‘Ceylon Tea Factory’: New theme restaurant
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Ella, off Bandarawela has fast developed into the tourism hub of Uva, with Hikka style small buzzing guest houses and a number of diverse restaurants have come up in the area.But what stands tall in Ella is ‘98 Acre Resort and Spa’, the latest addition to the Uva Tourism.
Ella is a small village nestled in a valley gazing straight through Ella Gap to the plain nearly 1000m below and across to a glimpse of the Great Basses lighthouse off Hambantota coast.
This modern ‘98 Acre Resort’ is located in a picturesque ninety eight acre ‘Uva Greenland Tea Estate’ creating a small haven that has an almost perfect climate. It is an ideal holiday destination for trekkers in quest for adventure or the weary travellers simply seeking a peaceful hideout or even a family outing. ‘Ceylon Tea Factory’ of the Uva-Halpewatte tea Estate is developed as a scale model of the award winning Uva-Halpewatte Tea Factory (largest producer of tea in the Uva region).
Uva-Halpewatte tea factory was the first stepping stone of the UHE Group- a family business entry into the tea industry.
‘Ceylon Tea Factory’ is an up market restaurant that caters to the high end foreign clients as well as lunch groups and dinner pax from Travel Agents.
‘Ceylon Tea Factory’ has been built to give an ambience of an actual tea factory rather than a conventional tea house. It is the only ISO and HACCP certified restaurant in Ella.
This new conceptualised ‘Ceylon Tea Factory’ is also a museum, a tea boutique (where you can purchase factory fresh tea and herbs) and a sports entertainment lounge.
‘All conventional tea lounges that prevail today don’t differ from one another very much. We wanted to create something new and different. We want completely different and revolutionise the whole restaurant business’ said Chamara Abeyrathne, the Director General of the UHE Group and whose brain child is ‘98 Acre Resort’.
Food menu was done by consultant chef Koluu Ranwaka, who is a well experienced celebrity chef in Sri Lanka.
‘He understood our market and developed a fully customised menu to promote our whole concept. He carried out several months of research and training to come up with this fusion cuisine that compliments this tea themed restaurant’ Chamara said.
The drinks menu was done by a specialised team from USA.
‘They developed the drinks menu in a way so we could use this concept in all our franchise outlets around the world. Therefore it needed to be really creative and mind-blowing at the same time.
‘This US team came down for a week to visit our factories and identify the different grades of black and green teas in Sri Lanka. Once they shortlisted the best type of products for our drinks, we began to train our staff. After severe training we were able to come up with special drinks, mocktails and ice teas by ‘Halpe Tea’. It was completely a different experience’ he explained.
Its plush interiors add to its ambiance and have an up market vibe running through the establishment. Gaining in popularity, the Ceylon Tea Factory is a pit stop on Ella that is waiting to be ticked off any travellers’ “must visit” list.
