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History of Tea Tea was first discovered by the Chinese inventor and emperor Shennong in 2737 BC. It is said that the emperor liked his drinking water boiled before he drank it so it would be clean and this is what his servants did. One day, on a trip to a distant region, he and his army stopped to rest. A servant began boiling water for him to drink, and a dead leaf from the wild tea bush fell into the water. It turned a brownish color, but it went unnoticed and in turn was presented to the emperor. The emperor drank it and found it quite refreshing. Hence a beverage better known as “Tea” was born. Tea was introduced to Sri Lanka by a young Scotsman by the name of James Taylor. He arrived in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) in 1852, to work for a large Coffee cultivator. James Taylor was involved with the Royal Botanical Gardens of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka where he got his first tea seeds for experimental planting. Following a chronic leaf disease in 1869 that destroyed the coffee plantation in the country, Taylor's experiments revealed that the land was equally receptive to tea planting. Furthermore, the estates had experienced planters and an efficient agricultural system. He therefore began replanting the Coffee estates with Tea. The 19-acre Loolecondera Estate was where Taylor initiated the first commercial planting of tea, which became the model for future development of the tea industry in Sri Lanka. He began to experiment with different methods of processing tea leaves. His bungalow was converted into a factory. The leaf was rolled on tables and firing was done in clay stoves over charcoal fires. Tea came to be a principal crop in Sri Lanka in the early 1870s. From a mere 19 acres in 1870, the island was planted with 120,000 hectares by 1900. At present, it covers about 220,000 hectares in the highland and southern low land areas of the country which has in turn made it the most favoured beverage among Sri Lankans worldwide. |
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