The magic of Ceylon tea

Ceylon’s Teas and Plantations

Nothing can capture the essence of this natural, beautiful tea country more clearly than a cup of Ceylon’s finest high grown tea. Reflecting the art of the tea maker, fine Ceylon Tea also captures the magnificence of nature in a cup of calm and healing. Dilhan C Fernando

The tea growing mountains of Sri Lanka have a breathtaking beauty that places them among the island’s most memorable locations. Here in the country’s southern central mountain range, the bushes wrap themselves around the contours of the gently curving slopes, clothing the land in a perfectly-tailored coat of green. Here and there, the rich red soil reveals its role in holding fast the roots and nurturing the essential leaves while waterfalls, rivers and craggy outcrops add texture to the rolling landscape, holding the gaze of visitors as they marvel at such perfection. What is it that makes Ceylon tea so markedly different from teas grown elsewhere in the world? It is the soil, the climate, the cool moist air, the seasonal monsoons that drench the land twice a year, the differing altitudes and various cultivars of the tea bush that are suited to the different local conditions, the particular manufacturing process employed in the factories, the skilful handling of the leaf – all these play a part in creating the magic of Ceylon tea.

Life and Work on the Plantations

Since the days when the British brought Tamil workers from southern India to Ceylon to harvest the coffee crop, the plantation workers have mostly been Tamil. The families are provided with free housing on the plantation and while the women work as pickers, the men carry out the heavier work of pruning, weeding, and general plantation maintenance, or work as factory operatives to actually manufacture the tea. Families are also provided with electricity, water, childcare, medical care and

a small plot of land on which to grow essential vegetables and rear livestock. There are crèches for the babies and schools for the children and each morning and afternoon, groups of white-clad school children can be seen running along the pathways between the tea bushes on their way to and from their classrooms. One large plantation, capable of manufacturing one million kilos of tea every year, employs roughly 1200 workers and supports anything up to 6000 people living on the estate. Plantation workers generally have a better standard of living than workers in other industries and, whereas other plantations meet the essential obligations, MJF Group actually go much further than local legislation demands. They care for their workers from cradle to grave, treating them as partners in the business. The provision of medical care is obligatory, but MJF Group builds new and better hospitals, funds clinics and eye-care units, it provides ambulances, transfers serious medical cases to larger hospitals when necessary and pays the costs, builds shelters for abused women, pays for the children to watch special cricket matches and funds specialist equipment for the Scool for the Visual and Hearing Impaired.

Each plantation is divided into divisions and the division manager takes overall control of the supervisors and teams of workers – known as ‘gangs’. Two field officers oversee the work of each gang of between 20 and 30 pickers and every morning, jobs are assigned according to the work that needs to be done, the amount of plucking required, the quantity of flush that is ready to be picked. The plantation manager also lives on site and is provided with a bungalow, a car, a driver and necessary staff. His work is absolutely key to the success of the estate. He needs to have a deep understanding of the workers’ culture, religion, family structure, attitudes to education and health, work and social life. Just as in the pioneering days of tea planting, the manager’s role has to be more than simply that of ‘boss’ if he is to produce quality tea and run a stable, successful workforce.

MJF hold shares in three plantation groups – a controlling interest in Kahawatte Plantations Ltd and a significant stake in Talawakelle Plantations Ltd and Elpitiya Plantations Ltd.

MJF Holdings works constantly to improve conditions for the families who live on the gardens. At Elpitiya Plantations Ltd, children who gain high marks in their Year Five examinations are rewarded with uniforms, exercise books and shoes by the MJF Charitable Foundation, and retired workers (who stopped working at 60 years of age after 25 years of working on the estate) are being given free mid-day meals. On many of the tea estates, the Foundation has built Child Development Centres where children of the plantation workers are cared for, fed and nurtured through their pre-school years with a holistic programme that involves nourishment, security and affection, mental stimulation and motor skills development. Merrill and his sons believe that, with careful planning and this kind of care, the future of these young children can be significantly influenced and improved. The Child Development Centres offer pre-school care for almost 3500 children under the age of 5 years. Midday meals are also provided for these children on more than 30 of the plantations. Special classes provide tuition in English and Maths for children, and primary schools for 300 children in the tea plantation districts have been built. Government schools on Dilmah estates have been provided with IT centres. Two Government schools in the Tientsin and Dunkeld areas have been adopted by the Foundation to support the infrastructure and quality of education for more than 700 children and educational scholarships are awarded exclusively to children of plantation workers and staff – this includes the first ever admission of the son of a plantation worker to Sri Lanka’s Medical College. At Houpe Estate, part of Kahawatte Plantations Ltd, the previously rather dilapidated plantation hospital was upgraded with money from the MJF Foundation and now provides care facilities for 3200 plantation workers and a further 2000 people from other nearby plantations and villages. A Specialised Eye Care unit at the Dickoya Government hospital provides a free service to a large number of local residents, most of whom live and work on the tea plantations. And more than 250 worker housing units on Dilmah plantations have been improved and 25 drinking water projects have benefitted 800 families.

For Merrill, the welfare of the workers is a huge responsibility since, in his own words, they are “my partners in my mission to bring you the finest tea on earth”. By taking a financial interest in the plantations, MJF Holdings Ltd can ensure that the tea is of excellent quality and that the profits can be ploughed back into the plantation and the workers’ lives so that they benefit directly from the success of the estates and of Dilmah Tea. There really is no fairer way to run a business than that.

The Tea Growing Regions

From the lowest sea-level gardens in the south western coastal district of Galle, the bushes scramble upwards to heights of 6000 feet in Nuwara Eliya. In the steamy coastal plains, the bushes flush all year and are plucked every seven or eight days. In the cooler hill country, the plants are slower to push out new shoots and allow their leaves more time to develop and concentrate a more subtle flavour and brightness. The island’s teas are harvested throughout the year but their character and quality change in the different regions according to variations in local weather conditions.

Three differing altitudes and six main areas produce teas with distinctive individual characters dependent on climate, soil types and the manufacturing methods used. The low areas, where tea grows from sea level to 2000 feet, yield teas that are strong and coloury but lack the distinctive flavour and brighter fresh taste of the higher grown teas. The mid country teas grow at elevations of between 2000 and 4000 feet and give a richness of flavour and good colour but are less powerful than the low growns. The high grown teas, planted at altitudes ranging from 4000 to 6000 feet, are the best that the island offers. They are flavoury and aromatic, more subtle and multilayered in personality, and give liquors of a lighter golden colour than teas harvested lower down the slopes. The regional names – Galle, Ruhuna, Ratnapura, Dimbula, Uva, Nuwara Eliya and Kandy – are synonymous with quality teas that are well known around the globe and sought after for the flavours and aromas they each offer.

Sitting on the south western edge of the island at a distance of approximately 120 miles from Colombo, Galle is an area famed for its lace, fish and coconuts. It was once the main port of the island, exporting cinnamon and ivory to the Romans, Greeks and Arab nations. Its teas are classed as low growns and give good colour and a strength that is popular in Western Asia, the Middle Eastern and CIS countries. A little further to the north and slightly inland, the warm and humid low growing region of Ruhuna (which includes the sub district of Ratnapura) is protected from the harsh winds of the south west monsoon by the Sinharaja Forest Reserve. The bushes growing here produce attractive, large, very black-leafed teas flecked with silver and golden tips that give a thick sweet, smooth liquor.

Around the ancient royal capital, mid-grown Kandy teas are harvested from land originally cleared in the early 19th century for the coffee trees that were later replaced by tea. The smooth, light, almost malty teas drinks well without milk and were once popular in Australia, Europe, Japan and North America.

On the eastern side of the central mountains, Uva produces mid and high grown teas whose reputation is recognised around the world. The desiccating Cachan wind that blows from the north east from July to September every year causes the bushes to almost wrap themselves up against the harsh dry air and concentrate the powerfully pungent, mellow aroma and flavour into their protected leaves. These unique teas are highly prized throughout the tea drinking world.

To the west of the central spine of the mountain range lies Dimbula where the south west monsoon drenches the land during August and September every year to produce the best quality teas in January and February. The beautiful, wiry leaves give body and strength, a powerful aroma and an almost oaky flavour.

The high growing region of Nuwara Eliya yields the finest of Ceylon teas that give an exquisite golden liquor with a delicate perfume and a bright, brisk flavour. Up in the highest peaks of the mountains, the weather is cool, cloudy and often damp, and the tea bushes grow more slowly amongst Cyprus and Eucalyptus trees. The leaf is plucked all year but the finest of these high grown teas are gathered in January and February.

Sri Lanka’s Tea Plants

The Tea Plant, known in Latin as Camellia sinensis, is an evergreen shrub that produces thick, sturdy, shiny leaves with a slightly serrated edge, and delicate, lightly perfumed, white flowers with vivid yellow stamens. A native of China and India, the bush is categorised into three varieties – Camellia sinensis sinensis (the Chinese subspecies), Camellia sinensis assamica (the Indian subspecies that grows as a native of Assam), and the Camellia sinensis subspecies lasiocalyx (the Cambodian variety). The Chinese variety thrives on high mountains, and in the cold, misty climate of such locations, pushes out leaves that grow to roughly 5 centimetres (2 inches) long. It grows happily in Tibet, China, the upper slopes of India’s Darjeeling region and of Sri Lanka’s tea growing mountains. The Assam variety prefers the hot humid conditions of lower-lying areas and produces leaves that can reach a length of 35 centimetres (14 inches). It is found predominantly in Assam, Burma, the lower slopes of Darjeeling and the low, coastal regions of Sri Lanka.

An 1886 report from Ceylon’s Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya near Kandy refers to the first plantings of tea on the island and mentions the arrival of the Assam variety of tea bush in 1839: “In December 1839, Dr Wallich, the eminent Indian botanist, at that time at the head of the Calcutta Botanic Gardens, sent to Peradeniya seeds of the then recently discovered ‘Indigenous Assam Tea’ and these were followed, in February 1840, by 205 plants. In May, the then superintendent at Peradeniya, Mr Normansell, sent several plants to Nuwara Eliya, and a man was supplied to look after them.” Once the Ceylon planters had decided to press ahead with the planting of tea to replace coffee in the 1870s, seed was acquired from Peradeniya and when demand outstripped supply, more seed was purchased from India. The bushes from which the seeds were gathered were a mixture of plants and hybrids resulting from the very first experimental plantings in Assam when both Chinese and local plants were used. The seeds that reached the Ceylonese plantations were therefore also a mixture of Camellia sinensis sinensis and Camellia sinensis assamica. As the years have passed, the unpredictable gathering of seeds has

given way to the more reliable production of cloned plants grown from leaf cuttings gathered from mother bushes. The parent plants are carefully selected for their best features and the cuttings are vegetatively propagated to produce reliable and high-yielding stock. The young plants are tended in nurseries in polythene sleeves and then, as they mature, are sheltered from too much sun by bracken shades. When they reach an age of between 1 year and 15 months, they are planted out on new plantation areas or are used to fill gaps where worn out, older plants have had to be removed. The baby bushes are left for two years before they are considered mature enough to have their new shoots and leaves gathered for tea manufacture and, once established, will go on yielding good leaf for up to 100 years. Over their lifetime, they are pruned every year or two in the lower areas and every 3-5 years at higher altitudes to encourage new growth and the bush is shaped so that a low flat wide area is available for plucking.

Gathering and Manufacturing the Tea

For the best teas, as the bushes ‘flush’ to push out their new growth, the pickers remove the first two young leaves and one new leaf bud. The speed at which new shoots appear depends on altitude, temperature, humidity, wind, sunshine and all the other variables that influence the plants. Each morning, the female pickers set off at 7 o’clock to harvest the leaf and bring it into the factories. Swathed in protective waterproof clothing to keep them dry from the moisture that clings to the branches and leaves, the women work their way gently through the fields, assigned to particular sectors of the plantations according to the readiness of the ‘flush’. Depending on the altitude, the ambient temperature and the quantity of rain that has fallen, the leaf is gathered every 5-12 days. The women carry with them long slender wooden sticks which they lay on the ‘plucking table’ (the top of the bushes where the new tender shoots have formed) and use them as a guide to ensure that they take the same length of shoot from each bush and maintain an even level. The pickers’ nimble fingers try to avoid taking too much stalk, coarse leaf or twigs as those add only bulk to the leaf and not flavour. If less than 65% of the plucked leaf is made up of neat, high quality shoots of two leaves and a bud, the quality of the made tea will go down and prices will fall. Tea is harvested by machine in many parts of the world today but cannot achieve the quality of hand picked tea. So, in Sri Lanka, although hand picking is more labour intensive and therefore more costly, it allows producers to manufacture a better quality tea. Sri Lankan teas do much better in world markets when planters concentrate on gathering a slightly smaller quantity of excellent quality

shoots and so are able to produce high quality teas that deserve and earn both high prices and respect. The freshly plucked leaf is carried on the pickers’ backs in baskets which, once full, are brought to a mustering point where the tea is carefully weighed, checked for quality and loaded onto trucks that carry the leaf to the factory. The target weight for a picker each day is 20 kg and for every kilo over that, they are paid a bonus. Between two and three thousand leaves are required to manufacture one kilo of made black tea.

It is important that the leaf is not damaged and does not lie around for too long before the manufacturing process begins, for rough handling and too much time in baskets and bags can have a negative effect on the final quality of the made tea. Three times a day, trucks pull up at the factory with a new load of freshly plucked leaf which can be made into white, green, oolong or black tea. Most of the tea is grown on plantations that house, employ and provide benefits for the pickers, but some of the leaf is sold to the factories by smallholders who own their own land. Just as the pickers are trained to pick the best shoots, to bag it carefully, to make sure it reaches the factory quickly, so the smallholders also need to understand the importance of better standards, careful handling and fast delivery to the factory. Incentive schemes for better leaf are helping to encourage these essential improvements.

Ceylon tea is traditionally black but some producers today also manufacture green, oolong and white varieties. Ceylon’s white teas, often called ‘silver tips’, are made from tightly-furled leaf buds from a particular varietal of the tea bush whose buds are longer and fatter than other types. These buds are gathered before they begin to open, and are dried for 2-3 days in the sun. White teas are expensive to produce and need extremely careful handling, so only small quantities are available. Ceylon green teas are made from freshly gathered leaves and leaf buds which are then steamed, rolled either by hand or by machine and dried. Oolong teas are made by withering, rolling, lightly oxidising (between 30%-70% oxidation) and drying leaves and leaf buds.

Black tea is made from freshly picked leaves and leaf buds which are withered, rolled, 100% oxidised and dried. Two different methods of rolling are available. The ‘orthodox’ rolling machines twist and press the leaf, breaking the cell walls and allowing the natural juices from the leaf to come into contact with oxygen in the air but maintaining large pieces of leaf. This ‘orthodox’ rolling evolved from the original, centuries-old, hand rolling used for tea manufacture in China, and is still the most popular method of preparing the leaf for oxidation in Sri Lanka. ‘CTC’ (cut, tear and curl) machines macerate the leaf to very small particles that brew very quickly and are generally destined for use in tea bag blends.

Some of Sri Lanka’s factories in the low grown regions of the island produce CTC teas but when some of Ceylon’s tea producers turned away from orthodox manufacture in favour of this modern methodology, it caused a good deal of heart searching and controversy. As the British pulled out of Ceylon in the 1950s and looked to Africa for the establishment of a new tea sector, the increasing popularity of the tea bag and the consequent need for small leafed, quick-brewing teas led to the development of factories there that produced teas only by the new CTC method of manufacture. Sri Lanka started its conversion to CTC in the early 1980s in an attempt to increase exports and profits. The Tea Board invested in CTC machinery and helped subsidise estates that switched to CTC production. But, in Merrill’s opinion, CTC ripped the heart and soul out of tea just as the machines ripped and shredded the leaf. He recognised that if the multinational tea companies invested in CTC production in Sri Lanka, the island would only be able to produce dust and fannings grades instead of the exquisite, traditional large and broken grades that Ceylon was so famous for. That would mean turning their backs on Ceylon’s long tea heritage; it would mean simply adding to the oversupply of cheap, lower quality teas already on the market; and, more importantly, it would mean losing traditional markets in the middle east where the larger leaf teas are so popular. Merrill knew that customers who had already switched to cheaper teas from Africa, Indonesia, etc. (they included the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) would not be seduced back to Ceylon by the offer of similar CTC teas. He felt that the only way to attract new customers, and possibly the old ones too, was by offering something better - traditional orthodox Ceylon teas. By steadfastly refusing to switch from orthodox to CTC, Merrill was determined to bring quality back to Ceylon tea.

Black Tea Manufacture

When the leaf arrives at the factory it is taken to the upper floors and laid out in withering troughs (previously ‘tats’ made from Hessian stretched over wooden frames) to lose some of its water content. When the leaf is fresh off the plant it contains approximately 78-80% water and after withering it holds only 40-45% water. The leaves are spread in thin layers to allow the warm air of the withering room to circulate for about 18 hours. In most factories, the process is speeded up by blowing warm air through tunnels underneath the wire screens that hold the leaf for about 6 hours, depending on the ambient temperature and humidity. Care is needed, for if the air pumped through the leaf is too hot, the leaf can dry too quickly and the natural changes in the leaf that are essential to a good quality tea cannot take place. Some factories now carry out regular weight checks throughout the withering process to make sure that they catch the leaf at exactly the right moment. Experienced factory managers also recognise the right smell and feel of the leaf but it is a subtle combination of science and experience that achieves the best results.

When the leaves have become limp and soft, they are sent down chutes to the large orthodox rolling machines on the ground floor of the factory which twist and press the leaf, or to CTC machines which chop them into small particles. When manufacturing orthodox teas, the leaf is often put through the roller three times and, in some factories, is then also passed through a ‘rotorvane’ machine which breaks and twists the leaf further. The rotorvane operates rather like a mincing machine, its rotating,

twisting blade breaking the leaf as it pushes it down a revolving metal spiral. When the leaf comes out of the orthodox, rotorvane or CTC machines, it is spread out on ceramic, concrete or aluminium slabs in cool, humid air to ‘oxidise’ or, in old-fashioned tea vocabulary, to ‘ferment’. This can take as little as 15 minutes in high grown regions during the peak quality season, but may last from 30 minutes to 3 hours out of season when the air is cooler. It is at this stage that a chemical reaction takes place between the oxygen in the air and the contents of the leaf; the leaf changes gradually from green to amber to dark coppery brown and the air is filled with the tea aroma we all recognise when we brew a pot of black tea.

When the oxidation process has gone on for long enough, the tea must be dried and so goes into a large oven that dries trays of tea as they move over a series of conveyor belts. Or the oxidised leaf is passed through a ‘fluid bed dryer’ (FBD) which blows a moving stream of tea through the hot air and ensures a more even drying. This crucial part of the process, which seals in the flavour, needs careful monitoring as too much heat for too long will spoil the tea, while too little heat for too short a time will leave too much moisture in the leaf and so reduce its keeping qualities. The ideal moisture content is between 2% and 3%. The factory manager’s role in overseeing the manufacturing process is obviously of prime importance but each and every worker in the factory also needs to understand the different stages of the process and where things can go wrong.

Tea Grades

When the tea emerges from the dryer or oven, it is passed over electrostatic rollers that draw out any unwanted fibre from leaf veins and stalks that add bulk but no flavour or quality to the finished tea. At this stage, the black tea is still a mixture of large and small particles. Since different sized particles of tea brew at different rates, it is important that each tin or packet of tea or each tea bag contains pieces that are more or less the same size, so the bulk dried tea is passed through

Since different sized particles of tea brew at different rates, it is important that each tin or packet of tea or each tea bag contains pieces that are more or less the same size, so the bulk dried tea is passed through a machine that shakes the leaf through vibrating sieves with different sized meshes and sorts it into ‘grades’. Once the tea has been graded, it is bulked and packed into sturdy paper sacks ready for transportation.

a machine that shakes the leaf through vibrating sieves with different sized meshes and sorts it into ‘grades’. Once the tea has been graded, it is bulked and packed into sturdy paper sacks ready for transportation. Grade names vary around the world, but in Sri Lanka, the leaf is divided into leaf grades and broken grades as follows:

Leaf Grades

Orange Pekoe (OP) – long, thin, wiry leaves which sometimes contain golden tip; generally, the liquor is light golden in colour Flowery Orange Pekoe (FOP) – long, thin, wiry leaves with lots of golden tip; expensive and high quality Pekoe (P) – shorter pieces than Orange Pekoe and less wiry; the liquor has more colour than Orange Pekoe Souchong (S) – bold, rounder pieces of leaf that give a pale golden liquor

Broken Grades

Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP) – smaller than the leaf grades, contains plenty of golden tip and gives good colour and strength Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (FBOP) – better quality than BOP with lots of golden tip Broken Pekoe (BP) – slightly larger than Broken Orange Pekoe and gives less colour Broken Pekoe Souchong (BPS) – a little larger than Broken Pekoe and gives a lighter liquor Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings (BOPF) – smaller than Broken Orange Pekoe so brews more quickly giving good colour and strength Fannings – small particles that have broken off from larger leaf sizes; suitable for use in tea bags Dust – even smaller particles than fannings, used for tea bags

The appearance and character of the different grades vary according to elevation. The leaf of the high grown teas is always browner in colour and lighter in liquor than the lower grown teas which have a jet black appearance. The high grown teas also have a smaller leaf as the bushes grow more slowly at the higher elevations.

The appearance and character of the different grades vary according to elevation. The leaf of the high grown teas is always browner in colour and lighter in liquor than the lower grown teas which have a jet black appearance. The high grown teas also have a smaller leaf as the bushes grow more slowly at the higher elevations. Merrill developed the very special Watte Range that exploits the synergies between wine and tea and captures the ‘terroir’ of the four primary regions of peak Ceylon teas – ‘Ran Watte’ peak tea; ‘Uda Watte’, high grown; ‘Meda Watte, mid grown; and Yata Watte, low grown.

Reaching the Customer

Once the tea has been manufactured and graded at the tea factory, each batch is tasted for quality and samples are sent to brokers and tea companies around the world so that they can decide what they wish to buy. Private contracts between the producers and major international tea companies mean that a factory knows what its customers need in terms of quality, appearance and quantity, and the buyers work very closely through agents in the country of origin to achieve the standard they require. Teas are tasted again and again to ensure that standards are always met. When teas are sold, the teas have been tasted by the factory manager, by the brokers who sell the teas, and by the companies who buy from the brokers; production samples, offer samples, and purchased samples are all tasted to make sure that the teas have not lost quality during storage at the factory, during transportation or at the warehouse after purchase. It is crucial that the tea is checked at every stage so that quality is consistent and the consumer is not disappointed. A tea company can receive up to 10,000 samples every week and from those will select the teas that offer the taste and appearance and size of leaf

required for particular teas. In Dilmah’s tasting room, the tasters select, for example, the right small leaf for teabags for Australia or large leafed loose teas for customers in the Arab states.

In order to ensure consistency and quality, the tea factory must package, label and store the teas carefully. Some of the very finest large leafed teas are still packed in traditional tea chests but most teas today go into large multi-layer paper sacks which have an aluminium foil layer as well as tough paper to ensure that the bags are resistant to odours and water vapour and are easy to palletise or stack on slip sheets for transportation on trucks and in containers.

Brewing Ceylon tea

Different tea drinking nations around the world brew and serve their tea in their own individual way. In western countries, the traditional method of steeping loose leaf tea in a teapot has gradually given way to the dipping of a teabag in a mug. In the US, despite a renaissance of interest in tea and the establishment of hundreds of new tearooms all over the country, many people still pour lukewarm water from a thermos jug onto a tea bag in a cup. In Russia, some still use their traditional samovar to prepare a very strong black tea that is then diluted in the cup with hot water drawn through a tap in the side of the samovar. In India, milky, sweet, spiced ‘chai’ is still boiled up on street corners and railway stations and served to customers in little unglazed pottery, handleless cups. In France, a light brew is drunk without milk, in the UK, cold milk and rather too much sugar is stirred into the tea, while in Sri Lanka itself, hot milk is added. Because it understands how habits and preferences vary around the world, Dilmah Tea balances its different teas to suit all these different markets. But, no matter how the tea is served, there are certain golden rules to observe when brewing.

Buy a good quality tea and store it well in an air-tight container away from humidity, light and strong smells. Tea absorbs moisture and other aromas very easily so it is important to store both teabags and loose tea inside a container that will keep these enemies out. Always use fresh, cold water that contains plenty of oxygen, for the tea cannot give of its best when brewed in water that is stale or flat or reboiled. So each time tea is brewed, fill the kettle with freshly drawn, cold water. Soft water is best and if buying bottled water for the preparation of tea, be sure to check that the pH of the water is around 7, and that there are no added salts in the water.

Choose a spotless teapot made of porcelain, bone china, stoneware, pottery or glass. Silver pots look lovely but can hold onto the flavour of tea previously brewed inside.

To brew black and oolong tea

Set the water to boil and when the water is almost at boiling point, pour a little into the pot to warm it. Swill around and then pour the water away, leaving a clean, empty, hot pot. Measure the tea into the pot, allowing 2.5-3grams for two cups of tea, pour on the boiling water as it comes to a rolling boil, put the lid on the pot and leave to brew for 3-5 minutes depending on the size of the leaf (the larger the leaf, the longer it will take to brew).

Oolong teas are best drunk without milk. Black teas will take a little milk, lemon and sugar to taste.

To brew white and green tea

Prepare the water and the teapot in exactly the same way as for brewing black tea but when the water has boiled, allow to cool to approximately 75º - 80ºC before pouring onto the tea. Boiling water can make green tea taste rather bitter and slightly cooler water allows a more gentle flavour to develop.

White and green teas are best drunk without milk.