Sri lanka is known as one of the most important tea producing countries in the world. Who has never heard of Sri Lanka’s famous teas? So we were really excited to discover for the first time those amazing tea plantation landscapes! It’s true that there is nothing more magnificent than the green nuances that decorate those fertile mountains.
As i worked during a year and half in a tea house in Paris before going on this trip, i developped a great pasion for this millennial beverage, that i also shared with Nacho, whom I initiated to the delight of a real cup of good tea. It was such a sadness to see those beautiful tea leaves torn apart, broken, and reduced to a powder which will fill the tea bags that end on our supermarket stalls. The dreadful tea bag industry rules the tea market in Sri Lanka which makes it really hard to find a producer who’s not involved that plant slaughter! We visited the Halpe tea fabric that seems to be a bit more ethical and where we managed to find whole leaf tea, but what clearly struck us during that tea immersion trip was the visit of the Ambatene fabric, just above the little town of Haputale, where Mr Lipton set up his first tea plantation, and where you’ll find the famous “Lipton’s seat”, from which he admired his land. Could he ever imagine that the industry he was starting would be the pale reflection of what big corporations do to the world? Beyond the mistreatment of the plants, the workers’s conditions are quite hard: being paid barely more than 3$ for 20 kg picked, the pickers’s life isn’t easy. They are overexploited and live with a very low salary in makeshift sort of villages in the middle of the plantation. Even though they are given a house and a few basics social rights like schooling for their children, this doesn’t make their condition much better and we could read signs of tireness on the faces we crossed in the plantation alleys. There is also the overexploitation of the earth and the plants. Tea trees are exhausted because of producing so much, the earth is tired and an ecosystem has been destroyed by the creation of those plantations! Yes, even though the landscapes are gorgeous, they had to cut down many endemic plants and forest to plant the tea trees. We also saw a sign that didn’t bode very well and which read: “chemical manipulation zone”… that’s where the majority of cheap tea bags come from! So I couldn’t advice you more strongly to be really careful about what you brew in your cup! Prefer tea bags made with “whole leaf tea” or even better, enjoy it using a tea pot! And be aware where it comes from! Sri Lanka isn’t the only country feeding the tea bag industry, they are present in other countries like Kenya for exemple. I suppose and I hope that there are some small producers in the island who are trying to grow tea in a more ethical and respectful way; unfortunately we didn’t have the time to find them. Next time perhaps?
Text : Iris Kneubuhler
Traduction : David Cassard
Video : Ignacio Quiroz
inspiration viajera 