By Alan Ho Chok Chan
Heritance Tea Factory
I first came across the name in my readings on Ceylon tea. And the more I read about it, the more I was convinced we should spend one, if possible 2 nights here.
It had a rich and variegated history.
Located almost 2 km above sea level, it was a working tea farm of 25 acres under Hethersett Estate since the 1800s ( about a century after tea was first brought in to Ceylon ), and the factory was built in 1930, processing tea under the Hethersett label till 1973, when it went into slumber. Hethersett tea commanded a price 30 times more than the average Ceylon tea.
It was not till 23 years later when the current owners converted the old factory into a 4 star hotel and restaurant that Heritance Tea Factory came into existence. Except for the white, corrugated ? tin facade, which was common for most tea factories, the interior was gutted and refurbished to a standard that befit the gentry class.
Lots of darkwood and glass made the place feel like an English country manor. A first class dining car of the narrow gauge railway which sent the tea down to Kandy now sat permanently behind the restaurant, at the final stop of the Hethersett railway station. It was used for private dining.
The reception and lounge to your right when you entered was the collection room for tea harvested.
The Hindu reception was unique : You received a ‘ third eye’, a dot of ash planted on your forehead, in bygone days you also were given a mouth or breath freshener : a bit of sugar candy, a sprinkling of cardamom, and a few strands of dried ginger, with a glass of tea. Today, they replaced it with a sweet herbal tea, not unpleasant in flavour.
The modern restaurant,on the left of the entrance, with its heavy furniture and classy cutlery, used to be the tea-grading room. The kitchen, was the engine room generating power to run the factory. The original engine, with some recently added parts, is displayed in the basement, visible through the airwell in the lobby. And they switched it on twice a day to demonstrate its function in turning the rotator drying fans. Standing in the lobby, with the machinery switched on, and the be-turbaned staff quietly moving about doing their business, you have a sense of deja-vu, you feel like an English planter back in time, back to the 1830s…
The hotel is environmentally friendly, its water comes from a spring in the middle of the estate. It uses kitchen waste to generate biogas and compost. Hot water is generated through burning of waste wood, thus saving diesel combustion.
The farm is organically run. The only fertilizers the tea plant receives is the compost generated from the hotel waste. And to avoid insecticides and weed killers, they planted a herb beneath the tea bushes that had weed killing properties.
Kandapola district, where the Hethersett estate is, also offers trekking, birdwatching, mountain biking and horse riding activities.
Nearer home, where the hotel is : a rose garden with 90 varieties of roses, vegetable and herb garden, a spa with a gym, tea plucking and tea tasting classes, and eco- walks, keep the guests occupied.
This was the favourite venue for honeymooners, but today plays host to 18 oldies and their kids.
At dawn, the mist from the mountains comes down to the plantation, and whitewashes everything in sight. The locals call it ‘ flowers of frost ’. In Piedmont, northwestern Italy, they have the same mist that sweeps down the Italian Alps and blanketed the vineyards, they called it the Nebbia, and the resultant grapes are named the Nebbiolo, which goes into the making of two of Italy’s greatest wines : the Barolo, and the Barbaresco.
I finally got more than what I bargained for : In the two carefree days we did the eco-walk, a meandering trekking uphill, sidehill, then downhill through the tea farm ; donned the sarongs and sarees to try out the tea-harvesting, the paltry amount of leaves went into baskets fastened onto headbands ; oh… also did a jig with messrs Kiong and Ying. Hope the videos did not go viral.
What can I say about the cuisine and wines? I ran out of superlatives.
The icing on the cake : as we left, all the tea-pickers were given a memento- 2 bags of teas from Heritance Tea Factory.
A nice touch of class !
( End of Part 6B and end of Travelogue )
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.
