Trending in Tea – Golden Hill Tea Center Haputale

Over the years whenever I have driven to my favourite hill country town of Haputale, Sri Lanka. I have watched the slow renaissance of an old tea factory about 5km before reaching the town. This was a four-storey tea heritage building of corrugated iron sheets beside the main road blessed with superb views over the valleys below stretching southwards to the coast.

The abandoned tea factory in Haputale was on the market for years, and a couple of decades ago I even climbed its ancient staircases to all floors wondering if it would be viable to lease to make an artists’ centre: superb light streaming through wooden casement windows, vast halls with wooden floors, and fantastic views of hills rolling down to the sea. Eventually, the owning company gave up trying to dispose of the building and opened a small retail tea shop – Golden Hill Tea Center Haputale on its ground floor.

Golden Hill Tea Center in Haputale gradually expanded and (in response to demand) a small café serving snacks opened in a room next to the tea outlet. So I was amazed on my visit to Haputale recently to see an incredible change. All the upper stories have been demolished, leaving only the ground floor. This has been opened up into a vast restaurant furnished with chunky wooden furniture made from factory beams; well-watered pot plants give it an air of rugged tropical sophistication.

I predict the Golden Hill Tea Center will probably become a popular place for coachloads of tourists pretty soon. Best to visit before that happens.