The next morning, the other trip attendees gathered in the hotel lobby to board the private tour bus that would take us deep into the tea fields of Sri Lanka. We were a motley crew comprised of a bed & breakfast owner from Napa, a tea shop owner from New Hampshire, a sales rep from Bunn, a researcher and development professional working for Bigelow Tea, and Abigail and me, proudly representing TeBella Tea. I would be remiss in not mentioning our fearless leader, a tea guide extraordinaire and truly charming Englishman, Gilbert. Gilbert had lived in Sri Lanka for years working for the East Indies Tea Company and was an expert on all things Ceylon and the Sri Lankan tea industry.
Over the next week, we spent countless hours in that bus, and the sights I glimpsed out of our windows were unparalleled by anything I’d ever seen before. We worked our way further north, away from the sea, and began to climb up into higher elevation. Lush forests and bumpy city streets melted into breathtaking mountainscapes, with winding roads that veered perilously close to craggy drops.
Our steep climb in elevation brought us to a misty, green wonderland called Nuwara Eliya. More than 6,000ft above sea level, this small city is nestled between rolling hills of tea; it felt like a completely different country than Colombo, Sri Lanka, where I had flown into just days before. Here we visited the Pedro Tea Estate, which was by far my favorite. It was the most idyllic and picturesque scene I could have imagined. A light fog hung low in the air the whole day as we roamed through rows and rows of
camellia sinensis bushes.
Off in the distance we could see tea pickers slowly combing the plantation, their canvas bags carrying freshly plucked tea leaves fastened snugly around their heads. After a self-guided tour of the grounds, we were led into one of the most beautiful tasting rooms I’d ever seen. As we sampled some of their prized harvests of Ceylon, we were bathed in the first swatch of sunlight we’d seen since we arrived.