In my search for innovation and excellence in tea, my team and I at Australian Tea Masters are seeking out small, artisanal farmers who are leading the way in the specialty tea movement. Over the course of twelve years, we have had the opportunity to connect with various aspects of the tea industry and were touched by the passion we found in small, seemingly breakaway farmers. This led to the idea of finding more of these hidden tea gems and producing a series of mini-documentaries to showcase and promote the work being done by small but dedicated farmers globally.

These farmers have put incredible time, care, and energy into producing small batch teas with unique flavor profiles, often using incredibly difficult manufacturing processes to achieve new age standards in tea. Many have broken away from the vast commercial industry with a hunger to produce high-quality teas with care. Each batch of tea is created with love and passion and with the attitude of how we can make it better.

The innovation we have experienced has surprised us and was beyond our expectations in our first series. Our aim at Australian Tea Masters is to travel the globe in search of these farmers who are often not recognized for their passion for improving the tea industry. Not only are these small farmers dedicated to producing teas of the highest quality and taste, but they are also dedicated to improving the lives of their workers and treating the environment with respect.

Our first series is Sri Lanka. In this first series, we spent a grueling 10 days traveling around the country in monsoon season and when Sri Lanka was in turmoil. We arrived when the country was holding strict curfews, there were desperate fuel shortages, and every day was a challenge. However, the excitement of the farmers and their teams when we arrived helped us to keep going under very difficult situations.

The farmers we met not only shared their stories and their processes with us, but they also openly shared with each other to help build the specialty tea industry of Sri Lanka. They have formed their own organization called CATA (Ceylon Artisan Tea Association). We were blessed to meet such warm and friendly, sharing people and we thank them.

We have a small group of farmers in our series to showcase the work being done in Sri Lanka in the handcrafted, specialty tea market. We hope you enjoy and can share in their passion. We also hope you can go on to experience some of the teas.