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Which country was Sri Lanka's colony? which country is Ceylon black tea? which brand is good?

Published: 2026-02-23 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/02/23, There are four major black tea producing countries in the world, namely, China, Darjeeling, Sri Lanka and Kenya. Today, let's talk about Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is located in the Indian Ocean in the southeast of the Indian subcontinent and covers an area of 6.56 square kilometers. Sri Lanka was once a British colony. Before 1972, the country of Sri Lanka was called Ceylon.

There are four major black tea producing countries in the world, namely, China, Darjeeling, Sri Lanka and Kenya.

Today, let's talk about Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is located in the Indian Ocean in the southeast of the Indian subcontinent and covers an area of 6.56 square kilometers.

Sri Lanka was once a British colony. Before 1972, the country of Sri Lanka was called Ceylon. It was famous for its high quality Ceylon black tea and was sought after by black tea lovers all over the world.

Today, Sri Lanka has become the fourth largest black tea producer in the world, producing 320000 to 340000 tons of black tea a year, accounting for 7 percent of the world's tea output. The annual export volume of black tea has reached 300000 tons, accounting for 22 percent of the global tea exports. It is the second largest black tea exporter in the world, and its products are exported to more than 100 countries and regions.

Today, with such achievements in Sri Lanka, you may not know that Sri Lanka grew coffee before planting tea trees. According to a report published in the gardener's Chronicle and the Agricultural Bulletin on November 6, 1869, there were three footnotes and an illustration. The report, written by M.J. Berkeley and his assistant C.E. Broome, identified a new species, a fungus, on the island of Sri Lanka.

However, growers in Sri Lanka know very little about plant diseases, causing the infection of this fungus to get out of control on the island. Even if the infected coffee plants are uprooted, the plants next door are also found to be infected one after another. Spores of coffee leaf rust fungi are also blowing through every inch of the soil in Sri Lanka with the monsoon air. Soon, all the coffee plants on the island were infected with coffee leaf rust and were deeply affected by it, completely destroying coffee production in the entire Old World. The owners of the manors on the island also had to face the fact that they uprooted all the coffee plants in their estates and planted tea trees instead.

Today, the main tea-producing areas in Sri Lanka are named and managed by the Sri Lankan Tea Bureau, a subsidiary of the planting Department of the Sri Lankan Government.

According to the different climatic conditions in different parts of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan Tea Bureau strictly divides the tea producing areas of Sri Lanka into seven producing areas, each of which defines a specific planting area, and the black tea produced has specific regional quality characteristics.

The seven main tea production areas are: Kandi, Timbura, Uwa, Udapu Salawa, Nuvalaelia, Luhana and Sabalagamuwa. Each tea area is subdivided into small tea areas. There are about 750 tea farms in Sri Lanka, which are distributed in these seven tea areas.

The Sri Lankan Tea Bureau applied and promulgated the geographical indications and management regulations of each tea area, marking the name of the tea producing area on the product to implement strict control and management. Only the tea products that truly comply with the regulations of the producing area and are planted, processed and registered in the producing area can be marked with the name of the producing area.

Various tea areas in Sri Lanka are carefully planted with ancient Chinese tea varieties, Indian Assam tea varieties and hybrid varieties cultivated by Sri Lankan scientists, as well as modern Cenozoic clonal tea varieties. tea varieties with their own characteristics grow together in a variety of tropical monsoon climate.

Due to the different agricultural climate, each region has formed Ceylon black tea with its own unique flavor in the seven major tea regions of Sri Lanka. Among them, "Wuwa black tea", one of the three high-flavor black teas in the world, and "Nuvalaelia black tea", which is famous for its champagne, are the most famous.

From the administrative point of view, the Kandi and Nuvalaelia tea areas belong to the central province, the Uwa tea area belongs to the Uwa province, the Timbra tea area belongs to the central province and Sabalagamuwa province, the Ratnapura and Kaigler tea areas of the Luhana tea region belong to Sabalagamuwa province, the Gaal, Matala and Murkirigra tea areas of the Luhana tea region belong to the southern province, and the Udapserrava tea region spans the central province and Uwa province. Sabaragamuwa tea area belongs to Sabaragamuwa province.