When In Colombo… Make Time For Tea

Colombo’s quiet residential neighborhoods are a world apart from its crowded main streets, full of honking tuk-tuks and spicy street food hawkers. Enchanting areas like Cinnamon Gardens feature picturesque tree-lined avenues and colonial architecture, housing boutique tea shops and hidden garden cafes serving specialty teas from the country’s finest producers. Colombo’s new generation of environmentally and socially conscious businesses emphasizes innovative teas crafted with care. A desire to explore Sri Lanka’s artisanal tea led me to purveyors offering single-estate loose-leaf teas and cafes packed with locals enjoying precious leaves rolled by hand.

While there’s no shortage of tea shops in Colombo, finding ones that sell something other than standard bagged tea in sealed boxes can be difficult. As more specialty tea makers emerge in Sri Lanka, passionate tea sellers are combing the country for exciting new producers whose teas reflect the unique terroir of their estates and uplift the communities they come from.

R&D& Tea

On the fourth floor of the popular One Galle Face mall, R&D& Tea offers the country’s largest selection of hand-rolled and single estate loose-leaf teas. Awed by row upon row of shelves stocked with tea canisters, I was even more impressed by Lanka, the friendly and knowledgeable woman behind the counter. Happy to share her love for Ceylon tea, Lanka opened multiple containers for me to inspect the leaves and smell their fragrance while pouring samples of the shop’s best sellers.

As I perused colorful handpainted packaging by watercolor artist Alex Stewart, I encountered a tea region unknown to me. When asked about Dimbula, Lanka immediately opened a tea caddy from Pettiagalla Estate and explained that Dimbula is located in the central highlands, between 5,000 and 6,000 feet above sea level.

Like its more famous western neighbor, Uva, Dimbula also experiences a hot, dry wind in August and September that gives teas produced during this season a pronounced floral note and delicate finish. One whiff of Pettiagalla’s intoxicating aroma was all it took to get me hooked on a new favorite tea and growing region.

Good Market

Searching for organic or all-natural grocery stores while traveling often leads me to local products that tourists rarely see. Nestled down a shady side street near the Independence Memorial Museum and several cricket pitches is the Good Market, a small shop full of surprises.

On the hunt for handmade Ayurvedic beauty products, I happily stumbled across a large selection of organic and artisanal teas and herbal tisanes, including one of the oldest organic tea brands in Sri Lanka, Greenfield Farm. Established in 1997, Greenfield pioneered Sri Lankan organic tea production and local value addition. The brand now encompasses many organic products and a community of organic farmers nationwide.

The shopkeeper also revealed two more surprises. The first is that the store started as a local farmer’s market in 2012 but is now a global retail platform that certifies and promotes over 4,000 social enterprises in 113 different countries.

The second surprise is that the lively, popular outdoor market should not be missed. Every Saturday morning, organic spice and produce farmers, healthy street food vendors, tea makers, ceramic artists, and woodcarvers gather to display their wares. At the same time, local funk and reggae bands entertain the crowd. The following Saturday, I took his advice and showed up early, ready to shop, dance, and eat delicious, made-from-scratch Sri Lankan dishes like a local.

The Tea Tent by Lumbini Valley

The Lumbini Valley Estate borders the Sinharaja National Park, Sri Lanka’s last primary tropical rainforest. Its organic specialty teas reflect the region’s rich biodiversity, and a trip to the breathtaking estate for a tour of Lumbini’s tea fields and factory is a must for any tea lover.

However, those who don’t have enough time for a visit can sample Lumbini’s exceptional teas at the Tea Tent in the Havelock City Mall. This single-estate tea kiosk features Lumbini’s entire range of award-winning teas, many of which are rolled and processed by hand. I sampled the remarkable Sinharaja Wiry Tips, a unique black tea made from young buds and unopened leaves. The resulting brew has a rich honey aroma with a sweet caramel taste that competition judges can’t resist, with 38 awards worldwide. I also took home some of their captivating Ceylon White Leafy tea. Bursting with ripe melon and tropical floral notes, it tastes unlike any white tea I’ve had before.

Haritha Ceylon

After visiting the famous Gangaramaya temple (one of Colombo’s oldest and most venerated Buddhist temples), I found a shop selling specialty teas, herbal tisanes, and artisanal food products. Haritha Ceylon sources its products from small, environmentally and socially responsible businesses. The store’s core belief in community empowerment guides it to suppliers that care deeply about the people and communities who produce their products. Haritha’s message of upliftment attracted the attention of the Gangaramaya monks, who permitted them to open a store on land owned by the temple.

As someone interested in natural medicine, I always take the opportunity to learn about local herbs and remedies while traveling. Melissa Ranasinghe from Haritha Ceylon was kind enough to explain the benefits of some of their local herbal tisanes.

• Thebu: A wild herb that is thought to help control blood sugar levels and liver enzyme functions. It’s also anti-inflammatory and used for wound healing.
• Heen Bovitiya: A wildflower that smells slightly like seaweed but has a pleasant citrus flavor. It’s often used for detoxing the liver and regulating blood sugar levels.
• Beli Gata Mada: Great for digestive disorders. People say that it aids digestion and absorption while reducing the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and abdominal distension. It’s also thought to improve skin complexion.

Sadly, in many producing countries, the best teas are often exported to foreign markets that are willing to pay higher prices. This usually leaves domestic consumers with fewer premium options. I scoured Colombo for places offering harder-to-find, freshly brewed, loose-leaf teas and was delighted to discover a selection of cafes offering some of Sri Lanka’s best teas.

Barefoot Garden Cafe

Sunday jazz brunches in a scenic courtyard with a shop selling locally produced handicrafts, textiles, and books have made the Barefoot Garden Cafe a Colombo institution. But the real reason locals and tourists alike return to this urban oasis, again and again, is its delicious food and excellent selection of single-estate teas supplied by Mackwoods Fine Tea and creative blends like the revitalizing steamed green tea with lemongrass and peppermint from Peekoh Tea. The Barefoot Garden is one of the best places to shop, relax, and enjoy a satisfying cup of tea.

The Tea Lounge by Ceylon Tea Story at Cafe 413

 The recently opened Tea Lounge by Ceylon Tea Story at Cafe 413 was started by a young Sri Lankan couple who spent years living and working in Japan. Over a delicious pot of oolong tea from AMBA Estate, I asked Ceylon Tea Story’s owner, Pabashi Rajapaksa, why she and her husband Prashan decided to focus on Sri Lankan specialty teas. “We started Ceylon Tea Story with a vision to bring back the glory of Ceylon Tea to the world. Artisanal Ceylon tea epitomizes what Sri Lankan tea is all about. Celebrating and honoring these artisans’ commitment to the environment and the togetherness of their communities is at the heart of what we do. Offering handmade tea to the world helps us open up a new chapter in the modern era of Ceylon tea and safeguards the people and the environment that allows us to create these teas,” she says.

While at the cafe, try the popular Wild Tea Rod from Forest Hill. Its innovative design features hand-rolled leaves tied together to make the world’s first bagless tea bag. The rod’s subtle and unique characteristics come from 130-year-old tea trees growing wild in the forest. The slightly sweet and fragrant Vanilla Wild Tea Rod, made with vanilla grown in the same valley where the tea is harvested, is one of Pabashi’s favorites.

Another big seller is the Tin Kiri Tea (Condensed Milk Tea). Named for the tin in which the condensed milk comes, it was popular with older generations and commonly sold at roadside tea stalls. Few places still sell this tea, so it has become an instant hit at the tea lounge. They balance the sweetness of the condensed milk with the bold and slightly smokey characteristics of Rebels Tea By Mama D* from Kaley Tea.

*From 1983 to 2009, Sri Lanka was engulfed in a civil war that severely disrupted tea production on the island. During that time, the mother of Kaley Tea’s head teamaker, Mama D, rekindled a hundred-year-old method for making tea formerly used by Tamil estate workers to process tea at home illegally. She would dry the tea leaves in the sun, hand pound them in a stone mortar, and leave them to dry again over the hearth in her home, resulting in an invigoratingly strong brew with bright citrus notes and a lingering smokey finish.

 

t-Lounge by Dilmah

Thanks to the marketing genius of Dilmah’s founder, Merrill J Fernando, Ceylon’s nearly forgotten tea legacy was reintroduced to the world. Nowadays, Dilmah is synonymous with Ceylon Tea, and the Fernando family is still hard at work pushing boundaries and forging new frontiers in tea. Innovation is evident at Dilmah’s t-Lounges in Colombo. I spent an entire afternoon sampling a flight of their Watte teas at the Horton Place location (watte means estate or garden in the Sinhala language). Dilmah’s Watte series features unblended single-estate teas from four different elevations. It’s a fascinating study of how climate, soil, and topography dramatically affect the characteristics of each tea, with the lower-elevation teas being bolder in flavor and darker in color. In contrast, the Ran Watte (peak elevation) tea produced a delicate, elegant brew with a light golden liquor.

I highly recommend balancing four cups of black tea with an order of delectable sweet potato fries. Gorgeously crispy, the t-Lounge seasons its fries with Sri Lankan spices and fried curry leaves—the definition of finger-licking good.

Tea Tang

I love Boba tea and always look for tasty tapioca pearl-filled treats everywhere I go. Tea Tang is, without a doubt, the best bubble tea in Sri Lanka. Passionate about sustainability and sourcing locally, the brand built its own Boba manufacturing facility on the island.

Rather than imitating typical milk teas, Tea Tang mixes Ceylon orthodox black teas with Sri Lankan spices and coconut milk to create exciting drinks that celebrate the island’s bold flavors. Teas with fresh ingredients like ripe mango and passion fruit attract tourists from all over Asia who happily queue in lines stretching out the door for a Sri Lankan twist on a Taiwanese classic.

The Sweet Lab

Colombo’s newest dreamscape hotel complex, Cinnamon Life-City of Dreams, serves hand-crafted specialty teas from the Ceylon Artisan Tea Association in all their restaurants. But my favorite spot to nibble on something sweet while enjoying a fabulous cup of tea is the Sweet Lab. Located on the 24th floor, with striking views of Colombo’s skyline and the Galle Face green, the Sweet Lab is a modern take on French patisserie.

Savoring a white chocolate and pistachio madeleine with a pot of Spicy Green Orange Tea from Monkeytail Estate as the sun sets over the Indian Ocean is my idea of heaven. The producers at Monkeytail blend cardamom grown on the estate with handmade black tea and the famously tart Sri Lankan green oranges. The sharpness of the green orange and gentle thannins from the black tea balance the creamy richness of the madeleine’s white chocolate and pistachio coating, while the cardamom comes through on the finish. Treat yourself to a breathtaking and delicious bit of decadence at the Sweet Lab!