine.
We have a go at decorating a mandala, a chalked pattern in their yard, with coloured rice before making ulundu vadai – small donuts – in the kitchen from ground lentils with added onion and deep fried in vegetable oil. We also eat idli and sambar, a light vegetable curry served on a fresh banana leaf before drinking tea.
Suresh explains:
“In the 1860s people came from south India to work in coffee cultivation and then tea and were accommodated in small clusters in villages by the plantation management.
“We are well blended with Sri Lanka and its culture, but our people still follow the traditions of south India.”
Jetwing St Andrews
The village, named Hethersett, is not far from Nuwara Eliya, a community at 1900m above sea level and known as Little England with its quintessential British-style residences, the oldest Post Office in Sri Lanka in a distinctive red-brick building, parks and a period hotel to match.
Originally a grand residence, Jetwing St Andrews hotel sits amid manicured gardens, with wood-panelled interiors, bars, restaurants and a snooker room.
With its own tea plantation and farm, the 150-year-old building is part of a Sri Lankan family-owned chain that endeavours to be sustainable and retain the individuality of each residence.
Social enterprise
The Pekoe Trail links several tea plantations including AMBA near Ella, which offers access to stages 13, 14 and 15.
Situated at 1,000m above sea level, this mid-level plantation has a guesthouse and social enterprise schemes making tea, jams, cinnamon and other spices, coffee, lemongrass and chutneys with revenue shared with workers.
Ashok Idhayaraja from the estate explains the differing flavours of the teas in a tasting session, while also reflecting on the history of the country’s tea industry which was at one time the largest producer in the world but has since slipped behind India, China and Kenya.
The accommodation and cuisine at AMBA is traditional with daal and curry, rice, coconut chapatis, fresh vegetables and tea for dinner and papaya, marmalade, mango and ginger jams, curd and honey, toast and egg hoppers for breakfast.
Island flavours
Tea, of course, is only one dimension to the wonders of Sri Lanka
It has a diverse of history, culture, beaches, ancient towns and temples, wildlife and national parks and the most amazing cuisine: coconut-based curries, fresh seafood, plus cinnamon and other spices, a potent drink in Arrack (look out for tasting sessions at The Ropewalk at Galle Fort Hotel) and you can also get the occasional cup of coffee too!
But the hills and the tea plantations are where you’ll truly get a flavour of this teardrop-shaped island state in the Indian Ocean.
*Mark Nicholls was a guest of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Blue Lanka Tours and Jetwing Hotels.
Fact Box:
Mark Nicholls stayed at Jetwing St Andrew’s as well as at Nuwara Eliya and Jetwing Lighthouse at Galle and travelled across the island with Blue Lanka Tours, which create tailor-made journeys through Sri Lanka.
Tours and tea taster sessions can booked for Pedro Tea Estate, the Handunugoda Tea Estate and during a stay at AMBA resort.
For more information on The Pekoe Trail visit: www.thepekoetrail.org, for Arrack tasting visit: www.ropewalkgalle.com and for the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, please visit: www.srilanka.travel.
Author Bio:
Mark Nicholls is an award-winning freelance travel writer and author, based in the UK and has written for a range of national titles, specialist magazines and international websites and operated as a war correspondent in locations such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
Photographs by Mark Nicholls
1 Trackback / Pingback