After a couple of days of pouring rain, the sky suddenly cleared. And while the sun didn't exactly shine, the clouds did part to uncover some greyish-blue sky.So without hesitation, we asked the hotel to arrange a guide and headed to the hills for a hike. Joined by another couple, we didn't have to go far for some gorgeous hiking, with the lodge surrounded by lush rolling tea hills.
A few years later in the 1860s, James Taylor launched the first tea plantation in the country and shipped 21 pounds of Ceylon Tea back to the British Commonwealth. The tea was met with such delight that the tea industry was launched in the country.
Today, Sri Lanka is the world's 4th largest producer of tea. And its humidity, cool temperatures and rainy climate provide a landscape that enables the production of very high quality tea.
Tea picking is done by women, supposedly because their fingers are nimbler, but likely because the men just don't want to do such hard labour. It is a hard life.Many of the women tea pickers are actually from India, originally brought over during the rule of the British Commonwealth with the trade passed down to the family generations that followed.
Women pick in the fields all day - looking for the two leaves-and-a-bud combo that signify “quality”. The women pick about 50kg of tea leaves per day, pulling the leaves from the vines and storing them in the sacks on their backs until they reach 25kgs and it is time for a break. Before their two breaks and lunch each day, they drop off their sacks for weighing and then relax for a few minutes before heading back out into the fields.
The tea pickers are largely hindu, and live in line houses with a shared toilet. Old plantations pay the women a daily wage ($2 is the norm) and provide shelter, food, education and medical care. A newer model is to pay the women by kg, though the incentive this creates results in lower quality tea as stems and rocks seem to find their way into the bags before weighing.
As we wandered through the tea fields and took in the views of the Knuckle Mountains across from us, we were amazed by the speed and precision with which these women worked, sifting through the bushes gracefully and with great focus.
On a side note, it turns out that even though we were in our hiking pants and boots, we shouldn't have shunned so quickly the leech socks the hotel offered. Within about 15 minutes of our walk, Beth felt an itch on her leg and pulled up her pant to find a leech working away on her leg. How had it even gotten there?! Beth handled the situation with characteristic poise and grace, not overreacting at all to the tiny animals just trying to survive with a bit of human blood. She did manage to handle the situation better than the Dutch girl that joined us on the hike, whose shorts and converse were not the ideal bushwhacking outfit - particularly evidenced by when she slipped and fell, with the whole forest floor seeming to inch its way toward her exposed flesh.
We were attacked many more times during the walk, especially as we made our way through the brush to look at some of the local trees and flora/fauna. Geoff was attacked the worst, finding leeches on his body even after we had returned to the lodge! His love of animals does not extend to mindless blood suckers that have no central nervous system.
Although Beth was slightly traumatized by all the leeches and, for the remainder of the trip (edit: and for some days afterward), believed they might be in the bed, chairs and everywhere else around the lodge, one had to stop and think about these incredible women who work - unprotected - in the fields all day. How much more than leeches they must encounter and endure...and how little they whine or complain.
Eager to learn more about the full tea process, we hopped in the lodge's tuk tuk for a trip to the Hatale Tea Factory for a guided tour and a tea-tasting.
Ceylon tea is recognized as a lighter and fresher tea than those from other countries. This is because Sri Lankan's twist the tea leaves before drying rather than cutting them as they do in India. The twisting allows for more subtle flavours and often allows for the tea to be drunk without the need for milk. Ceylon is the chosen tea for many of the Middle Eastern countries.
The Hatale Factory was built in the 1930s by the British and hasn't changed much over the years, with many of the same processes and almost all of the steps done manually, especially the transfer of the leaves from drying to twirling to roasting and packaging.
After understanding the process, we sat for a tea tasting session of a variety of different teas. All of the teas were delicious but our preference definitely trended to the lighter end. White, green and black teas all come from the same plant but have different levels of oxidization creates the different colours and tastes. White tea - the least oxidized - is by far the most expensive. It was never totally clear as to why.
As we wandered through the tea fields and took in the views of the Knuckle Mountains across from us, we were amazed by the speed and precision with which these women worked, sifting through the bushes gracefully and with great focus.
On a side note, it turns out that even though we were in our hiking pants and boots, we shouldn't have shunned so quickly the leech socks the hotel offered. Within about 15 minutes of our walk, Beth felt an itch on her leg and pulled up her pant to find a leech working away on her leg. How had it even gotten there?! Beth handled the situation with characteristic poise and grace, not overreacting at all to the tiny animals just trying to survive with a bit of human blood. She did manage to handle the situation better than the Dutch girl that joined us on the hike, whose shorts and converse were not the ideal bushwhacking outfit - particularly evidenced by when she slipped and fell, with the whole forest floor seeming to inch its way toward her exposed flesh.
We were attacked many more times during the walk, especially as we made our way through the brush to look at some of the local trees and flora/fauna. Geoff was attacked the worst, finding leeches on his body even after we had returned to the lodge! His love of animals does not extend to mindless blood suckers that have no central nervous system.Although Beth was slightly traumatized by all the leeches and, for the remainder of the trip (edit: and for some days afterward), believed they might be in the bed, chairs and everywhere else around the lodge, one had to stop and think about these incredible women who work - unprotected - in the fields all day. How much more than leeches they must encounter and endure...and how little they whine or complain.
Ceylon tea is recognized as a lighter and fresher tea than those from other countries. This is because Sri Lankan's twist the tea leaves before drying rather than cutting them as they do in India. The twisting allows for more subtle flavours and often allows for the tea to be drunk without the need for milk. Ceylon is the chosen tea for many of the Middle Eastern countries.The Hatale Factory was built in the 1930s by the British and hasn't changed much over the years, with many of the same processes and almost all of the steps done manually, especially the transfer of the leaves from drying to twirling to roasting and packaging.
After understanding the process, we sat for a tea tasting session of a variety of different teas. All of the teas were delicious but our preference definitely trended to the lighter end. White, green and black teas all come from the same plant but have different levels of oxidization creates the different colours and tastes. White tea - the least oxidized - is by far the most expensive. It was never totally clear as to why.
Although we had always know that making tea must be a complex process, we had not quite realized just how involved and time intensive the process actually is. Will we be able to enjoy a relaxing cup of tea when we know just how much work it was to make it?? Let's brew a cup and see...
No comments:
Post a Comment