How Assam Tea Began

Assam tea was not discovered. It was commissioned. The East India Company already held the valley, lost its China tea trade in 1833, set a committee to ask whether tea could be grown inside the Empire, and sold the first eight chests in London in 1839. Here is how those moves, and the people behind them, made an industry.

The History of Assam Tea

The complete record of Assam tea: the wild assamica plant noted in 1823, the British annexation that opened the valley, the first eight chests sold in London in 1839, the Assam Company, the CTC machine that put Assam in the world's tea bags, and the region that grew into the largest tea producer on earth.