Photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/aS3D9F1yH9SCDzwr8

Had a power failure overnight. Since I use CPAP, it nearly resulted in my own failure - I woke up unable to breathe! This hasn’t happened before.
I now know I am electrically powered and grid dependant at night.
When starting CPAP years ago, to get over the horror of using the mask, I tried to convince myself I looked like a fighter pilot - in pyjamas.
I wondered if I should wear my motorcycle crash helmet as well to reinforce the fantasy?
I gave up the illusion, reconciling myself to looking like someone in intensive care.
This morning went to Amba Tea estate. Tried a lot of different teas, and learned a lot about tea grading. One of the higher grades is Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe - TGFOP. The acronym, my host advised, was also translated as ‘Too Good For Ordinary People’.
The finest, rarest, ‘Grand Cru’ level are white teas from just the finest Silver and Golden unopened tips, with minimal processing. They can cost thousands of dollars per kilo.
Even at $2000 a kilo, a cup isn’t a super luxury. A so-so flat white is now $6, and 2g of fancy tea is $3-4.
It’s an interesting enterprise. Owned by a few expats from UK, it is being developed as a social enterprise providing good wages to workers, training for a career advancement path, enabling them to start their own similar businesses in future. Quite fascinating stories about the history of tea here. They grow other spices, including cinnamon, vanilla.
I tried some raw cinnamon bark - it is quite sweet and delicious. Nothing like the aromatic but bitter Cassia bark we are used to in Australia. If you can get genuine Sri Lankan cinnamon, it is totally worth it.
It’s quite a modern small scale facility. Spotlessly clean compared to other large scale tea factories I’ve seen. Shoes off at the door, like a temple, which it was, to tea. Totally organic estate, with soil management via complementary species planting, and no machinery of any sort - all done by hand. The teas were very nice, much nicer than most I have had.
I learned tea was stolen by the British from China, and planted in India & Sri Lanka to break the Chinese monopoly. ‘Thieves Tea’ was a dark strong tea made by plantation workers who were exploited, faced harsh conditions and were forbidden from taking tea home, so they stole some at night, making their own process of pounding in a mortar then fire roasting. Amba had some tea made in this manner, and it was quite different to other methods - quite strong, with a nice malty flavour. Their whole range was amazing. It has been served at Noma restaurant. They have something called ‘Champagne’ White Tea Stars, that are 16 youngest buds, hand tied into a star - an amazing treat.
In the afternoon, I visited a coffee roaster at the place I’m staying - Roseland. Also a bit of a social enterprise, the coffee part of the total business employs only women, and they have bought a brand new fancy espresso machine to train locals in barista skills. The coffee wasn’t bad.
The roasting here is done totally BY HAND - no mechanical roasters, so the fine control of time/temp curves is a bit lacking. They don’t want to get a roaster as it would result in unemployment of some women. The estate produces only 3-4 kg/month from their beans, but buys and roasts 2 tonnes a month from local farmers. A quiet afternoon enjoying the view over the valley.
One very annoying thing about this trip is most hotels are playing really cheesy tacky Xmas music playlists, on the assumption this is what we westerners want, along with tacky decorations. One of the reasons for this trip was to avoid that crap. Sigh….
I found the amp here, and turned it off.

——— Teas tried - in the photo in the album:
White hand sown.
Green
Oolong
Ftgop (Far too good for ordinary people)
Illegal tea- amba thieves
Laughing tea. Spicy chai
Blue pandan bliss. (Like popcorn roasted with butter remarkable I never would’ve guessed anything blue and taste like this)