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Ceylon Tea Museum – vintage Hanthana Tea Factory By Arundathie Abeysinghe     Kandy is a mandatory stop in tourist itinerary. Breathtaking vistas, salubrious climate, culture, arts, handicrafts, Kandyan hospitality and scenic attractions have all contributed to Kandy as a famous tourist destination. Dotted with verdant tea estates in the surrounding hills, *Hanthana, *Nilambe, *Hewaheta, *Pussellawa and *Gampola as well as situated at an altitude of 650 meters – 1300 meters of tea cultivation, Kandy is known as a ‘mid-grown’ tea region. In 1867, Tea cultivation started in Sri Lanka in Kandy in *Loolcondera Estate. The weather in Kandy providing a conducive environment for ‘Kandy Tea’, a bright infusion with a coppery strong tone as tea estates in Kandy are clustered in valleys where the wind is less fierce and sheltered from monsoon winds. A few years ago, the first Tea Museum in the world was set up in Hanthana ...

Mar 27, 2023 Posted by In Articles, Arundathie Abeysinghe Tagged , , , , , , ,
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Ceylon tea – by Nadeeka – eLanka Ceylon tea is a type of tea that originated in Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon. The history of Ceylon tea dates back to the 19th century, when British colonialists introduced tea cultivation to the island nation. Prior to this, the main cash crop in Sri Lanka was coffee, but a fungal disease devastated the coffee crops, leading to a switch to tea production. By the 20th century, Ceylon tea had become a major export for Sri Lanka, and the country became one of the largest tea producers in the world. Today, Ceylon tea is renowned for its high quality and unique flavor profile, and continues to be an important part of Sri Lanka’s economy and cultural heritage. James Taylor is widely considered the “father of Ceylon tea.” He was a Scottish planter who introduced tea cultivation to Sri Lanka (then known as ...

Feb 5, 2023 Posted by In Articles, Nadeeka Kumari Tagged , ,
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Meeyan Ella – spectacular waterfall with a history – By Arundathie Abeysinghe   Situated along the up-county railway line in close proximity to *Ihalakotte Railway Station, Meeyan Ella waterfall has a deep history unknown to the majority. The stream that Meeyan Ella waterfall originates is situated in a location known as Helan-Madiththa on the *Alagalla Mountain Range. Initially, the waterfall fell as a single stream over a rock and flowed over the villages of Thalagolla and Walagoda joining Thalagolla Oya (Oya meaning stream in Sinhala) connected to Ma Oya in Boella.   At present, the waterfall drops as two waterfalls with a gap of approximately 50 meters along two artificially cut grooves on the rock surface. There is a history regarding the origin of the two waterfalls from one waterfall. During the British Colonial Era, a railway line from Colombo to Kandy was constructed by the Colonials to transport goods ...

May 6, 2022 Posted by In Articles, Arundathie Abeysinghe Tagged , , , , , ,
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James Taylor’s seat – birthplace of ‘Ceylon Tea’ By Arundathie Abeysinghe Situated in Loolkandura Estate in Kandy, this rock seat was utilized by *James Taylor, the pioneer of tea plantation in Sri Lanka. With spectacular views of the surrounding mountain ranges, this unique seat is located in the first tea estate in Sri Lanka where the first tea plant was planted by James Taylor in 1867. A unique decision of James Taylor was to name the estate as *“Loolecondera” (original name was Loolkandura in Sinhala), the local name for the area. When all other planters who setup tea estates in Sri Lanka named them with English names close to their hearts, Taylor named his estate “Loolecondera”, by the local name of the area Loolkandura as he was able to pronounce it. Although, not as popular as *Lipton’s Seat, James Taylor’s Seat is also popular among local as well as foreign ...

Jan 13, 2022 Posted by In Articles, Arundathie Abeysinghe Tagged , , , ,
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THE HISTORY OF TEA AND CRICKET IN SRI LANKA – BY David Colin Thome   Source: History of Ceylon Tea “You will think I write a lot about the scenery, but if you saw it you would not think I said too much” – James Taylor (Pioneering tea planter describing Ceylon in a letter to his father in Scotland in 1858) In Sri Lanka, the relevance of tea to the game of cricket extends further than that of a twenty-minute break that separates lunch and the end of a day’s play. And while tea to the Western world is but a tiny item in a crowded shopping trolley of groceries, in Sri Lanka, it is the trolley itself. For over a century, ‘Ceylon Tea’ has been the backbone of the country’s economy and to many individual Sri Lankans, its significance looms even larger. To the poorest of the poor, a ...

Aug 9, 2020 Posted by In Articles Tagged , , , , Comments 1
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ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF CEYLON – A  LOOK  INTO  THE  PAST – TEA CENTENARY YEAR SOUVENIR 1954 Edition Pioneers of the Tea Industry in Ceylon (A) JAMES TAYLOR James Taylor the father of the Ceylon Tea Industry opend up the first Clearing on Loolecondera Estate, Hewaheta. Born in Kincardinshire, Scotland in 1835, Jemes Taylor arrived in Ceylon in 1852 at the age of 17 years. He was sent to Loolecondera which he developed first as a Coffee Estate showing much enterprise also in introducing Cinchona before his first Tea Experiment. He had already grown Tea Bushes on the Estate before the first commercial Scale Clearing and had taught himself something about Tea Making by rolling the Green Leaf by hand on the verandah table and firing it over a Charcoal Fire. The Original 1867 Clearing on Loolecondera still exists. ...

Jul 5, 2020 Posted by In Articles Tagged , , , Comments 0
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