Buddhika Dissanayake

One day back in 2023, my dad texted me that he'd visited the doctor. 'And her husband is a tea farmer,' he added. 'He's invited us to drink tea with him next week.' 

 

We met at a Costa Coffee and Buddhika told us all about his tea farm - but it took three years until I was finally able to visit.

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And so, in 2026, nestled in the foothills of Adam’s Peak, near the village of Erathna in Sri Lanka’s Sabaragamuwa Province, lies Warnagala, the old tea estate that Buddhika welcomed me to. The estate dates back to the colonial era, when tea was planted on these mountain slopes. After the plantation was abandoned, the tea bushes were left to grow with little human intervention. Over many decades, they developed into trees reaching around 30 to 40 feet tall, standing among the surrounding forest vegetation.

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Buddhika discovered these unusual tea trees while exploring the area. With more than 15 years of experience in the tea industry, he already understood the possibilities of tea, but Warnagala offered him an opportunity to approach it in a new way. Rather than bringing the trees back into conventional plantation production, he began exploring how their leaves could be harvested and transformed into high-quality artisanal teas. The result was Forest Hill: a small-scale tea business built around the idea that excellent tea can be produced while working with the natural landscape, rather than reshaping it entirely.

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The harvest is painstaking, and the quantities are limited. But that is precisely what makes Forest Hill so interesting. Each batch begins with a landscape that has developed its own character over generations, and every stage of production is designed to preserve the qualities of the leaf.

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Buddhika’s journey into artisanal tea was shaped by years spent working in the tea industry. Having seen conventional production at close quarters, he became increasingly interested in the possibilities beyond large-scale manufacturing.

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Traditional Ceylon tea is admired around the world, yet much of the industry is organised around producing substantial quantities of tea efficiently and consistently. Buddhika wanted to explore another side of Sri Lankan tea: small batches, distinctive leaf material, careful handcrafting and flavours that reflect their particular origin. Forest Hill grew from that ambition.

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His approach is rooted in the belief that tea can be more than an agricultural commodity. With the right knowledge and attention, even an unusual or overlooked source of leaves can become something distinctive and valuable. But of course, this requires a different way of working. Instead of relying on uniform production conditions, the tea-maker must understand the character of the raw material and adapt the process accordingly. The leaves need to be handled with care, and the timing of each stage matters. Small differences can influence the finished tea’s aroma, texture and flavour.

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For Buddhika, the challenge is to bring out the potential of the leaf while respecting the environment in which it grows.

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