TWO LEAVES AND A BUD

People who are familiar with the taste of the tea,they perhaps know that more than 50% of it's demand in the world is fulfilled by India. Besides ,Assam produces 80% of the total tea production of India.In India ,first tea plants were discovered in Assam.It was discovered by Robert Bruce.A person from Scotland.That was a different story in 1823.
At that time,East India Company from Britain was only a trading company in India .Robert Bruce was a merchant of East India Company .He brought european broad cloth,pearls,spices,rubies and mainly salt from abroad . In exchange,he carried with him ivory,silk thread,horns of the rhino etc to Europe .At that time,the demand for salt remarkably went down and so Robert Bruce had to think of another business.His main focus was on tea,and China was the sole producer of tea at that time.
Tea of China became a popular drink in Europe during that time. The european traders bought tea from China and sold it in their market.Their business flourished as the demand for tea increased day by day.
But the traders also faced difficulty as tea was not available in other countries except China.The tea price rate was fixed according to their choice.China charged only silver coins from european traders.It became very tough for European traders to carry the silver coins because the marine route was filled with sea robbers.
Maniram,an assamese employee of the company informed Robert about a drink which were used by singpho, a tribe of Assam whose taste was similar to tea.
Like other tribes ,Singpho's territory was located in a dense forest on the banks of the river Brahmaputra. The forest was filled with poisonous insects and snakes.The environment was very unhygenic.The only route towards the territory through the river Brahmaputra was very risky.Till that time,no european travelled through that route.
Robert was the first one to travel through that route to meet the Singpho king,Vishagam. The king welcomed him with a special drink called 'fanap' that was served in bamboo cane.After taking a sip he was confirmed that it was the tea he was searching for.
The drink was used by Singpho for medicinal purposes .The leaves were grinded and dried in smoke.Then it was mixed with water and boiled in bamboo cane.Robert noted the process of preparation of the drink.He also went to see the tea plants in the forest.Robert was delighted as his dream to become a tea trader would be accomplished .
With the help of translator he convinced Vishagam for tea cultivation .An agreement was signed between them.But Robert could not see his dream turn into reality.Due to unhygenic environment,he suffered from some unknown disease from which he could not recover and finally died.
Before his death ,Robert wrote a letter to his brother,Charles, where he had mentioned everything and told him to meet Vishagam by any means.But this task was not easy for Charles as he was a high ranking army officer of East India company.
As time rolled on,East India company involved in the internal politics of India and Assam also went under the company's rule .Charles bruce got an opportunity to come to Assam.One day,the heads of the different tribes in Assam came to sadiya to accept the company 's rule. On that particular day,Chingpho king,Vishagam handed over the agreement which Robert made with him,Fanap and wild tea plants to Charles Bruce.From that day,Charles took oath to fulfill the dream of his brother.
But the task was not easy and he faced difficulties at every step.He could not convince the company that the tea plants of Assam was real.The specialist from company knew that the tea plants of China were small and bushy and so they did not gave recognition to the tall plants of Assam.Rather ,they decided to cultivate tea in India by bringing seeds,plants and cultivators from China.But finally,after much hard work of Charles ,scientific deputation of company came to investigate the possibility of tea cultivation in Assam.They checked and experimented the tea tracks in Assam.
But things did not turned up in that way.Company wrote in their report that tea cultivation would be possible but for success , high quality seeds must be imported from China.
In the mean time, Tea Committee was formed in Calcutta .(the capital of India at that time) .The Secretary of the committee , Gardon, was send to China to collect information on tea plantation and to bring tea seeds and plants,along with Chinese tea makers with him.Gardon secretly brought 3 Chinese tea specialists from China .They brought 3 tea plants and the responsibility of it was handed over to Charles. But the plants could not be saved for a longer period of time.
The committee believed that any Chinese could manufacture and produce tea.So,Gardon was again send to China to search for Green Tea makers.He had send 80,000 tea seeds to India and it was planted at Calcutta Botanical garden. When it became tiny plants, 10,000 of it were send to Assam in 8 boats.But because of the rats present in the boat and the bamboo sheets that were there ,many plants couldd no be saved .Only 8000 plants reached Assam .
Charles again became busy in planting the 8000 tiny plants .But due to lack of trees to give shade to the plants in the nursery,the plants gradually died due to lack of shade and the nursery again became empty.
Bruce and the other people of the company were highly depressed due to their failure . They started to think that tea plantation will not be possible in Assam.
But at the same time ,some plants grew to a remarkable size in an ordinary nursery besides his place ,planted by Charles's colleague Macliland.These plants were local tea plants which were collected from the jungle of Assam .
The situation changed suddenly.Everyone got busy in Macliland nursery .The two Chinese tea makers who were brought secretly from China ,reached Assam to initiate the process of tea manufacturing .
In the year 1838,the leaves collected from that nursery were manufactured to tea with the help of Chinese tea makers and thus,the first tea of Assam was produced.
In the mean time,2 tea makers, 2 box makers and 1 canister maker had reached Calcutta .With the help of them,12 tea boxes of Assam tea were prepared and were send to London .
It was a historical moment for Assam as well as India .The tea boxes were highly appreciated at London Tea Auction Centre and it became a remarkable milestone for Assam and India as it had brought drastic economic changes here .

 Friends ,this is the history of first tea production of India.Hope you will like my post.Have a wonderful day and happy steeming...