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.
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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.
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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
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