Tea Tour -TAT/WEB/010
07 Nights / 08 Days
Sri Lanka is synonymous with “Tea†and produces arguably the best in the world. This tour takes you to Tea Estates that accentuate the beauty of the central hillside of Sri Lanka and a breath taking train ride. The tour begins where most of the tea produced in Sri Lanka ends; - The Colombo Tea Auction at Colombo Chamber of Commerce Building. Visit Tea Estates in Haputale which is considered Lipton’s Seat, Bandarawela, Thalawakelle, the tea factories in Lobookellie, the Tea Museum in Hantane and the Tea Research Institute in Talawakelle to get a good idea of how tea is grown, plucked, processed, packed and exported to the four corners of the world.
DAY 01 Airport – Negombo / Colombo
Arrive in Sri Lanka. Clients will be met and welcomed by the representative of Tropical Asia Tours on arrival and transferred to the hotel in Negombo or Colombo.
(Travel time from Airport to Negombo approx.: 30 min / from Airport to Colombo approx. 1 hr.)
After check-in at the hotel, there will be an ample time to relax and freshen up.
Overnight stay in Negombo or Colombo.
DAY 02 Negombo / Colombo – Kandy
After breakfast, proceed to “Colombo Tea Auctionâ€Â. The World’s Largest Single Origin Tea Auction / Tea Auctions – Every Tuesday (08.00am -05.00pm) and Wednesday (02.00pm -03.30pm).
On completion proceed to Kandy. En route visit Giragama Tea plantation. The factory is located in close proximity to the city of Kandy in Pilimatalawa and was established in the year 1903 and manufactures Low Grown / Mid Grown and Long Leaf tea.
(Travel time from Colombo to Kandy approx.3 ½ hrs.)
Arrive in Kandy and check-in at the hotel
In the evening visit Temple of the Tooth Relic and the city of Kandy.
Overnight stay in Kandy.
DAY 03 Kandy – Ceylon Tea Museum – Nuwara Eliya
After breakfast, visit Ceylon Tea Museum.
(Travel time approx. 30 min.)
On completion proceed to Nuwara Eliya. Punctuated with a stop at the Damro Labookellie Tea factory to enjoy a finely brewed cup of tea.
(Travel time from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya approx. 2 ½ hrs.)
Arrive in Nuwara Eliya and check-in at the hotel.
Overnight stay in Nuwara Eliya.
DAY 04 Nuwara Eliya
After an early breakfast, at around 6.30 a.m. clients will be offered a chance to pluck their own tea leaves in an organic tea garden. (High Grown Tea) Enjoy the natural beauty of the mountains carpeted with tea plantations. In the evening visit Brookside Tea Factory and experience the Tea tasting session. This factory is one of the finest with natural withering facility which gives an added quality for the black tea produced.
Return to the hotel.
Overnight stay in Nuwara Eliya.
DAY 05 Nuwara Eliya – Talawakelle – Bandarawela
After breakfast, proceed to Talawakelle to visit the Tea Research Institute
(Travel time from Nuwara Eliya to Talawakelle approx. 45 minutes)
Thereafter, transfer to Nanu Oya railway station (12.45 p.m.) and proceed to Bandarawela by train. During the train ride the clients will be able to witness magnificent mountain scenery, wide blankets of tea bushes and waterfalls. (Train ride is subjected to availability)
(Travel time by train approx. 2 ½ hrs.)ÂÂ
Arrive in Bandarawela and check-in at the hotel.
Evening at leisure.
Overnight stay in Bandarawela.
DAY 06 Bandarawela – Lipton Seat – Dambetenna – Galle
After breakfast, leave for Haputale to visit Lipton’s Seat.
(Travel time from Bandarawela to Lipton Seat approx. 1 hr.)
On completing, visit historical Dambetanna Tea Factory.
(Travel time from Lipton Seat to Dambetanna approx. 30 min)
Thereafter proceed to GALLE.
(Travel time from Haputale to Galle approx. 4 -5 hrs.)
Arrive in Galle and check-in at the hotel.
Overnight stay in Galle.
DAY 07 Galle – Colombo
After breakfast visit Nahingala Tea Factory (Low Grown Tea).
Thereafter, proceed to Colombo.
(Travel time from Galle to Colombo approx. 3 hrs.)
In the evening commence a City Tour in Colombo and participate in a Tea Tasting Session at hotel.
Overnight stay in Colombo.
DAY 08 Colombo – Airport
After breakfast proceed to Airport for departure.
(Travel time from Colombo to Airport approx.: 1 hr.)
TOUR ROUTE
KEY DESTINATIONS
COLOMBO TEA AUCTION
(You will spend approx. 30 minutes at the auction)
The Colombo Tea Auction has the distinction of conducting the largest Tea Auction in the world, which has been in operation since 1883 and held twice a week at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Around 700 factories and 450 registered buyers participate at this auction.
LABOOKELLIE TEA FACTORY
(The excursion will take approx. 1hr)
The Labookellie Tea Centre which has for long been a popular land mark amongst both locals and tourists to Nuwara Eliya from Kandy for their requirements of garden fresh high quality Labookellie Tea. Labookellie Tea Estate is over 100 years old and situated at an elevation of 1,585 metres above sea level covering an extent of 543 hectares. It produces approximately 6,000 kilograms of tea annually. The visitors are allowed for a free guided tour of Labookellie Tea Factory which provides an educational experience in the tea cultivation and manufacturing process.
PLUCK YOUR OWN TEA AT TEA FACTORY HOTEL
(The excursion will take approx. 2hrs.)
For the ultimate holiday souvenir, how about taking home a packet of tea that you picked yourself?
Early in the morning you will be provided with a basket in which you will collect your leaves and then will take you out to the organic tea gardens and show you which leaves to pluck. You’ll find that it takes a bit of practice to make sure the leaves end up in your basket rather than on the floor!
Professional tea pluckers will accompany you and be amazed on how efficiently and quickly they manage to fill their baskets by comparison. Luckily, we don’t expect you to produce the minimum 15kg a day that is their target!
Then we return to the Mini Tea Factory, where a chief tea taster will inspect your efforts. He will reject any leaves that are unsuitable, so you must pay attention when picking, or all your efforts will be in vain!
He will then take you on a tour of the Mini Tea Factory and explain the whole process, from the initial drying (withering) of the leaves, through rolling, fermenting and sifting, to produce the different types of tea.
Finally, you can taste the different teas, from flowery pekoe to green tea and teabag dust, to appreciate for yourself the differences in colour, flavour and strength.
The next day, a packet of your very own tea will be ready for you to take home.
TEA RESEARCH INSTITUTE (TRI)
(The excursion will take approx. 2hrs.)
The Tea Research Institute (TRI), since its inception in 1925, has been the only national body in Sri Lanka for generating and disseminating new technologies related to tea cultivation and processing. The TRI has always been the driving force behind the numerous successes achieved towards development of the Sri Lankan tea industry over the years. The institute had its early beginnings in Nuwara Eliya town with a representative nucleus of staff undertaking research in make-shift laboratories with very modest equipment and then transferred to the present location, the St. Coombs Estate in Talawakelle, in December 1929.
TEA TASTING SESSION
(The session will take approx. 1hr.)
Tea tasting is the process in which a trained taster determines the quality of a particular tea. Due to climatic conditions, topography, manufacturing process, and different clones of the Camellia sinensis plant (tea), the final product may have vastly differing flavours and appearance. These differences can be tasted by a trained taster in order to ascertain the quality prior to sale or possibly blending tea. In this session a tea taster uses a large spoon and noisily slurps the liquid into his/her mouth – this ensures that both the tea and plenty of oxygen is passed over all the taste receptors on the tongue to give an even taste profile of the tea. The liquid is then usually spat back out into a spoon before moving onto the next sample to taste. The flavour characteristics and indeed leaf colour, size and shape are graded using a specific language created by the tea industry to explain the overall quality. Once the quality has been tasted/graded, each tea company places a value on it based on market trends, availability and demand.
The 10 types of tea that will be presented for tasting:
Pure Ceylon Tea – 5 Different Elevations, Green Tea GP 1, Golden Tips, Silver Tips, BOPF Blend , Fruit Tea
Participants get complimentary copy of “The Story of Ceylon Tea†– a book on the history of Ceylon Tea with images of Sri Lanka.
