Nuwara Eliya

　　Strange as it may seem, the story of Ceylon Tea began with coffee. in the early 1820s, Kandy, the last surviving indigenous ruling state in Ceylon, surrendered to the British colony. In 1831, the coffee industry occupied much of the land around Kandy and was spreading south into the once virgin forests of the central hills.

　　Ceylon’s coffee industry continued to grow, and by the mid-1870s Ceylon was the world’s largest coffee producer, and with its profits, Ceylon prospered. Meanwhile, in 1869, the first signs of a new plant disease, coffee rust fungus, appeared in plantations, wiping out Ceylon’s entire coffee business over the next decade or so.

　　James Taylor was the first Ceylon planter to succeed with tea, but he was not the first to try. Though records are scant, there is evidence that the cultivation of tea plants imported from China was attempted as early as 1824. Arriving in Ceylon in 1852, James Taylor took up residence on the Lullacondela Estate (coffee estate) in Galaha, 1867, he started a tea plantation of about 77,000 square meters on the Lullacondela Estate, which became the foundation for Sri Lanka’s largest export industry for over a century. In 1872, a fully equipped tea factory began operating on the Lullacondela Estate, and in 1873, about 10.4 kg of tea leaves produced by James Taylor arrived in London, marking the international debut of Ceylon tea. After this, Sri Lanka’s tea production grew rapidly.

　　By the late 1880s, most coffee plantations had turned to tea cultivation, which was expected to be more profitable. Now, India is the world’s leading producer of black tea, Sri Lanka is second, and Kenya is third, but Sri Lanka is currently the world’s leading black tea exporter.

　　The Nuwara area is the highest altitude tea production area in Sri Lanka, and the quality season is from February to March.