Amba Estate - Sri Lanka

“Ambas employees are proud professionals, not mere field-workers”

When the sun rises on the Amba Estate tea plantation, the workers already stand in the fields to pick the first two leaves of the tea plant to later process them into the world-famous Cylon tea. The guesthouse and the small factory, which has existed since 1912, are nestled in the hidden valley of Ambadandegama looking through the famous Ella Gap to the hills of Kataragama, Sri Lanka.

Back in the year 1867 Sir Thomas Lipton made Ceylon Tea word-renowned. Nowadays Lipton is part of the Unilever group with more than 400 brands for fast moving consumer goods and a turnover of over 50 billion U.S. Dollar. Sri Lanka is still ranked number 2 among the largest tea exporting countries worldwide. There is no doubt. Fast-moving goods impersonate mass production, which leads to less quality, the damage of natural resources and the improvement of inferior working conditions. A cycle that simply must be broken.  

This awareness and the goal to work against this system let the tea manufactory Amba Estate shine even more and we are happy to welcome them into the mori family. Simon, one of the 4 sponsors of the tea plantation grew up in developing countries like Ethiopia and witnessed terrible poverty. Since then, sustainable, inclusive economic development has been his passion.

When Simon and his friends started working at Amba in 2006, the pluckers looked like the workers you see in tea fields everywhere: downtrodden, hunched, poorly dressed. At the time they started hand-making their own line of teas and made a deliberate decision. The same women who do the plucking should also do the rolling and processing. As a result, they feel full ownership for the quality of the product, and they are proud professionals, not mere field-workers. The visible change in their self-confidence, body-language and appearance is a constant reminder that Simon and his team are having the impact that they set out to achieve.

Amba directly employs more than 40 full-time managers, supervisors and workers and could increase the income from $ 20 Dollar / per month up to $ 200-400 / per month over the past 10 years. They are preserving this whole area as a forest and wildlife reserve and all the cultivation and processing activities on the farm following strict organic guidelines. Therefore our green and black tea with tea flowers are certified as an organic product under EU organic regulations. The tea leaf Tippy Golden Orange Pekoe 1 is the highest tea leaf quality you can find, combined with a hand-rolled processing, the quality is unmistakable.

Amba today is in many ways a contemporary place with a deep commitment to the natural beauty and spiritual resonance of this small corner of paradise. After a busy working day, when it gets quiet on Amba Estate Simon enjoys his cup of tea on the veranda of the guesthouse while the sun disappears behind the mountains. For us the embodiment of a real morimoment.