A Brief History of Ceylon Tea

The history of Ceylon Tea goes back to the early 1860s, during which the main crop produced in Ceylon then was coffee. Owing to devastation caused by the coffee-rust fungus, the majority of the coffee plants were killed, which made estate owners to lose interest in coffee and to diversify into the other crops in order to prevent an entire ruin. As the owners of Loolecondera Estate had been having a long-stood interest in tea cultivation since the late 1850s, started sowing of tea seeds in 1867 under the supervision of James Taylor, a recently arrived Scot, who was appointed as the in-charge.

Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka is often acclaimed as the best tea in the world. The climate of this small and exotic country is ideally suited to producing a variety of delightful flavors and aromas. Ceylon tea is a pure, high quality tea with a distinctive, rich flavor and a bright golden color. Further, Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, produces the cleanest teas in the world in terms of pesticide residue levels.

Sri Lanka produces tea throughout the year, and the growing areas are mainly concentrated in the central highlands and southern inland areas of the island. Ceylon teas are broadly grouped under three headings according to the elevations at which they are grown. "High growns" are grown at elevations ranging from 1200 meters upwards, "medium growns" between 600 and 1200 meters, and "low growns" from sea level up to 600 meters.

High grown teas from Sri Lanka are particularly reputed for their aroma, rich flavor, and bright golden color.