Birth of Tea in India

In 1598, a traveler from Dutch, Jan Huyghen van Linschoten noted his adventures in India and mentioned a special brewed drink Indians prepared by boiling tea leaves, garlic, oil and served as healthy drink. These leaves are grown in the wildest forest of Assam. While Indians were less aware of the change coming to this green wild jungle, Joseph Banks reported to East India Company in 1788 that the climate in North East India was ideal and most favorable for tea growing but he suggested to transplant the tea bushes from China but missed to mention the fact that those plants were native to Bengal. Unfortunately his idea was ignored.

In 1823 and 1831, two brothers, Robert Bruce and Charles once again proposed East India Company that North East India was ideal tea growing region, but they ignored as they were doing quit well by exporting tea from in India with strong monopoly on tea trades and probably didn't see any reason to look for other option and spend money elsewhere. 

Finally this cycle was broken in 1933, when East India Company lost its monopoly on tea trade and realized that India can prove a profitable alternative. A committee was formed and Charles Bruce and his secretary were given responsibilities to carry out the establishments of tea nurseries, and collect 80,000 tea seeds from China as they were doubtful that the tea plant really was indigenous to India.


The seeds were first planted in The Botanical Gardens in Calcutta and nurtured till it was sturdy enough to travel 1000 miles. Bruce took a smart move and hired 2 tea makers from China and learnt all the secrets of tea production. On the other hand, Charles and other pioneers started cleaning the area to grow new plantation and encourage new growth, and to experiment the fresh leaves to manufacture black tea. This was not at all a cup of cake as they were threatened by many wild animals like leopards and tigers and were also faced by the harsh climatic condition in the area which fluctuated from being cold in the winter and steamy hot in summer.. Gradually, the tea seeds from China did not show any result whereas the native tea plants flourished and stood throughout the intense Assam Heat.


In 1838, first Assam tea was exported to London and sold at auction. The East India Company termed the tea from Assam as "house of character" and also declared "Excellent Tea". There was a similar response for every shipment and finally the Assam Tea Company was successfully established with factories and, housing settlements and moved on to expand its roots to Darjeeling, Terai and Dooars, Nilgiri Mountains. Following are some outstanding number achieved by India in the tea industry :


1853: 183.4 tons of tea was exported by India
1870: 6,700 tons were exported
1885: 35,274 tons were exported


Today, India is one of the world's largest producers of tea with 13,000 gardens and with 600 million tons of tea exporting in every corner of the globe. The workforce is more than 2 million and going to be soon declared as the national drink of India.