Tea is much more than a mere drink. . . It is a solace, a mystique, an art, a way of life, almost a religion.
— Cecil Porter, Gemini News Service
China has grown and used tea as a beverage for thousands of years, yet India’s earliest recognition of the tea plant dates from only the first century a.d., and no records of India’s wild tea plant being made into a beverage exist at all. Yet in less than two centuries (since the early 1800s) India has become the largest producer of tea in the world. Drinking tea there now is almost akin to breathing.
The story of the modern tea industry in India is inextricably bound up with the story of British presence there. It begins as the Empire was aided, abetted, and assisted by the most powerful commercial venture of the world at that time, the East India Company.
The East India Company was founded in 1600 as “The Governor and Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies,” under the royal charter of Queen Elizabeth I, to trade with the spice islands of the East Indies (Indonesia). The company subsequently introduced its spices to the West Indies and many other stops around the globe.
Pursuing trade routes to the Orient, it was instrumental in creating two of the most powerful port cities of trade, Singapore and Hong Kong. This enabled the company to grow so large that it had all the strength and power of a country: its own army and navy, its own currency, and its own territories.
In the seventeenth century, the EIC introduced China tea to Great Britain. The matchmaking worked: Britain remained the EIC’s chief Chinese-tea customer for nearly two centuries. Indeed, the Empire’s purchases of tea began to adversely affect its budget. The company tried to balance this assault on British coffers by selling British goods to China, but the Chinese continually refused to buy them. Emperor Ch’ien-lung, who ruled from 1736 to 1796, reportedly informed King George II that “I set no value on strange or ingenious objects and have no use for your country’s manufactures.” What he did have use for was silver bullion. This was the only British item the emperor would accept for his tea, and for his other popular selling commodity, silk.
While tea has been cultivated in China for centuries, it wasn’t until the mid-nineteenth century that India joined the tea-growing industry.
It was the EIC, not King George, that was actually responsible for the infamous Boston Tea Party in the United States. Anxious to settle its growing pile of debts and whittle down an expanding stock of tea, the company “encouraged” the British government to pass the Tea Act of 1773, which allowed it to sell tea to the Americas, collect taxes on tea, and open up a new port of trade. Neither the EIC nor the royal court realized how the colonists would react to such high taxes. The captains of EIC ships were met with protests at Boston, Charleston, Philadelphia, New York, and Annapolis before the company finally realized the error of its ways. (Americans continued to buy chintzes from the EIC but refused tea well into the nineteenth century.)
Incidentally, the EIC also began transporting Bengal-grown opium from Calcutta to China as part of its attempts to balance international trade. This was in direct violation of an imperial prohibition on opium smoking in China and the Edict of Peking, which forbade import of the drug. For a while it was believed that this infamous attempt at the balance of trade between two world powers would be helpful, but it depleted the coffers of both countries in order to feed two addictions (although tea can certainly be deemed harmless compared to opium). It was not until 1906, nearly seven decades after the violent first Opium War (1839–1842), that China and Great Britain finally agreed to a reduction of opium growing in India.
The British Crown finally absorbed what remained of the East India Company in 1874, ending a remarkable chapter of history in which a commercial firm was able to hold world leaders prisoner (Napoleon), hire pirates to do dirty deeds (the most famous of these was Captain Kidd), and help Elihu Yale establish one of the greatest personal fortunes in America — which continues to support the university that bears his name.
The success of the EIC was due in no small part to the support of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (1819–1901). The queen, whose beverage of choice was Scotch, was keenly aware of her subjects’ thirst for tea. She also understood that her country’s continually wavering financial position was as much at the mercy of China’s appetite for silver during her reign as it had been for nearly a century before her. Eager to keep her inherited silver at Windsor, so to speak, she realized that growing tea “at home” in India would be infinitely easier than continuing the trade wars with the Chinese. She requested, as only royals can, that everything be done to grow tea in one of her colonies.
The East India Company was only too willing to help, but it was four particular Britons who literally did the work. This quartet of pioneers included two Scottish brothers, C. A. (Charles Alexander) and Major Robert Bruce; Lord William Charles Cavendish Bentinck; and the English botanist Robert Fortune.
The top two leaves and bud of the Camellia sinensis bush make the finest tasting tea.
The Bruce brothers had been stationed for a number of years in India, then Great Britain’s largest colony. They were happy to heed their queen’s request. Major Robert Bruce explored what was then known as Burmese Assam in 1823, where he made several botanical forays into the nearby Beesa Hills. There he “discovered” native tea trees. (An Indian native, Moneram Dewan, actually pointed out the plants to the major.) In 1825 his brother C. A. took some seeds from those Assam tea bushes and, as an experiment, planted them in his own garden in Sadiya, a town in Darjeeling. Major Robert Bruce died that same year, before he could know that his simple “discovery” of a wild Assam tea plant would found an entire industry.
The year 1825 is important in the birth of the India tea industry for yet another reason. The English Society of Arts offered a gold medal or fifty guineas “to the person who shall grow and prepare the greatest quantity of tea of good quality, not being less than 20 pounds in weight, in the East or West Indies, or any other British colony.” Although Lieutenant Andrew Charlton received this gold medal, historians usually attribute most of the work during this pioneering era to C. A. Bruce.
The rolling hills of India make a stunning backdrop for this tea plantation.
Robert Bruce’s “discovery” of wild tea plants in Assam leads to a conundrum: Did those plants originate in India, or did they come from China? If they in fact originated in India, why was there no tea drinking there until the British arrived? The beverages historically drunk in India were made from herbs.
Geography provides a clue to help solve this riddle: The region of Assam lies near India’s eastern border with China, and many Buddhist monks made the trek to and from China and India. One such Chinese monk, Gan Lu, who lived during the Han Dynasty (a.d. 25–221), recorded his travels to India to study Buddhism. When he returned to China he brought back the seeds from a new-to-him plant, the tea bush. Buddhist monks in Korea, Japan, India, and China followed his example and each soon discovered that tea was just the brew to stimulate devotees to remain steadfast in their hours of prayer and meditation. All began planting tea seeds on their respective monastery properties. This does not, however, mean that tea was unknown elsewhere; China, Viet Nam, and Nepal have tea bushes dating back hundreds of years. The riddle continues.
A former lieutenant in the Royal Navy, C. A. Bruce was the first Superintendent of Tea Culture, although he was not educated in botany. He was, however, an experienced explorer who had lived in India many years and understood its climate and people, particularly those of Assam.
Barely accessible and barely livable because of enormous floods from heavy monsoons, Assam was thoroughly dangerous as a breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Undaunted, C. A. spent more than four years cutting a swath through the Assam forests, planting and cultivating tea plants. These efforts finally paid off when, using the simplest of techniques, he made the first drinkable Assam tea for the British market. His methods involved withering the tea leaves in the sun, rolling them by hand, and drying them over charcoal fires. Thankfully for historians of tea, he recorded his findings shortly thereafter in a pamphlet called Account of the manufacture of the black tea as now practiced at Suddeya, in upper Assam, by Chinamen sent thither for that purpose, with some observations on the culture of the plant in China, and its growth in Assam.
Other British planters soon took up Bruce’s work in Assam. After traveling by boat up the Brahmaputra River, often for as long as a month at a time, they entered the jungle on elephant, lived in makeshift huts, and helped clear the bug-infested jungle. Their companions were solitude, wild animals, and the ever-present danger of cholera, yellow fever, dysentery, and malaria. Many died, but those who survived were able to send for their families, build better housing, and establish a community that reflected their cultural roots: polo, cricket, and Sunday outings “at the club.” Of course, these Englishmen did not perform this backbreaking work alone, but literally enslaved many local Indians, giving rise to the phrase that Assam was “bitter tea,” a sentiment barely eased by growing Indian independence in the twentieth century.
Interest in the infant India tea industry was growing, but Chinese teas still lured both vendors and consumers. This grew particularly worrisome in 1833, when Britain’s trade treaty with China expired and the Chinese government chose not to renew it. On January 24, 1834, Governor General Lord William Charles Cavendish Bentinck (1774–1839) therefore convened the now-famous Tea Committee, charging it to submit a plan for introducing Chinese-tea culture into India. He gave great attention to his task, gathering the data, organizing it, and drawing conclusions. Alas, he died before his work could be completed. Many tea pioneers and historians feel that Great Britain owes Lord Bentinck a debt of gratitude for bringing Chinese tea plants to India.
The committee continued Bentinck’s work, successfully introducing the first lot of Chinese tea seeds throughout India: in Assam, the Himalayas of Darjeeling, and the Nilgiri Hills.
In the early nineteenth century, Camellia sinensis var. assamica plants were discovered throughout the Nilgiri Hills — just as they had been in Assam and, later, Darjeeling. This was a surprise to many British tea pioneers, who believed these hills, lower in altitude than Darjeeling, would not be hospitable to tea growing. Instead, Nilgiri’s milder overall climate and constant moisture proved to grow luxuriant tea bushes.
Because the wild tea plant was found in so many places, it was assumed that everywhere this plant grew would be hospitable to easy cultivation. But this was not the case: Swamps had to be drained, land cleared, and tea bushes planted. These labor-intensive jobs took months, even years to accomplish. It was not until 1953 that commercial tea planting truly began in Nilgiri.
Everywhere you travel throughout India you’ll find street vendors serving their piping hot chai to tourists and natives alike.
The year 1838 was momentous in the history of tea in India: Great Britain “annexed” Assam, enabling it to control and develop this vital tea-growing region. The first eight chests of commercial Indian tea were shipped to London in December 1838, and sold at India House in January 1839 with the East India Company serving as the primary vendor. As it turned out, the quality of the tea left much to be desired. Still, this 1839 auction proved a great promotional effort for the new “British-grown” tea.
The Asiatic Journal furnished this rather breathless account of the first sale of Assam tea in London:
“The first importation of tea from the British territories in Assam, consisting of eight chests, containing about 350 pounds, was put up by the East India Company to public sale in the commercial sale rooms of the tea and commodities market, Mincing Lane, on 10th January, 1839, and excited much curiosity. The lots were eight, three of Assam souchong, and five of Assam pekoe. On offering the first lot (souchong) Mr. Thompson, the sale-broker announced that each lot would be sold, without the least reservation, to the highest bidder. The first bid was 5s. per pound, a second bid was made of 10s. per pound. After much competition it was knocked down for 21s. per pound, the purchaser being Capt. Pidding. The second lot of souchong was bought for the same person for 20s. per pound. The third and last lot of souchong sold for 16s. per pound, Capt. Pidding being the buyer. The first lot of Assam pekoe sold after much competition for 24s. per pound, every broker appearing to bid for it. It was bought for Capt. Pidding. The second, third and fourth lots of Assam pekoe fetched the respective prices of 25s., 27s., 6d., and 28s., 6d. per pound and were purchased for Capt. Pidding. For the last lot (pekoe) a most exciting competition took place, — there were nearly 60 bids made for it. It was at last knocked down at the extraordinary price of 34s. per pound, Capt. Pidding was the purchaser of this lot, and has therefore become the sole proprietor of the first importation of Assam tea. This gentleman, we understand, has been induced to give this enormous price for an article that may be produced at 1s. per pound but the public-spirited motive of securing a fair trial to this valuable product of British Assam.”
Taking cuttings from tea bushes is considered “women’s work” in India, and the tea pluckers are highly skilled and supremely efficient.
The story of the British cultivation of tea in India is one of trial and error, travail and trespassing, and utter tenacity. The tale continues now with the man who most successfully brought healthy Chinese plants to India: English botanist Robert Fortune, Botanical Collector to the Horticultural Society of London.
World-renowned in his own lifetime, Fortune was responsible for bringing countless trees, flowers, and vegetables to both Great Britain and India. His acute professionalism and thorough agricultural education enabled him to cut, preserve, and keep alive precious tea bush cuttings in ways that helped them live throughout the arduous trip from Canton to Calcutta.
Fortune set out for China in the fall of 1842 to collect cuttings of various plants and seedlings. But Fortune was — like all pioneers — an adventurous soul not given to defeat and eager to achieve his goals at any cost. In a chatty writing style, he recounted his adventures in enormous detail in several popular books of the time.
An Englishman to the core, Fortune was at first totally unfamiliar with any tea other than what he had enjoyed in London — black tea served with sugar and milk. His first reaction to drinking tea in China was not unlike that of many Western tourists, both then and now. He did, however, show great openness to new taste adventures, to wit:
“The good lady of the house set down a teacup before each of us, into which she put some tea, and then filled each cup up with boiling water. I need scarcely say she did not offer us any sugar or milk. . . . We drank our tea, which I found most refreshing, in its pure state without sugar and milk. Now and then someone connected with the house came round and filled our basins again with boiling water. This is usually repeated two or three times, or until all the strength is drawn out of the leaves.”
Through both charm and perseverance, Fortune made the acquaintance of many helpful guides. He traveled to tea plantations throughout China, sometimes on foot and other times by sedan chair, a common contraption of the time carried by four Chinese men. On several occasions he dressed to appear Chinese — which must have been quite a feat, though he insisted that he did indeed “pass.”
At every stop along the way, it was Fortune the botanist at work, preparing cuttings, seedlings, and young tea bushes to send from Canton to Hong Kong to Calcutta. After many delays, he wrote, “In October and November [of 1849] I procured a large supply of tea-seeds and young plants from Hwuy-chow, and from various parts of the province of Chekiang. These were all brought to Shanghae in order to be prepared and packed for the long voyage to India. When they were all gathered together into Mr. Beale’s garden they formed a collection of great interest. Here were tea-plants, not only from Silver Island, Chusan, and the districts about Ning-po, but from the far-famed countries of Sung-lo-Shan and the Woo-e hills. A number of the cases were now ready for the reception of the plants, and the whole of them were taken down to Hong-kong under my own care. They were then divided and sent on to Calcutta by four different vessels, in case of accident.
“During the summer of 1850,” Fortune continued, “I had the satisfaction of hearing that my collections of tea-plants had arrived safely at Calcutta. . . . One of the objects of my mission to China had been, to a certain extent, accomplished. The Himalayan tea-plantations could now boast of having a number of plants from the best tea-districts of China, namely, from the green-tea country of Hwuy-chow, and from the black-tea country of the Woo-e hills.
“Since my return to Shanghae I had been engaged in getting the tea-plants carefully planted in Ward’s cases, in order to send them to India. As there was no vessel in Shanghae bound for Calcutta direct, I determined to take the collection to Hong-kong, and to ship them thence to India.”
The Ward’s cases that Fortune mentioned (they were named for their designer, N. B. Ward) were made of mahogany or oak and featured glass tops, not unlike old curio cabinets. They were glazed to be nearly airtight so that moisture would not creep in and destroy the plants. (Glazing was the only effective technique in that era before plastic wrap and aluminum foil.)
On February 16, 1851, Fortune left Shanghai on the Lady Mary Wood with sixteen glazed Ward’s cases filled with various plants and tea seeds. He arrived in Calcutta on March 15. “The mulberry-plants were found to be in good condition, and the tea-seeds had germinated during the voyage, and were now covering the surface of the soil,” he wrote. By this simple plan about twelve thousand plants were added to the Himalayan plantations in Darjeeling.
With this gargantuan effort, the Indian tea industry finally had all the resources and tools it needed to really establish itself. In less than a decade — on December 27, 1861 — the first regular tea sale was held in Calcutta of tea from leaves grown in India. This sale was followed by another on February 19, 1862. To further speed distribution, a railway line was built in the 1880s to get the tea from plantation to auction sooner and safer, which did much to strengthen the industry. Today auctions are generally held in Calcutta every week during the seasons.
Great Britain gained enormous wealth during its years of tea trade in India, and hundreds of fine tea blenders made fortunes creating signature blends. Following India’s independence from the United Kingdom on August 15, 1947, some tea estates were transferred to local management, although British-owned companies still have a strong presence in the country.
There is no small irony in the story of India’s tea industry. Although it began as a way to use one of Britain’s territories to prevent the Empire’s wealth from leaving its shores for China, today’s Indian tea industry supports a viable and independent democracy that no longer labors under any queen.