Hill Country & Tea
Inside a working tea factory
Withering, rolling, oxidising, firing and grading — the whole process, on machinery that has barely changed in a century.
- Time needed
- About 2 hours
- Where
- Nuwara Eliya, Haputale, Ella
- When
- Any time of year
Most factories in the hill country still run Victorian-era rolling machines, and they are loud, hot and genuinely impressive.
A visit takes about an hour and follows the leaf from the withering lofts through to grading and tasting. The difference between a BOP and a silver tip stops being marketing language once you have seen it.
Pluckers work the slopes around the factory, and they are people doing hard work for low pay, not scenery. We will ask before anyone photographs them.
Ends with a tasting. The best leaf mostly leaves the country, but factory shops sell grades you will not find abroad.