In April we were honored to welcome three very special visitors to Comins to share the story of Artisan Sri Lankan tea with us; [from left to right] Simon, Buddhika & Neethanjama. Buddhika is a great friend of ours at Comins and we were delighted to welcome him again - this time with friends from the Ceylon Artisanal Tea Association (CATA).
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The group were at Comins to share the story [& of course taste] the new wave of handmade teas from Sri Lanka. We started with Simon Bell sharing a bit of the history of the Sri Lankan tea industry with us
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'Sri Lanka has always been very famous for its black tea. Arguably the best black tea in the world - Sri Lankan black tea still gets some of the best prices at auction in the world. Of course nowadays this island is also producing some wonderful green and white teas as well. Tea was introduced to Sri Lanka by the British and it was always made in factories - always a commercial business run by the British and taken over after independence. In China and Japan , as we know, tea has been made by thousands of years. Each family, cooperative, valley has its own techniques and styles delivering so much variety- this has historically not been the case in Sri Lanka'
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Simon, who was born in Sri Lanka, had spent many years working in economic development and agricultural supply chains around the world. He, along with 4 colleagues with similar backgrounds, decided they wanted to put their experience to practical use in Sri Lankan tea & found AMBA, a small tea estate on the edge of the mountains which needed restoration. Here their vision was to work in partnership to 'maximise local incomes while regenerating the local environment' Simon explained '80% of the tea is Sri Lanka is small farmers and those small farmers are selling the leaf at a low price to big factories to process. We wanted to show it was possible to process our own teas by hand - not just to create more tea in our valley but to inspire others that this was possible and that they didn't need to sell their leaf cheaply. To share the vision that they could also start making their own handmade teas with limited equipment and limited investment'
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Much of the value of tea is realised in the latter part of the supply chain so by adopting this model farmers could realise much more of the value themselves. The artisan teas produced by AMBA were immediately a hit abroad proving the market and giving confidence to all involved in the operation. Simon continued 'From the outset we wanted to be about expansion. We were happy to find Buddika who had dreamed of doing something similar and many others from across the island visited to be inspired. Together we formed an association - initially AMBA was training the other estates but now it is a two way path. Everyone innovates in their own way. The association is the way to promote the vision of artisanal tea in Sri Lanka and get more people interested and excited in these types of teas. It also allows us to jointly market around the world - an approach that has proven to be useful - most recently during COVID when we came together to offer join webinars'
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Photo above [sunrise at Eagle rock Amba Estate : Source Amba Estate
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What about the big factory teas in Sri Lanka? How does this artisanal association differ? Simon offered some insight : 'Some big factory teas in Sri Lanka are amazing but there has been a tendency in Sri Lanka to keep producing the same teas that the British were enjoying back in the 1940s without much innovation. What has been most exciting about creating the association is that it is all about innovation and are working hard to make different types of teas - even Puer! Buddhika invented the worlds first all natural tea bag from wild teas from the abandoned tea trees in the forest - with the particularly long leaves he is rolling individual cigar like rods from the leaves tied together with organic string. Other members are now doing similar things adding their own signature. At AMBA one day we were rolling our classic hand rolled black tea and it was a little over withered. The leaves were sticky and clumping together and we were like 'oh that could be a little gem' and we started making our black tea gems'
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These gems deliver a beautiful caramelised tone [see the dry leaf pictured below]. Neethanjama from Amba explains how for this tea the outside is oxidised the middle is fermented - you use one ball per cup & once water is added it opens up. This is a stronger black tea with the fermentation resulting in caramel notes. 'You can pick up notes of burnt toffee' Neethanjama explains . The wider group have modified these gems to create green tea gems. Another group is exploring tea urchins with a flower that opens up. It really is amazing to hear how continuous innovation has become a core value for this association.
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All of this is good news for Sri Lankan tea and Sri Lankan tea farmers. Farmers earn 10 times more in this model than if they were just selling commodity teas. And for tea consumers this is also good news because we get so much more variety and to taste so many different styles of tea. And its a model that is going international. Simon explains 'we went to Tanzania to share with a brand out there who wants to make handmade teas. We have been holding webinars with Japanese tea makers - sending samples to each other - our Japanese colleagues have been teaching us how to improve our green teas and we were teaching them how to improve their black teas - perhaps we were learning more from them than they are from us! Partnerships are also starting with colleagues in Nepal 'overall we are hoping to start seeding the idea for small community owned tea estates all over the world' Closer to home and back in Sri Lanka the cooperative is working with members across the different growing areas of Sri Lanka. By working with partners across the island consumers can enjoy exploring the different characters that comes from terroir, elevation and soil.
- Uva - where AMBA is famous for its winter green flavour
- Rahuna - in the deep south teas have a malty caramelised flavour
- Sabaragamuwa where Buddika's wild tea grows
- A couple of partners in Kandy and one on edge of Nuwara Eliya
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With all that background its now time to hear from the tea makers themselves. First we welcomed Neethanjama [pictured above on the left] the production manager of AMBA Estate. He started off by building on Simon's history 'In Sri Lanka we have 150 year tea history - the British planted here and the realisation quickly came that on this island we can pick the tea leaves January to December. Because of that the British commercialised tea heavily making the machines we now see today across the factories. Each factory can process 1-2 tonne of made tea in one night - they built 100 tea factories as a start so suddenly each night over 1 million tonnes of made tea was being produced' We all took a moment to take in this extraordinary number. 'This model needed labour so they brought more people into the country & created labour quarters and 'tea families' - ladies were employed to pluck the tea and men to operate the machinery with the idea that children would follow their parents. It was a good model for the tea factory owners because people are born in tea and brought up in tea. We say that when the 20th century began most families had no blood they had tea and so much tea knowledge - an A-Z of tea in the mind'
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Neethanjama continues 'So this is how Sri Lanka, a small island, become the largest tea producer in the 20th century - a position we kept for 100 years. Then we started to decline which has continued to this day as China India and Kenya overtook with large operations and a cheaper labour force. We face a big problem now so we have to try and make our country safe and make our country great again. We want to make social change and change the system - we want to move away from a system that can see tea pickers in large commercial operations earning as little as 2.5 dollars a day'
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So what is different at Amba? : Neethanjama explains : 'If you go to AMBA estate the tea plucker is not a tea plucker he or she is a tea artisan [picture above from AMBA from broadsheet.com photography Jiwon Kim] - who pick it who process it who finish it it is their tea. They are given respect. If you pay more for the tea worker people will pick the tea. The old model created in Sri Lanka - the one described above - means we are in a situation where there is no longer pride in a family saying their daughter or son is a tea picker. We need to reframe this skilled work. So, at AMBA we have changed the system - the artisan makes the judgement. Whoever plucks the tea will the next day go to the tea rolling - this keeps the tea traceable - the traceability defines the quality and the tea artisanal story creates the market. All the teas are hand touched and are created from what we call 'single tea artisan judgement' Tea is like wine soil elevation weather production method all affect the flavour and a key ingredient is also the artisan - they are critical. At the end of the month the teas come to the table for tasting and the elements made up the tea is discussed which allows better understanding - has something gone well? - what was the story of the tea that day? Lets replicate it or even fine tune it more. Is something amiss? - what do we need to refine. Salaries are given & then bonuses & we then share 10% of income so each worker knows 'this is my tea and this is my tea estate''
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Feeling hopeful & inspired we move on to our dear friend Buddhika who we all know and love at Comins. He shares a little of his story 'I was born in Kandy - from school I joined the plantation sector as a trainee planter and then started my planting career. My wife and I wanted to do something different so I was reading about the Sri Lankan tea industry widely & one day my wife saw something about AMBA and their handcrafted tea so I came to explore how they run their operation. Up until then I was working in large scale production but I started doing experiments and things have grown from there. As you know my teas have unique character as they are grown in the forest - the tap roots of the old trees have gone deep down into the soil bringing top quality minerals up into the leaves we pluck. We call the taste 'forest flower'. For the tea rod you can infuse the leaves up to 7 times - if you choose to brew late in the day and want to infuse the next morning you can keep the rod wrapped up in the fridge for the next day. You can also try to make this tea cold in the summer too and enjoy the earthy-ness & honey character'
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Returning to Neethanjama we prepare to taste a few other teas starting with the TGFOP 'Tippy golden flowery orange pekoe' from AMBA or Neethanjama shares 'too good for ordinary people' :) . This tea is all hand rolled and should be taken with no no milk or sugar. This is a common topic of discussion at Comins which Neethanjama offers more thoughts on 'There are a number of reasons that adding milk to tea is not a good idea' he shares 'think about it - tea is natural - it doesn't contain any cholesterol sodium etc but you add these through milk. Tea also contains polyphenols - milk contains lactase - polyphenols and lactase react & neutralise all the antioxidants in the tea - and as we know antioxidants are good for us'. This leads us on to the wider properties of tea with Neethanjama sharing and joking 'Good green tea has theanine which refreshes your brain cells - so green tea makes you smarter, black tea makes you younger'
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With the session almost at an end conversation moves on to some very specific and famous tea character that can be experienced in Sri Lankan tea. Neethanjama explains how, in August and only in the Uva region you can you experience some menthol character in black tea. This character appears only in drought season when the tea bushes are extra stressed. The Uva region is on the edge of the mountains as the East coast wind goes through the land the tea bushes come under stress - altering their character. When processed these stressed leaves offer a menthol taste - which in Sri Lanka is called winter green flavour. Buddhika explains 'rather than going for shape and appearance you have to manufacture quite quickly and wither harder to preserve the quality and preserve the character' A great place to end this blog reflecting on the deep understanding tea farmers & tea artisans have of the land & the tea and how important they are to the finished cup we are lucky enough to enjoy. Huge thanks to Simon, Buddhika & Neethanjama for such an insightful session. We can't wait to revisit Sri Lanka soon.
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Until then we hope you enjoy exploring some of these teas for yourself at Comins.
