Tea Gardens

India is one of the largest tea producers in the world, although over 70 percent of its tea is consumed within India itself. In this, India is also among the top 5 per-capita tea consumers. A number of renowned teas, such as Assam and Darjeeling, also grow exclusively in India. The Indian tea industry has grown to own many global tea brands and has evolved into one of the most technologically equipped tea industries in the world. Tea production, certification, exportation, and all other facets of the tea trade in India is controlled by the Tea Board of India. The introduction of Chinese tea plants, different from Indian Tea, to India is commonly credited to Robert Fortune. Fortune employed many different means to steal tea plants and seedlings, which were regarded as property of the Chinese empire. He is also known for his use of Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward's portable Wardian cases to sustain the plants. Using these small greenhouses, Fortune introduced 20,000 tea plants and seedlings to the Darjeeling region of India. He also illegally brought a group of trained Chinese tea workers who would facilitate the production of tea leaves. With the exception of a few plants which survived in established Indian gardens, most of the Chinese tea plants Fortune introduced to India perished. The technology and knowledge that was brought over from China, however, may have been instrumental in the later flourishing of the Indian tea industry. From the first, Indian-grown tea proved extremely popular in Britain, both for its greater strength, and as a patriotic product of the Empire. Tea had been a high-status drink when first introduced, but had steadily fallen in price and increased in popularity among the working class. The Temperance movement massively promoted tea-drinking,from the early 19thC on, as an alternative to beer - water being of dubious quality, but the complete boiling necessary for tea rendering it safe. Many men, in particular, found China tea insipid, and the greater strength, and lower price, of Indian teas appealed greatly. By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, big brands such as Lyons, Liptons and Mazzawattee dominated the market. Tea was the dominant drink for all classes during the Victorian era, working class families often doing without other foods in order to afford it. This meant the potential market for Indian teas was vast. Indian tea soon came to be the norm, with China tea a minority taste. Until the 1970s and the rise of instant coffee, Indian tea had almost dole command of the hot drinks market. Its rivals were cocoa, coffee and savoury drinks such as Bovril and Oxo. In the early 1820s, the British East India Company began large-scale production of tea in Assam, India, of a tea variety traditionally brewed by the Singpho people. In 1826, the British East India Company took over the region from the Ahom kings through the Yandaboo Treaty. In 1837, the first English tea garden was established at Chabua in Upper Assam; in 1840, the Assam Tea Company began the commercial production of tea in the region, run by indentured servitude of the local inhabitants. [This tea was not for export - dis ambiguities needed] Beginning in the 1850s, the tea industry rapidly expanded, consuming vast tracts of land for tea plantations. By the turn of the century, Assam became the leading tea producing region in the world.
Continue reading...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.