Sri Lankan Black

Sri Lankan Black Loose Leaf Black Tea


Regular price $23.99
(60¢ per cup)

12 in stock

A rich loose leaf black tea from an independent family farm in the cool mountains of Nuwara Eliya.

USA Shipping Rates
DHL Tracked/DHL Plus Tracked FREE when you spend $30 or more
DHL Tracked/Plus Tracked from $4.99
USPS Priority from $8.99
FedEx Home Delivery from $16.99

Canadian Shipping Rates*
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Mexico Shipping Rates*
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FedEx Courier Delivery from $36.99

Availability of rates depends on location and order weight. For a complete overview of our shipping rates please see our delivery page.

*All prices quoted in USD and will be converted automatically at checkout.

Tasting Notes

A pure, loose leaf black tea with flavours of burnt sugar, hay, butterscotch and fresh cardamon pods. Smooth tannins and delicate floral top notes.

Equally delicious enjoyed on its own or with milk. You might be surprised that the pale golden cup can handle milk, but although the colour may be light, the flavour is rich and robust. A decent dollop of milk reveals notes of marzipan and butterscotch.

Quantity

Use 0.1 oz of leaf per 5.1 fl oz of water (2.5g per 150ml).

Temperature

For the optimum infusion use 185°F (85°C) water. To take with milk, please use water at 212°F (100°C). We recommend trying both!

Time

Infuse for 60 - 90 seconds if having black, or 3 - 4 minutes if having with milk.

Infusions

You can infuse this tea at least twice at 185°F, and once at 212°F. With each careful infusion, different subtleties of flavour are revealed.

Cost Per Cup

60¢ per cup based on 0.1 oz of tea per 5.1 fl oz of water and 2 infusions.

The Diyanillakelle tea garden extends over a 225-acre expanse of land in Lindula within the Nuwara Eliya District of Sri Lanka. The garden is classified under the Up-country Wet Zone agro-ecological region, situated at 4,500ft altitude and the average temperature is between 22°C to 26°C.

Diyanillakelle has an extensive history of tea cultivation spanning 150 years. Having been run for a significant period of time by its original Scottish planters, the garden passed hands through successive Sri Lankan owners until in 2012 when Ananda took over.

"The fields down to every tea bush have been given careful attention. The factory has been rebuilt, refitted, and transformed to a high quality and low quantity production line featuring custom made troughs and rollers and electric dryers. Branching away from producing mass produced tea to high quality low volume tea also means we can ensure that our workers enjoy better working conditions - from reduced working hours to vastly improved pay that is not linked to plucking volumes. We have also spent time upskilling our workers on fine plucking, and some are now spending time in the factory as apprentices learning the fine tea manufacturing processes. Furthermore, all our tea sales now include a 'community elders provision' of $5 per kilo to establish and run a facility to care for retired/elderly members of our garden community. Diyanillakelle is now a sustainable and ethical agro-enterprise focused only on producing the highest quality tea that can compete with the best tea in the world."

Ravindu, Ananda’s son-in law

We have been working with Ravindu for many years to bring you this wonderful tea. The farm Ananda took over was a conventional tea farm that they set about transforming. Conventional is used to describe farming practices that use industrial pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers. It is our fervent hope that this is not our future; that convention - the way in which things are usually done - becomes something far more sustainable for the land and the people that live and work on it to survive and thrive into the future (please see our section on organic tea farming here). Ananda, Ravindu and the team at Diyanillakelle have the same vision.

They wanted the farm to be environmentally, socially and economically viable for the community. Across Sri Lanka and India high-volume, conventional tea farming is becoming increasingly unsustainable. International commodity tea prices keep dropping, forcing farms into producing more industrial and lower grade teas, which in turn become increasingly less valuable. It’s a vicious circle that forces farms into low wages and communities into poverty.

Like Ananda and Ravindu, this is a cycle we want to break.

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