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“A late
attempt has been made by a naturalist to cultivate the tea plant in
the island of Ceylon. But …. the experiment has totally failed.”
-The London Observer, July 25, 1802
Almost twenty years later, in 1826, the plant known as Ranawara
(Cassia aurialata) was mistaken for tea and sent by a British
General to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Calcutta calling it Ceylon
Tea. The sample was rejected.
These two false starts, and several experiments later, the first
commercial tea fields were cultivated on Loolecondera Estate, by a
young British Planter (he was sixteen when he left his motherland)
who is today called the father of Ceylon tea. The tea James Taylor
made on the verandah of his bungalow, rolling the leaves by hand and
firing them on clay stoves became a big hit in the London auctions.
Soon,
Taylor set up the first tea factory on the island, a rudimentary
“sack” constructed from mud and wattle walls, inside which was the
machine he invented for rolling the leaves. From this point on,
Ceylon tea began to arrive regularly in London and Melbourne, the
success of which lead to the opening of an auction market in Colombo
in 1883, and to the founding of a Colombo tea dealers’ association
in 1894.
As
“blight” began to destroy the coffee trees, the tea craze hit
Ceylon, till the country which was once a major producer of spices,
changed from being the major producer of coffee to the world’s major
producer of tea.
After
James Taylor, Ceylon Tea was taken from infancy to maturity by a
Scottish grocer called Thomas Lipton. By 1890 tea production, which
was a mere 23 pounds in 1873 was at 22,900 tons and climbing higher
every passing year.
Most of
the tea companies which were owned by the British, were taken away
from foreign hands with the introduction of the Land Reform Act in
1971. Since 1990, a new plan has been devised to share the industry
between the state-owned companies and the private sector.
Imagine the look on James Taylor’s face if he were to visit the up
country tea estates today. The tea he pioneered to grow has
conquered the world ; from Sydney Smith who said “Thank God for Tea!
What would the world do without tea! I am glad I was not born before
tea! to Boy Gorge who declared having a good cup of tea is certainly
better than having sex, tea has undoubtedly come to stay. |
