The Ceylon Tea Museum is located at the Hantane Tea Factory, about 5km (3 miles) from Kandy. Hantane was one of the first areas successfully opened up to tea cultivation after the failure of the coffee enterprise, but the factory that now houses the Museum is a relatively modern building, constructed in 1925.
It was in the Kandy district that the first successful experiments in tea cultivation were made, and it was from this ancient Sinhalese capital that the dominant modern industry of Sri Lanka spread out to cover the entire hill country. Kandy was thus the appropriate choice for a museum dedicated to the history of Ceylon Tea.
It is a typical example of its kind, large, light and airy, with most factory machinery housed on the ground floor and the three upper floors originally used to wither the freshly plucked tea-leaves. Today, the ground floor remains much as it was when the factory was operational, demonstrating the process of manufacture, while the upper floors house are used to house other exhibits and a library, a space for audio-visual presentations and a restaurant.