Ceylon Tea Museum

The Ceylon Tea Museum, in a converted tea factory about 4 km south of Kandy on the Hantane plateau, traces the history of tea cultivation in Sri Lanka from the coffee blight of the 1870s through the establishment of the tea industry to the present day. The museum is particularly good on the machinery: the original rolling, fermenting, and drying equipment from the early twentieth century is still in place and clearly explained.

A tea tasting is included in the entry price, with the chance to try a range of Ceylon teas including some high-altitude varieties not commonly found outside Sri Lanka. The drive up the Hantane road passes through working tea gardens and is scenic in its own right. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays.

things to do museum Listed by The Common Wanderer
A story
The museum is housed in the Hantane Tea Factory, built in 1925 and operational until the late 1980s. When the factory closed, its Britannia-brand machinery — cast-iron rollers, fermentation trays, and massive drying ovens — was left in place. The museum simply built exhibits around the original equipment rather than removing it, meaning visitors see genuine Victorian-era tea-processing machinery rather than replicas. The factory smell — that particular woody, slightly metallic scent of dried tea — still pervades the building.

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