Kenilworth OP

Notes

Dimbula finds itself in Central Province, Sri Lanka, between two high plateaus. Its name derives from the valley that lies in the heart of the region.

The area boasts rich wildlife; elephants by the thousands, deer and sambhur by the tens of thousands, and eagles soaring above its beautiful, iconic landscape

One of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka. The province has an area of 8,500 km2 and a population of 1,266,463, making it the 2nd least populated province.

Uva region teas are renowned worldwide by tea connoisseurs for its smooth taste. These teas are best enjoyed during the season from end July to mid-August which produces the finest of ‘Uva Seasonal Teas’

The teas produced in Kandy are described as “mid-grown” as cultivation does not exceed 1,300 m (4000 Feet). They range in flavor depending on the altitude and whether the plantation is sheltered from monsoon winds. All are particularly flavorsome. Kandy teas produce a bright infusion with a coppery tone and are strong and intensely full-bodied.

Kandy teas tend to produce a relatively bright infusion with a coppery tone.Though lighter in the cup, they present a good deal of strength and body, though not as much as the lower-grown products of Sabaragamuwa and Ruhuna. Most Kandy-district estates lie on the western slopes of the hills, so their taste is influenced by the ‘western quality season’, meaning that the best tea is produced during the first quarter of the year, when cool, dry weather sets in across the district.

Bearing the old Sinhalese name for the south of the island, the Ruhuna tea-growing district lies in what is now the Southern Province of Sri Lanka. The tea-growing terrain, coastal plain with low hills towards the interior, lies mostly in the western part of the province, within the ‘wet zone’ watered by the southwest monsoon. Eastward, the land is predominantly scrub jungle, with some areas of grassy plain and coastal salt-marsh, growing wilder and more barren as one travels eastward. This eastern region is home to a number of nature reserves, including Ruhuna National Park, better known to Sri Lankans as Yala, whose upper reaches extend into the adjacent province of Uva.

The forests of Ruhuna are home to wild elephants, leopards, bears, wild boar and many kinds of deer. It is a paradise for bird-lovers, with hundreds of native and migrant species, including giant flamingos which spend their breeding season among the salt-pans and marshes of Bundala, another coastal reserve.

Yet Sabaragamuwa’s importance in the tea industry has increased since the expansion of markets for Ceylon Tea in the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. The highest estates lie just below the boundaries of the Sinharaja and Peak Wilderness nature reserves and share in the microclimatic conditions produced by the rainforests, cloud forests and high, grassy plains endemic to this region. As a result, they produce tea of a somewhat different character to that grown at lower elevations in the district. Some of these estates receive the highest rainfall of any in the plantation districts.

Other upper Sabaragamuwa estates receive some weather from the nearby Uva climatic system, which affects the character of the tea they produce in an entirely different way.