Tea Tasting:

Sri Lanka boasts of nearly 30 grades of tea

By Kurulu Kariyakarawana

Tasting tea as a profession is an art that can be mastered only with special training and skill. It is the process that a taster determines the distinctive quality of Camellia Sinensis plant or popularly known as tea that is grown in different terrains under different climatic conditions and being manufactured according to different processes.

Having owned a global reputation for its speciality teas for over a century and being the leading exporter for decades, Sri Lanka boasts of nearly 30 grades of tea being processed through the cultivations in central highlands and southern lowlands that are categorised into seven tea growing regions.

The colour, taste, texture and aroma of a cup of tea brewed from the produce of each of these regions holds a unique character that can be recognised by the trained tasters as well as international and local tea lovers.

In Sri Lanka mainly the tea plantation is categorised into three different terrains as high grown, medium grown and low grown tea. The mentioned regions are based on the elevation of the ground being used for the cultivation. It also defines the climatic conditions pertaining to each terrain or the region.

Sri Lanka Tea Board has categorised these regions as Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Uda Pussellawa, Uva, Dimbula, Sabaragamuwa and Ruhuna. Areas that have an elevation over 1,200 metres of the sea level are considered to be high grown and between 1200 metres to 600 metres are marked medium grown tea. The terrains lower than 600 metres are considered to be low grown. Uda Pussellawa, Haputale and Nuwara Eliya regions fall into high grown region whereas Uva, Dimbula and Kandy belong to medium grown. Areas like Galle, Matara, Ratnapura come under Ruhunu and Sabaragamuwa regions of low grown.

The flavour of the tea differ from the elevation of the ground it is cultivated. High grown tea which is relatively a smaller leaf has a subtle and delicate flavour whilst low grown teas bear a stronger flavour and a relatively larger leaf.

Ability to taste tea and define its characters has to come with years and years of experience and training. Jayathilaka Vidana, a senior tea taster in the trade with over a decade of experience said that flavours of the tea differ due to many factors. The characters of the taste can be differed due to the elevation of terrain, climatic condition, regions, from estate to estate, tea harvested from one side of the hill of an estate to the another side.

The tea produced in Sri Lanka is generally known as Orthodox Black Tea and categorised into 28 grades depending on the region, type and style they are processed and produced. They are also graded according to the leaf particle size like whole leaf or semi broken leaf which chiefly affects its flavour. Popular grades like BOP (Broken Orange Pekoes), BOP Fanning (BOPF), Golden Tips and Silver Tips have a large demand internationally. CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) style teas are also produced in the country.

Tasting is usually conducted in a spacious room where a range of brewed cups of teas are arranged in a line on a long table. Next to each cup a small sample of the respective tea is arranged for the tasters to examine. The tasting is done with a tablespoon by slurping a spoonful of tea. The slurping is done swiftly and noisily for the oxygen and the liquid to pass through all the taste receptors on the tongue and the palate to embrace the full flavour of the sample. The content is then spat out into a spittoon and continues the same process with the remaining cups.

Tea tasters have a unique language to describe the characters of the tea they have tasted and to grade them into varieties or to approve or reject a batch. These languages or codes are unique to every company to evaluate the quality of tea they purchase from the auction. For example, a taster can evaluate a cup of tea he had tasted from 1 to 10. Apart from the good characters the faults are also recognised by the tasters. They are able to tell whether the tea is burnt or smocked or not up to the proper standard suitable for human consumption.

An experienced taster can simply tell the type, the region and also the estate of the tea was plucked and produced. However there are certain unique qualities that even a beginner can notice. Especially the colour of the low grown and the high grown tea can be identified by its colour. The low grown tea has a dark reddish colour whereas high grown tea has a light yellow mix orange.

A tea plant was first brought to Sri Lanka in 1824 by the British from China where it was planted in Royal Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya for experimental purposes. Then several plants were imported subsequently from India in 1839 which led to the fact that its cultivation was far more successful than coffee. In 1839 the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce was established. James Taylor, the Britisher initiated commercial plantation of tea in 1867 by starting to grow a 19 acre estate in Kandy and a factory built in 1872. The first batch of Ceylon tea was exported to England from this estate.

Since then it grew to become one of the main exports of the country with several hundred estates within the regions and over 200 local companies that export tea. The tea produced in the factories are being bought over by brokering companies who would sell them in the Colombo Tea Auction held by Ceylon Chamber of Commerce under the patronage of Colombo Tea Traders Association.

Eight leading brokering companies namely Forbes and Walker Brokering (Pvt) Ltd, John Keels PLC, Ceylon Tea Brokers (Pvt) Ltd, Asia Siyanka Commodities (Pvt) Ltd, Bartleet Produce Marketing (Pvt) Ltd, Lanka Commodity Brokers Ltd, Mercantile Brokers Ltd and Eastern Brokers Ltd will auction the bulk of tea they purchase from the estates and factories to exporting companies.

A number of local exporters including the leading names like Lipton Brooke Bond, Stassen International, Akbar Brothers, Watawala Plantations, Sunshine Tea, Mlesna Ceylon, Anverally and Sons, Imperial Tea and many other companies take part at the auction held every Tuesday and Wednesday.

Colombo Tea Auction is a remarkable place where time is considered as money. Auctioning is held in three different auditoriums throughout the day where eight categories of tea called Ex Estate, High and Medium, Low Grown Leafy, Low Grown Small, Off Grades, BOP 1A, Dust and Supplementary are being sold out by the brokering companies.

A single sale of tea in the auction is called a lot where the type or grade of the tea is announced with the starting price per kilogram placed by the respective brokering company.

Generally the auction gets about 6,000 lots to be sold within the two days and the brokers had to announce at least three lots a minute which has to be done by a person who is capable of ultra fast vocal abilities. The traders will place their bids on the announced price and the best bidder will get the stock.

Sri Lanka was the leading tea exporter in the world until the last decade whereas now it has dropped down to the fourth position having China, India and Kenya respectively on top.

The amount of metric tons exported since 2010 to 2012 had been dropped with 331,427 in 2010, 328,632 in 2011 and 326,278 in 2012.

Tea Grades Nomenclature

Orthodox Black Tea Main Sale

1 BOP 2 BOPA 3 BOPF 4 OP1 5 OP 6 OPA 7 BOP1 8 FBOP1 9 FBOP 10 FBOPF 11 FBOPF1 12 FBOPF Special 13 FBOPF Extra Special 14 FBOPF Extra Special 1 15 Pekoe Pekoe 1 16 Dust 1 17 Dust 18 BP 19 BOP1A 20 BM 21 BT 22 FNGS 1 23 FNGS

CTC Tea

1 BP 1 2 BPS 3 PF1 4 OF 5 PF 6 PD 7 Dust 1 8 Dust