Tea Cultivation

It is not particularly hard to make tea grow. As long as it gets plenty of rain and temperatures do not vary much year round, Camellia sinensis is a robust shrub, able to tolerate a fairly wide range of more or less tropical climates, altitudes and soil conditions. It flourishes happily in the wild, in China (whence it originates), in Assam and elsewhere. Untended, the bushy shrub that covers the hills of central Sri Lanka in manicured, contour-planted swathes becomes a shaggy, gnarled tree that can grow up to 9m (30ft.) tall. It was from such trees that the original seed-stock of Ceylon tea – in fact, of all tea – was derived.Growing tea worthy to bear the famous Lion of Ceylon logo is not at all easy, however.Every permutation and combination of such variables such as plant stock quality, soil, weather, altitude and exposure has a discernible effect on the quality of the final product.
So sensitive is the tea plant to such effects that samples of tea picked from different hillsides or ‘fields’ on a single estate, or even from the same hillside on different days of the week, will appear different to an experienced taster. Today, when much of the island’s output is grown on smallholder farms, the potential variation within even a single sub-district can be even wider.

Such extreme variability was a great handicap to pioneer Ceylon tea planters, who could never be sure of a consistent product. Advances in the art and science of tea production, together with such processes as bulking, delivered greater consistency, but tea cultivation remains, much like viniculture, a business of regional and seasonal variation, of vintages delectable or disappointing. Modern supermarket brands, which are made by blending teas from many sources of origin, tend to eliminate this exciting variety in favour of a predictable, homogenized ‘consumer experience’; Ceylon tea, on the other hand, proudly emphasizes its unique, variable yet always recognizable character. The differences between the various tea-growing regions of Sri Lanka are marked, and the flexibility of the orthodox black tea process enables many adjustments to be made at the manufacturing stage.

See More :- Sri Lanka tea board official web site

                 

                   :-  Sri lanka tourism Official web site