Tea
Tea
was firstly introduced in Ceylon (Sri Lanka known as Ceylon
then) in 1824 at the botanical gardens at Peradeniya in Kandy.they
were brought from China and later more were introduced from
Assam in 1839.A Scottish planter call James Taylor planted tea
seedlings on eight hectares of forest land which had been actually
cleared for coffee plantation. Two years later blight destroyed
the whole coffee corp. and the all planters had to turn to tea
as a result of James Taylor’s encouragement.
The first sale of Looll kandara tea was held in Kandy in 1872,
and exporting of Tea started with 23 pounds (approximately 10
kg) being shipped to London in 1873.
The
first public Tea auction was held in Ceylon in 1880 and The
Ceylon Tea Traders Association was formed in 1884.To extend
the facility of research work and to improve the industry
The Tea Research Institute was established at Talawakelle
in 1925.
Growing of tea is classified by elevation in to three main
Groups,
1)
Low grown teas those grown bellow 550m
2) Medium grown teas those grown from 550 to 1220m
3) The high grown teas those grown from 1220m up to about
2500m
Quality
tea should meet all the criteria a tea drinker would look
for: such as Flavor, an attractive bright coppery or orange
color, good liquoring properties, which give body or strength
to the tea, and fragrance. All the type of Tea produced in
Sri Lanka is flavored by different drinkers of worldwide.
The high grown verities, with their light taste, weak color
and strong aroma are proffered by German and Japan.Medium
grown teas with their good mix of liquor, color are popular
in Australia, Europe and North America.Low grown teas with
their thick taste and strong color are popular in Middle East.
Present
day marketers have introduced verity of flavored teas in to
the domestic and export markets.
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