When James Taylor arrived in Ceylon in 1852, coffee was the island's main crop and growers showed little or no interest in tea. Little did Taylor know that his work over the next two decades would make Sri Lanka (Ceylon's post-colonial name) one of the world's top producers of tea.
Taylor came to Sri Lanka to work for one of the large coffee growers and after his first six weeks, he was out in charge of an estate named 'Loolecondera' that was being cleared for coffee. Taylor's employers were also keen on growing other crops alongside coffee so he was given the responsibility of cultivating cinchona - a tree whose bark was used to produce a medicinal drug 'quinine'. In 1866, the company's strategy of growing other crops spread to the cultivation of tea. An employee was sent to India - then one of the largest tea producers - to learn the basics of cultivating and manufacturing tea.
A year later, Taylor was given the first tea seeds to initiate a phase of experimental planting. Taylor, who was fairly familiar with tea production methods himself, began applying such techniques in his estate. A neighbour once wrote of the manufacturing process, 'The factory was in the bungalow. The leaf was rolled on tables on the veranda by hand, i e from wrist to elbow, while the firing was done in chulas or clay stoves over charcoal fires, with wire trays to hold the leaf'.
In 1869, a fungus struck the nation's coffee trees, wiping out the industry over the next few years. On hindsight, the company's decision to experiment with tea was either the savviest of business decisions or merely a stroke of luck; either way it meant that they had taken the lead on what was going to be the next big thing for estate owners and growers: tea. By this time, James Taylor's estate at Loolecondera had gained a reputation as being a trendsetter, and Taylor himself became an advisor to local growers.
His quest for innovation hadn't died down despite early success: in March of 1872 he wrote, 'I have a machine of my own invention being made in Kandy for rolling tea which I think will be successful'. Together with a much larger tea factory in Loolecondera, Taylor ensured that he set his estate ahead of the rest.
The next few years saw the tea industry in Sri Lanka grow rapidly: the first shipment had reached the London auctions, a million packets were sold at the Chicago World Fair and British companies, seeing a cash cow in the horizon, took over many small Sri Lankan estates. Four estates were purchased by a man whose name would become synonymous with Sri Lankan Tea: Thomas Lipton.
Lipton, the son of poor Irish immigrants, never received a formal education, leaving school at the age of ten to support his family. He sailed to America, where he managed a small New York grocery and learned the then unknown science of marketing and advertising. His genius was not merely restricted to understanding the intricacies of marketing so thoroughly, but to be able to apply the lessons from one market to another. At the age of 21, he had opened his own store; by 1890 he was a millionaire.
He arrived in Sri Lanka in 1891 during a voyage to Australia. He was already interested in tea and was keen to introduce it in his stores. At that point, tea was an expensive commodity in England. Lipton sought for ways to make tea affordable to all and one way to achieve that was to cut out the middle men. The timing of his arrival was perfect: since the problems related to the coffee fungus, plantations in Sri Lanka were going at extremely low prices. Lipton purchased four estates and had full control of the quality and price of the product.
Once the issues of price were addressed, Lipton's next stroke of innovation was packaging. Traditionally, tea was sold loose in chests. Lipton gave it an attractive package with a slogan that read, 'Straight from the tea gardens to the tea pot'. Needless to say, Lipton's foray into retailing tea was a huge success, increasing his wealth and making 'Lipton' a brand name that would become famous the world over.
James Taylor's legacy was best put in words by John Field, High Commissioner for Great Britain in Sri Lanka. 'It can be said of very few individuals that their labours have helped to shape the landscape of a country. But the beauty of the hill country as it now appears owes much to the inspiration of James Taylor, the man who introduced tea cultivation to Sri Lanka'.
The original tea garden at Loolecondera - covering a mere 19 acres - can still be seen and, amazingly, some of the original tea bushes continue to produce tea even today; a worthy testament to Taylor's pioneering spirit and a land that seems to have been destined for the growing of tea.
