Although it is a relatively new arrival among the export statistics, the history of green tea in Sri Lanka stretches back to the very first experiments in tea cultivation and manufacture made on the island. Though sometimes attributed to Sir Anthony Oliphant, a former Chief Justice of Ceylon, the credit for undertaking these experiments is generally agreed to go to Maurice Worms, a member of the great Rothschild financial dynasty, who planted some China seedlings on his estates in Pussallewa and Ramboda in 1842. This was in the middle of the Ceylon coffee boom, so it is clear that Worms was merely trying out a new hobby.
His tea, cultivated and manufactured according to the Chinese method using tea-makers who had been brought over to Ceylon from that country expressly for the purpose, cost over £5 sterling per pound to produce. This being far more than even a Rothschild might be willing to pay for a pound of tea, the experiment was soon abandoned. However, many of the bushes on older Sri Lankan estates, particularly those at high elevations, were grown from China seedlings. As a general rule, Chinese ‘cultivars’ or strains yield a smaller leaf and a subtler flavour than the Assamese ones more common on tea estates in Sri Lanka.
As the pleasures of drinking tea and the healthful properties of the beverage (which offers no less than 25 established health benefits) are discovered by more and more people around the world, green Ceylon Tea looks set to continue growing in success and popularity.
