By Alan Ho Chok Chan
.The road from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya traverses 75 kms of mountainous terrain to an altitude of 1900 metres. Now I realised why an old friend of mine, TC, we called him, gastroenterologist by profession, mountaineer by hobby, loves climbing mountains, trekking in the world’s forests.
There is something inexplicably soothing, and awe-inspiring when looking up a mountain, replete with evergreens, waterfalls, half-veiled by misty mountain air… The hills are alive, and you are at one with Nature, with Creation, with the Universe.
The Buddha sees the Universe in a grain of sand. I am myopic, and cataractous, I see the Universe in the hills of Nuwara Eliya, the City of Lights.
These are old, granite cliffs, as old as Time itself. Verdant with dense alpine forests, waterfalls like quicksilver, lakes in the valleys glittering like mirrors, hillsides cleared for the planting of tea: low, squat bushes in neat rows, the light green of the new sprouts contrasting prettily against the dark green of the conifers. Tea is the main cash crop of Sri Lanka (the other being rice). Being the Tea capital of Sri Lanka, where an Englishman, James Taylor planted the first tea bushes, all the famous plantations are here : Mackwoods Labookellie, Pedro, Heritance Tea factory, the last of which we are going to stay on-site for two nights. Although in quantity Nuwara Eliya’s production is the smallest among the eight or nine tea-producing districts, the advantage of being in the central highlands, and many producers have gone organic, the teas produced here are among the most highly-prized and sought after.
We stopped at a very scenic spot for lunch : a 3-storey hotel-cum-restaurant sits precariously on a cliff side, named appropriately The Mountain View. It offered diners a million dollar view as they partook their meals. The last I saw such a scenic, precipitous drop was at the village of Oia ( pronounced Ee-ya ) in Santorini.
We then embarked on a crash course in tea-making, and this was at the Mackwoods Tea Factory where a staff took us outdoors to the farm (learnt about the two leaf- and -one -bud plucking technique), then onto the factory floor to see the various processes of Withering, rolling, drying, fermentation, sorting and packaging the final product.
The Final Product
Nomenclature in the industry got us totally confused. I think I’ve finally got a handle on things only when I got back home.
‘ Pekoe’ the ‘ P’ on your packages : derived from Chinese words 白毫meaning fine white downy hair. It is the best part, made of small buds at the tips.
‘ Orange’ the ‘O’ in the OP, or BOP, or BOPF.
Like me, you would have imagined it meant they have added orange peel or essence for flavouring. No, the Orange represents the golden orange sheen in the fermented tea leaves, another saying is it is in commemoration of Orange-Nassau, a famous Dutch tea importer.
As tea drinkers we couldn’t care less!
But quality we care.
If you can afford it ( I couldn’t ), buy :
Whole leaf teas, rather than Broken tea ( eg BOP)
Among whole leaf preparations : Gold tip better than Silver tip better than OP ( orange pekoe ).
Among lower grades : BOP better than BOPF better than Tea dust.
Paradoxically, those who love their teas strong, should go for the lower grades, as the smaller the particles, the stronger the colour and flavour.
Now we are all EXPERTS!
Which brings me to the Mackwoods tasting room : they served us BOP, sans milk, sans sugar, sans cake. Requests for Gold tip was met by a disdainful stare!
Then we were herded into the tea shop in which some of us parted company with LRP ( Lanka Rupees )
Our final stop, and abode for the next two days : Heritance Tea Factory.
( End of Part 6A) To be continued
Dr Alan Ho Chok Chan is a Paediatrician in private Family Practice. He also spends time golfing, swimming, playing tennis, wine tasting, playing guitar and singing. He is also a bibliophile and voracious reader.
