The Plant the Company's Own Scientists Called Savage

When the East India Company sent three scientists to certify the wild Assam plant as real tea, two of them said no. One called it savage and demanded Chinese seed instead. The plant he doubted is what grows in Assam's gardens today.

Assam Grew the Purple Tea Everyone Else Is Selling

Kenya built a global purple tea business on a clone traced back to Assam seed exported early last century. Assam itself still has no commercial purple tea plant, only wild finds in Karbi Anglong and a germplasm bank holding the chemistry that could change that.