Sri Lanka – Madulkelle & Tea Plantation

Written on Friday, September 6, 2019 by Emma Whiting Travel

As an avid Dilmah lover visiting tea plantations in Sri Lanka was very high on my list, and Madulkelle was the perfect base. A colonial planters estate house is used as the reception, dining area, and English lounge complete with a library and fireplace. As you walk out on the back veranda an English garden and infinity pool greet you, overlooking the surrounding mountains – the perfect place for a pot of tea. The rooms at the lodge are permanent tents spread out on the hillside, all leading off a cobblestone path. Waking up here was spectacular. I watched the sun rise over the surrounding hills as the tea plants came into view and birds sang. Photos don’t do it justice. After a gorgeous breakfast and tea – of course – we visited a nearby tea factory for a tour. The narrow winding roads take you past tea plantation by tea plantation, dotted by hardworking women picking leaves. Twice a day they would take their full bags to a nearby truck, where their bags of tea would be weighed and loaded, and taken straight to the factory. Here we saw the bags unloaded and emptied onto a wide drying belt. The tea leaves spread out were about 15cm deep and were dried by large fans blowing air underneath the belt. We were guided through the rest of the factory, from the drying process to the different treatments for green and black tea, all the way to the packing area where leaves are taken straight to the Colombo tea markets – where the big tea companies purchase thousands of kilos of tea. It was amazing seeing the process from start to finish.

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