Spice Garden, Kandy | Timing, Spices, History

Spice Garden, Kandy Overview

Known as the spice island, Sri Lanka has three famous spice gardens – Ranweli spice gardens in Kandy and Arunalu spice gardens in Matale and the New Ranweli Spice gardens in Kandy. The renowned spice gardens of Kandy and their exuberant quality lies in the fact that they are produced through organic farming and have received a fair trade certification.

It cultivates 15 different spices, and a tour of the gardens will show you the process of cultivation, harvesting, cleaning and packaging apart from health benefits and uses of the herbs. It also brings to you a chance to buy beautiful, exotic and delicate organic spices and herbs, first-hand from the local vendors right after harvesting. All this has put its name on the global spice market.

The way this spice garden in Kandy is structured is with pathways to differentiate the cultivation of each spice, pipes for irrigation and a strand of climbers and creepers along the aisles to aid tourists to walk along. Intricate planning, ideas and expertise following a lineage of several years is the reason for the success of the spice industry. The spice gardens enable you to taste some fantastic flavours and purchase customary cures and regular beautifying agents handmade by the local experts. There is also a greenhouse that serves as an information centre in addition to teaching you how to perceive the taste of different spices.

Kandy Spice Gardens

1. Ranweli Spice Garden in Kandy
Ranweli spice garden offers one a wonderful tour of the exhibited Sri Lankan flavours and the zest of the history of the island. This is one of the best and most popular spice gardens in Sri Lanka.

The tour through the garden is given in English which makes it easy to comprehend making for an enriching experience. Relish in the fragrance of cinnamon, pepper, cardamom, and nutmeg. All this gives one an insight into the deeply rooted flavour generation of Sri Lanka which attracted many European and Asian shippers to the island of Sri Lanka.

2. Arunalu Spice Garden in Matale
If one is looking for an aromatic experience, head out to the Arunalu spice garden which is located in Matale. Here one will be introduced to the various types of growing and processing different spices like nutmeg, pepper vines, clove trees and curry, cinnamon and cardamom.

There is also a small shop where visitors can purchase different spices, traditional remedies, and cosmetics. There is also the facility to experience a relaxing and calming Ayurvedic massage at an additional cost.

3. New Ranweli Spice Garden in Kandy
The New Ranweli spice garden located in Kandy is completely breathtaking and gives one an insight into what has transformed Sri Lanka into a beautiful prevalent nation known for its spices and plantations. At this amazing and well-maintained spice garden, one will get a tour and a chance to see how the various spices and herbs like turmeric, peppercorns, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon, cocoa, Aloe Vera are cultivated and grown in their natural environment.

Spices in Kandy Spice Gardens

The teardrop-shaped island serves these herbs to the rest of the world - Peppercorns, Turmeric, Cardamom, Cloves, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Vanilla, Aloe Vera, Cocoa, and so on. They vary to the extent that there are two kinds of cinnamon - Ceylon cinnamon and Cassia. Owing to the sweetness and fresh taste, it has earned the name “Pure Ceylon cinnamon”. They produce, and export spices to western nations and each one of them have made their accreditation.

Tips to Kandy Spice Gardens

There are chances for the vendors to trick you into buying products at a higher price so be sure of what you are buying.

Wear full clothes which cover your hands and legs, since it an agricultural field it is open to tiny insects. Take help from a local guide to tell you where to buy spices.

History of Kandy Spice Gardens

Ancient spice trade goes back as far as the 7th century in Sri Lanka. Arabs, Chinese, Africans and the Egyptians before them; there are even references of cinnamon trade in the Bible, which only goes to show how well the Sri Lankans know their spices. They were aware of scientific agricultural practices, combined with elevated yielding propagation methods back in those days, some of which the newer spice markets are now only adopting. Thus they possessed ideas which were alien to people in the 7th century AD. All this is possible because of its location on the map. Proximity to the equator enables fertile soil, distinctive microclimates and seasonal temperature variations.