ASSAM TEA IN HISTORY

HISTORY OF INDIAN TEA AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIETY AND ECONOMICS

Nearly 200 years ago, a Scottish gentleman called Robert Bruce was wandering in the Upper Brahmaputra Valley, when he came across wild bushes that changed the world forever: Indian tea.

Before that brilliant discovery, Indian tea simply did not exist. Despite the attempts of planting chinese seedlings into the Indian soil, they could not survive the heat of the Indian summer.

A couple of years later, 12 chests of Assam tea made their way to London markets, where they were sold for the first time at London auctions, paving the way for the foundation of the first tea plantation company in India and the world: Assam Company India Limited (ACIL). Since that time, and for over 180 years, the tea industry has been the beating heart of the Indian economy, changing the lives of millions.

Today, India is the second largest tea producer worldwide, with 13,000 tea gardens, employing a workforce of more than 2 million people.

THE MEN BEHIND THE BREW

Dr Nathaniel Wallich, Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, 1834
Identified the Tea Plant – Camellia Sinesis

CHARLES ALEXANDER BRUCE, 1839
Commenced trial cultivation of tea in Assam

Lord William Bentinck, Governor General, Calcutta, 1834
Set up the first Tea Committee with
Radha kanta deb and Ram Kamal Sen as members

Prince Dwarkanath Tagore, Calcutta, 1839
Founder Director, The Assam Company Ltd.

HISTORY OF Assam Company

Ever since its foundation in 1839, Assam Company has been leading tea production in India, creating a rich heritage that we take much pride in.

We were the first tea plantation company in the world, the first to establish tea estates, and the first to ever brand and export Indian tea to the world. In 1845, Assam Company was awarded the Royal Charter by Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Queen of England and Empress of India at the time. And we take pride in that one of our founding directors was Prince Dwarkanath Tagore, grandfather of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

Upholding our pioneering role as industry leaders, we have contributed greatly to picking up the tea production industry, one tea leaf at a time.

Our innovative contributions started as early as 1839, when we ordered the first piece of machinery to ever enter the province of Assam. It was a bench saw machine with a steam engine and a boiler to drive it. It cost £700 back then, roughly equal to £50,000 pounds in today’s value .

Throughout all our generations in operation, we have always been committed to our overarching objectives of improving farmers’ lives, preserving our natural environmental resources, and sustainably increasing the yield of harvest.

Today, we have grown to encompass 14 tea estates and gardens, run by over 15,000 farmers, producing 11 million kg of premium tea in 2019 alone.

WE PLANT

WE CARE

WE GROW

WE HARVEST

WE SERVE

FROM INDIA

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