Gold Medal for Glen Nevis – huge Congrats to the Perera family and staff! 🇱🇰🏆
Often a tea tastes even better when you know its story.
And this is a story worth tasting!
Some achievements make you particularly happy. This is one of them. Glen Nevis Tea Plantation in Kandy, Sri Lanka, became the overall winner in the Gold Medal Tea Competition 2026 for its tea, Aratenna Special Silver Tips!
I would like to send my warmest congratulations to Arnold Perera, his family, and everyone working at Glen Nevis. This recognition is not only a medal for a tea. It is recognition of the enormous amount of care, patience, knowledge, and work that has gone into creating this well-earned award!
From neglected land to exceptional tea
Glen Nevis has a rather remarkable story. The estate, in the beautiful hills of Sri Lanka's Kandy region, has been thoughtfully restored from 2020 onwards by the Perera family and staff. The plantation was originally founded by the Sealy Brothers back in 1889. Today, the land has turned into a living tea estate, with an extraordinary diversity of plants, trees, animals, and natural wildlife.
Tea grows here together with pepper, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, coffee, mango, jackfruit, and many other plants. Streams and mountain landscapes surround the estate, and the famous Knuckles Mountain Range that is viewed on the horizon is also part of this extraordinary environment.
This is what I mean when I talk about terroir in tea
Terroir is the interaction between the land, the plants, the weather, the surrounding ecosystem – and the people who work with all of it. At Glen Nevis, you can feel this vibrant balance and harmony when you walk through the estate. And then you taste its teas!
One plantation – many beautiful expressions
The Gold Medal Overall Winner 2026 is a wonderful reason to celebrate Glen Nevis. But its excellence is not limited to a single tea. I am very happy and proud to offer several Glen Nevis teas here in Sweden and Europe, and each one expresses the plantation in its own way and not just one “famous tea.” Glen Nevis is producing a whole family of teas, each with its own personality.
Golden Whisper
Golden Whisper is an elegant, tippy black tea made from the same TRI 2043 cultivar as Aratenna Special Silver Tips. Golden Whisper is one of my absolute favorite black teas. It’s a medium-bodied and elegant black tea with lots of depth and a fruity, sweet, refined character. Even though this is a "black" tea, it has more of a balanced, layered oolong quality to it. A wonderful tea to enjoy throughout the day or for a very nice afternoon tea, as it will balance the sweet and savory bakeries and sandwiches in a wonderful way.
Sealy's Vintage BOP
For those who love the classic strength of Sri Lankan black tea, Sealy's Vintage BOP is a fantastic choice. This tea is traditional and strong, with the naturally fresh, citrusy character that makes a good Sri Lankan black tea so enjoyable. It is a beautiful expression of a classic tea style that gives you that desirable kick in the morning or early afternoon. This is a true fire element tea that warms you from top to toe!
Glen Nevis Peony White
And then there is Glen Nevis Peony White – a white tea made of delicate leaves and tips. It looks a bit like a Moonlight White, but the leaves are much smaller, of course (since they are grown in a different environment and are from a different cultivar). But still, there is this interplay of silvery white tips and leaves that are lightly oxidized on one side and silvery grey on the other. This Peony White tea gives a fuller and stronger cup than the Aratenna Silver Tips. Peony White is also, like Aratenna, an excellent companion in the winter, as it belongs to the water element, to encourage rest, reflection, and just giving you permission to pause for a while with what is.
A priceless recognition
When a tea estate receives a recognition such as the Gold Medal Tea – Overall Winner 2026, it is certainly worth stopping and celebrating! It's particularly wonderful in Glen Nevis's case because this is a story still being written.
The Perera family had a dream about owning their own tea estate some day and took on a neglected estate. They believed that something beautiful could be created there.
They worked with the land, the local community and the people who make the tea.
And year by year, the quality has become increasingly visible.
Congratulations! 💛🎶🇱🇰 to you Arnold, your family, and everyone at Glen Nevis!
You should be very proud. Thank you for letting me share some of these wonderful, speciality teas with tea lovers here in Sweden and Europe.
Come and discover Glen Nevis for yourself, I have several of their teas available mainly at Långbrogård in Mölnbo! From the delicate and extraordinary Aratenna Silver Tips to Golden Whisper, Sealy's Vintage BOP, and Glen Nevis Peony White. And when our stock is low, we can always order more teas directly from Glen Nevis, Arnold, and his wonderful staff!
Below to the left is the tea master himself at Glen Nevis, Tharindu Methruwan and some of the fantastic members of the staff and the other inhabitants of this sustainable plantation. Without fine, skilled people around you a Gold Medal Overall Winner Recognition is simply not possible!
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