Assam tea: Difference between revisions

While on a trade expedition through the Assam area with [[Singpho people|Singpho]] in 1823 [[Robert Bruce (tea planter)|Robert Bruce]] was introduced to a plant with which the Singpho and [[Khamti people]] made beverages and food. Through his brother, [[Charles Alexander Bruce]] who was in [[Sadiya]], samples were sent to botanist [[Nathaniel Wallich]] who mistook it for ''camellia kissi''.<ref name=Driem>{{cite book |title=The Tale of Tea A Comprehensive History of Tea from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day |first=George |last=van Driem |year=2019 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004386259}}</ref> It was not until over a decade later that the Singpho's plant would be recognized as being the same plant as the ''Camellia sinensis'' growing in China, after Francis Jenkins and Andrew Charlton responded to the request of the British [[East India Company]]'s Tea Committee for its agents to review prospects for establishing a source of tea outside of China. Charles Bruce [[guide]]d a team, including Nathaniel Wallich, [[William Griffith (botanist)|William Griffith]] and [[John McClelland (doctor)|John McClelland]], dispatched from the Tea Committee in 1836, to review the plant in its natural growing conditions around [[Sadiya]]. It was cultivated in the company's experimental garden with the first batch shipped to London in 1838 and auctioned in January 1839. Though it sold well the batch was noted as lacking fragrance compared to the tea from China which had been selectively cultivated for hundreds of years and having a dullness thought to be a consequence of inexperienced processing.<ref name=Driem/> That same year, two companies were incorporated to pursue the tea's development in Assam: the Assam Tea Association in [[London]] and the Bengal Tea Association in [[Kolkata]], though they quickly amalgamated to form the Assam Company. Despite early proponents such as [[Maniram Dewan]], British-led [[land reform]]s such as the ''Waste Lands Act'' to clear and privatize plots of land for agricultural purposes, the Assam Company struggled and was forced to reorganize in 1847. Similarly, despite having access to a large source of inexpensive labour, including tea-makers smuggled out of China, [[indenture]]d Indians, and refugees from famine-strikenstricken areas, Assam at the time was a sparsely-populated, [[Tropical forest|hot and humid]] undeveloped area and many died of disease. Despite the poor results, investment came from Britain to establish additional tea gardens, such as the Jorehaut Tea Company around [[Jorhat]], in 1860s though by 1870 56 of the 60 companies operating tea gardens in Assam went bankrupt. Industrial mechanization in the 1870s finally resulted in profitable companies as more plucked leaves were able to be dried without rotting in the humid environment. Heated withering tables and steam-powered rolling machines precipitated a need for grading so the British adapted the existing systems of [[tea leaf grading]] to sort their products. The Indian Tea Districts Association was established in London in 1879 and in [[Kolkata]] in 1881 (as the Indian Tea Association) to organize and advance these tea interests. By 1888 tea imported from India finally exceeded that from China.<ref name=Griffiths>{{cite book |title=The History of the India Tea Industry |last=Griffiths |first=Percival |author-link=Percival Griffiths |year=1967 |publisher=[[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]]}}</ref>