Assam Tea
The discovery of the Assam tea plant in 1823, is attributed to Robert Bruce who spotted the plant during a trade visit to the hills around Rangpur, then capital of the Assam region. Robert Bruce had agreed with a local tribal leader to supply him with tea leaves during his next visit, which sadly failed to happen due to his passing away. However, his brother C. A. Bruce met the tribal leader during his stay with the British Gunboat Division in the war against the Burmese in 1824. Most of the tea seeds were planted in Bruce's garden at Sadiya, but some were sent to Commissioner Jenkins at Gauhati. In turn, some of these were sent to the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta where Dr. N. Wallich examined the leaves and determined them to be a member of the Camellia family. However, he believed they not of the same species as the Chinese tea plant.
In those days most tea came from China, making it expensive to ship back home. The British were eager to find an alternative source of tea, so in 1834 a Tea Committee was created by the then Governor General of India, Lord William Bentinck. The Committee members were charged to find a suitable area for the cultivation of tea in India. In response to this, the Commissioner of Assam, Major F. Jenkins, put forward the case for growing tea in Assam. He had already seen tea growing natively in the forests of Assam, forwarding samples of the wild tea to the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta. On this occasion Dr. Wallich had no problem in identifying the samples as being identical Chinese tea plants. With this news the Tea Committee recommended that the indigenous plant be cultivated.
The new British tea adveture starts, now tea can be made easily avilable at a lower cost, since the Chinese monopoly was broken. Since then Assam tea has made up a bigger part of traditional tea and blends, and now also as a sigle type tea, the nature of Assam tea and its locaton, gives it a unique soft taste. Today Assam tea is readily available and sought after by tea lovers all over the world.
Assam today in India
There are about 845 tea gardens in Assam, creating employment for a large number of locals and contributing directly to the national Indian economy. Tea is grown both in the Brahmaputra and Barak plains. Assam makes up about 51% of the tea produced in India and about 1/6th of the tea produced in the world. The tea industry has contributed substantially to the economy of the Assam region with about 17 percent of Assam workers involved in the tea sector.
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