As all of us ‘Tea Aficionados’ know High-grown tea is what it is all about. So in the usual nature of trying to turn everything on its head, we bring you tea grown at the remarkably high levels of between 38 and 60 meters, that is just between 125 and 200 feet above sea level. The Tea Garden is also unusual as it’s found close to the sea and the salt levels found in the soil add greatly to this highly unorthodox teas both in flavour and taste.
The Estate is found right in the south of the Island in the Galle District, Galle is the administrative capital of the Southern Province and the fourth largest city in Sri Lanka.
Low-grown teas are not to be viewed as inferior to High-grown and often achieve better prices at the Colombo auctions. Most of this is due to the care taken in the harvesting and production techniques. This special Oolong tea is picked in the two leaves and a bud plucking system, the leaves are then carefully allowed to oxidise or semi-ferment. The care taken in the handling of these shoots is what produces such fine long twisted dried leaves. They are very dark in colour looking very much like a black tea, I have steeped these leaves at 90oC for two and a half minutes, obviously adjust to suit personal taste. The tea is lovely, a real afternoon tea, as I drink this tea and write about it, the sun is shining, the repeat of last night’s Archers has just finished and it is a beautiful late September Autumnal afternoon, and this tea is the perfect accompaniment.
