The links between Sri Lanka and Great Britain – and the two way influence each country has
exerted on the other – go back way beyond the start of the tea industry, as we can read in the account
of the island’s history. However, the success of tea cultivation brought a new and more intensive bond
between the two countries.
Most of the original tea estates were owned or managed by the Britons – the man recognized as the
‘pioneer of the island’s tea industry’ was a Scot named James Taylor. He was a scientifically-minded
planter who experimented with many different types of tea plants, to find those suitable for the islands
soil and climate. James taylor in his success grew the first commercial acres of tea bushes. The early
planters brought ever increasing areas of the jungle under cultivation, clearing the massive trees, burning
off the undergrowth, making roads and building the first tea factories. Much of the first clearing work was
done with trained elephants, who would use their immense strength to drag the downed trees or lift the
sawn logs with their trunks. It was a rugged outdoor life which slowly changed the landscape of Sri Lanka,
laying the foundation for today’s success story.
Since cultivation began on the island in 1867, Ceylon tea has become the country’s most important industry.
Sri Lanka is proud to look back on more than a century of remarkable growth and development in tea growing and
exporting. If James Taylor were, by some miracle of time travel, spirited back, he would surely be amazed and
delighted by the landscape of the tea-growing regions. Tea bushes cover the the carefully terraced hillsides
as far as the eye can see; the sea of green broken only by the scattered white dots of the factory buildings,
with their clusters of small homes for the tea estate workers.
Tea cultivation is now a highly skilled, scientific and mechanised business, with Sri Lanka producing some
of the most sought after, fragrant and delicious teas in the world.