History of tea in Sri Lanka

Tea plants did not figure among the local flora in the island of Sri Lanka, until the early nineteenth century when several entrepreneurs used their estates as test plots.

Tea was introduced by British when tea estates were laid out and first managed by the large tea companies who exported their produce to consuming countries.

Tea brush was introduced to Sri Lanka as early as in 1828. Maurice de Worms of Rothschild Estate was the first to put the tea bush to commercial use in Sri Lanka.

He planted a clearing at Labookellie with Chinese tea, but the venture turned out to be a financial failure due to the high production cost and the inferior quality of the product.

In 1839, Dr Wallich, head of the botanical garden in Calcutta sent several Assam tea plant seeds to Peradeniya estates near Kandy.

Usually the credit for introducing the cultivation of tea to the island is given to James Taylor, who planted tea of the Assamese variety on Loolecondera state in 1867. James Taylor, a Scottish using tea seeds supplied by Peradeniya nursery for first cultivation.

Taylor then set up the first tea ‘factory’ on the island. The tea produced was a success which later was sold locally at Rs 1.5 per Lb.

The first consignment of Ceylonese tea was sent abroad in 1873. Tea cultivation nevertheless remained a minor activity for 20 years.

In 1970, the production came under the control of the Sri Lankan government’s Estate Development Board and tea was sold at tea auctions in Colombo to the distributing companies.
History of tea in Sri Lanka