History of Assam Tea

Assam Tea–A Historical Overview

First Indian Planter

Dewan Maniram Dutta Borbhandar Barua, on seeing the specimen plant in Robert Bruce’s hands, remarked, “We have the plant growing in our jungles”. He was later appointed by The Assam Tea Company – which he left to run his own garden.

First Tea Company in the World

The Assam Company – the world’s first tea company – came into being on February 12, 1839. Dwarakanath Tagore, grandfather of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, was one of the directors.

First Exports

On board a sailing ship named Calcutta, a dozen precious chests of India’s very own tea sailed to Britain in 1838. This was how the export journey of Indian tea began and the first consignment arrived in London on January 23, 1839. The Court of Directors of the East India Company wrote to the Government of India “...we have received favourable reports regarding it … from the most respectable brokers and tea dealers … an offer is made to contract for 500 or a 1,000 chests ……” This was the first export contract in the history of Indian tea.

First Auction

On January 10, 1839 the first consignment of Indian tea from Assam consisting of eight chests (about 350 lbs) was put under the hammer at the Commercial rooms in Mincing Lane, London. The lots were: 3 of Assam Souchong and 5 of Assam Pekoe, for which there were 60 bids was knocked down at the extraordinary price of 34 shillings per pound! All the lots were bought by one Captain Pidding.

First E-Auction

In this year, Assam achieved another milestone by starting the first e-auction in April. The Guwahati tea auction centre is the first in the world to go electronic.