Premium Sri Lankan tea believed to boost libido
Premium Sri Lankan tea believed to boost libido
By Amal Jayasinghe
COLOMBO (AFP): A master taster at one of Sri Lanka's famed tea firms slurps a spoonful brewed from a prized sample and spits it out in distaste.
But the brew is more than a simple cuppa to his Japanese and Arab buyers, who believe the drink will boost their libidos.
The Silver Tips tea is the most expensive commodity produced in Sri Lanka and, although industry expert Sriyan Senadhira thinks little of the bland variety, for the rich and mighty it is a love potion.
"This is a very special tea because rich Arabs and Japanese tea drinkers think it is an aphrodisiac," Senadhira said.
"Personally, I don't like. It tastes a bit like water."
Connoisseurs pay through their noses to keep the market firm for Silver Tips.
Tea experts are unsure if the tea and the slightly more expensive Golden Tips variety can enhance the sex drive but the belief is good for the industry.
A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the exotic Silver Tips fetches up to 8,000 rupees (US$140), compared to the regular quality teas that sell for 150 rupees (less than $3) at wholesale rates.
Senadhira, a director at John Keells, a leading broking firm here, draws on an experience of tasting and selling millions of kilograms every week at the world's largest tea auction here.
To the uninitiated, the loud slurping noises Senadhira makes while taking in the brewed tea may sound rude, but sloshing the back of one's throat with it is the only way the quality of the tea can be savored, he said.
The Silver Tips, which look like actual shavings from a chunk of silver, do not make it to the tea tasting rooms often. In fact, it is produced in such small quantities that it never makes it to the tea auction.
Auctions
Only parcels weighing more than 75 kilograms (165 pounds) can be offered at the auctions, where an average of five million kilograms change hands every week, making Colombo the world's biggest center for tea.
Once the pure Sri Lankan teas, better known by the nation's former name of Ceylon, leave the shores of the country, they are often blended with cheaper teas to bring down retail prices.
An international blend of tea would typically have a large percentage of cheaper Kenyan and Indonesian produce to give it body, Indian tea for appearance and Sri Lanka's to give it quality and character. But it wouldn't include Silver Tips.
The exotic tea is taken from a clone known as 2043 from the Camellia Sinensis, better known as the tea bush, and is grown at elevations between 2, 000 and 4,000 feet (600 meters and 1,200 meters) above sea level, or some times even higher.
"There is no particular season for the Silver Tips," Senadhira said.
"Sometimes there are requests for small quantities but there is no regular market as such. It is only the rich Arabs and the Japanese who buy it."
It is the more regular black tea that is the mainstay of the Sri Lankan economy.
Sri Lanka was able to take more advantage of rising prices in the world market last year because the country's tea crop turned a bumper harvest.
Production
Production reached 258.4 million kilos (568.48 million pounds) of tea last year, up from 245.96 million kilos in 1995. Sri Lanka's tea exports last year rose to 243.5 million kilograms from 240.8 million kilograms in 1995.
Sri Lanka last year lost the prestigious world top tea exporter position to Kenya, which exported a million kilograms more than this Indian Ocean island.
Earnings from tea last year rose by 35 percent to 32.5 billion rupees, compared to 24 billion rupees in 1995.
In real terms, the rise is less dramatic because the rupee depreciated by more than 10 percent against the dollar. But still, the tea income is crucial for the country's war-battered economy.
However, it is tea's health drink potential that is attractive to Sri Lanka rather than the sex appeal of Silver Tips.
Sri Lanka is banking on plans to promote tea as a health drink with the potential of preventing cancer.
Plantations deputy minister Athauda Seneviratne recently said tea could reduce the risk of cancer and several other illnesses.
"According to research studies already undertaken on tea, there is sufficient evidence to the effect that tea contains components which would reduce the risk of cancer and many other diseases," he said.