St. Coombs Silver Needles

St Coombs Tea Estate was established in 1885 and is situated in Talawakelle, Dimbula District, at the northern edge of the famous tea growing Golden Valley. The name ‘St Coombs’, has origins in a small Scottish fishing village in Aberdeenshire, an acknowledgement perhaps to the nationality of its first owner, one Charles. E. Strachen. St Coombs is also the home of the Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka; a facility established in 1928 where research is undertaken centering on the development of new varieties of the camellia sinensis plant.

Silver Needles are the unopened buds of an exceptional  variety of tea specially developed for its unusually large bud formation by the Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka. Silver Needles, or Yin Zhen as they are known in China, are the highest grade of white tea. As the sun rises over St Coombs Estate a band of special pluckers start picking whilst the air is still misty and the little protective hairs (pekoe), on the buds are upright. Once the sun is high and the temperature too hot, the pluckers stop and the tender buds are laid in the sun to dry, turning the beautiful needles from a lush green to a rich silver colour. If the tea is harvested in less favourable conditions when there is little sun the buds are dried or finished in a special drying chamber found only on estates that grow Silver Needles