Sri Lanka Tea

The Beginning
It was in 1824, at the botanical gardens at Peradeniya in Kandy, that Tea was introdused in Sri Lanka for the first time ever. Earlier it was brought from China, but later, in 1839, more were introduced from Assam. James Taylor, a Scottish planter, planted tea seedlings on eight hectares of forest land which had been actually cleared for coffee plantation. Two years later the whole coffee crop was destroyed by blight and the all planters had to resort to tea as a result of James Taylor’s encouragement.

Commercialisation
The first sale of Looll kandara tea was held at Kandy in 1872. Export was started in 1873 with 23 pounds (approximately 10 kg) being shipped to London.