Directory Image
This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

How did Tea plantation and consumption began in India?

Author: Bhavana Murthy
by Bhavana Murthy
Posted: Sep 23, 2017

Tea is the most popular beverage of Indians. From an upper class rich person to a beggar, everyone loves drinking tea in India. Some people have one cup every day, some have 2 to 5 cups of tea every day, while others have a cup of tea intermittently every few days. As of today, India is the largest producer of tea in the world. But this much success of tea in India is since when? Let’s have a look at the history of tea in India.

Although, in the confirmed written records, Tea originated around the 5th century AD in the south west province of China, it took as long as the 19th century for tea to make its debut in India. We should give credit to our British rulers who introduced the Chinese varieties of tea, as they attempted to break the Chinese monopoly on tea at that time. They launched a tea industry in Assam by giving land to any European who agreed to cultivate tea for exporting purposes.

But the 19th century entry of tea in India could be wrong, as consumption of tea is also documented in the Ramayana. Then some records emerge from the 1st century CE with the involvement of some Buddhist monks with tea. It was cultivated in eastern and north India for thousands of years, but then the Britishers started the commercial production of this beverage.

The first modern Indian tea planter was Maniram Dewan, he established the first commercial plantations of the Assamese variety of tea. In the beginning, only the Anglo-Indians used to consume tea, but after the 1920s it became popular and in the rural areas of the country, it was popularized in the 1950s, thanks to an extensive advertising campaign by the Tea Board.

With the help of the British East India Company in the 1820s, large scale production of tea began in Assam; the tea variety used was brewed by the Singpho people. Slowly the tea plantations covered a major part of land in Assam. After that, the tea plantations spread to other regions like Darjeeling, and some south Indian regions. Today, Indians are the largest consumers of tea in the world, with 30% of the world’s production consumed here.

Hope this article increased your knowledge about tea. Since 1987, Solanki Tea has been the purveyor of fine tea in India. We look forward to your valuable feedback on our official website, www.solankitea.com. We manufacture 8 product lines of tea, meant for domestic consumption as well as exporting. We will update you with offers, discounts, new products, contests etc. via our social media pages of Facebook- https://goo.gl/voQykL, Twitter- https://goo.gl/dRGbNK, Google+- https://goo.gl/E2SVfV, Instagram- https://goo.gl/HwN1n5.

Rate this Article
Leave a Comment
Author Thumbnail
I Agree:
Comment 
Pictures
Author: Bhavana Murthy

Bhavana Murthy

Member since: Sep 22, 2017
Published articles: 1

Related Articles