The History of Ceylon Tea

---

The fascinating history of Ceylon Tea starts as early as the 1820s when the first tea plant, scientifically known as Camelia Sinensis, was brought from China to Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) by the British. This plant was rooted at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya. This was an era when coffee was the predominant export commodity and the most consumed beverage domestically. 

A Scotsman named James Taylor who came to reside in the tiny island in 1867, planted 19 acres of a tea plantation at Loolecondera Estate in the Hill capital, Kandy giving birth to the tea industry in Sri Lanka. The first tea consignment went out to London from this estate in 1873. 

The early 1870s saw a devastating fungus better known as ‘coffee leaf disease’ eat into the coffee crops. This marked the death of the rich coffee industry in British Ceylon. As a quick alternative to safe their livelihoods, planters switched to the cultivation and production of tea. By the end of the 18th century, nearly 400,000 hectares of tea was grown in Sri Lanka. With the growing demand for Ceylon Tea and the high prices they were fetching at the London Tea Auctions, the Ceylon Tea Traders Association was formed. All the tea that is produced even to date is sold at the Colombo Tea Auctions supervised by this prestigious body and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.