Ceylon tea is not one flavour but seven. The island’s tea board recognises seven growing regions, and the differences are as distinct as wine appellations: Nuwara Eliya, at around 2,000 metres, gives a pale, golden, delicately fragrant cup; Dimbula, above 1,250 metres, can carry notes of jasmine and cypress; Uva, exposed to both monsoons, is mellow and aromatic; low-grown Sabaragamuwa brews dark with a sweet caramel nose. The morning begins in the plucking rows, where ‘two leaves and a bud’ is the rule, follows the leaf through withering troughs, rolling tables, oxidation and firing, and ends at a taster’s bench – slurp, spit and compare, exactly as the brokers do before the Colombo auction.