Sri Lanka’s top tea experiences: Sips of history

The plant was to be displayed in the Royal Botanical Gardens outside Kandy in the country’s lush interiorbut it has since grown into a $1.5 billion export business for the teardrop shaped island nation off India’s southern tip.

Alongside the agricultural production of tea, which accounts for 2.5% of the country’s $60 billion GDP, tea tourism is also emerging as a popular experience for travelers.

In 1867 Scottish coffee planter James Taylor, the man who would be recognized as the pioneer of Sri Lanka’s tea industry, planted 19 acres of tea near Kandy at an altitude of around 500 meters.

In the 1860s, however, Sri Lanka was the world’s largest coffee producer and few paid attention to Taylor.

Two years later came the first seeds of change when Hemileia vastatrix, or coffee rust, was detected on the island.

Within 10 years, this lethal fungus led to financial ruin for the island’s British coffee planters. Roughly 1,700 left for England while the remaining 400 or so switched to growing tea.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle famously commented that “the tea fields of Ceylon are as true a monument to courage as is the lion at Waterloo.”

MORE: One drink, 1,000 tastes: How tea has conquered the world

Sri Lanka in Style’s Hosted Tea Journey

“To understand this ancient medicine called tea” noted tea explorer and author Jeff Fuchs will lead an inaugural series of journeys this July among the cultures and landscapes that shaped Sri Lanka’s tea story.

Along with daily tastings, guests will meet some of the Tamil women pluckers who still believe animist spirits thrive among these verdant bushes.

Sri Lanka in Style’s Hosted Tea Journey; seven-, nine- and 15day tours; from $3,874 per person

Teaeli

Though he’s already placed his teas at Colombo’s most popular tourist destinations including Ministry of Crab and Barefoot, the founder of this recently launched upstart makes house (and hotel) calls to introduce the innovative range, which includes Almond Truffle with real white chocolate bits and an Earl Grey concocted with cornflower, bergamot and blood orange.

Teaeli, +94 77 753 6907; prices from $5 per tin

MORE: World’s 50 most delicious drinks

CNN