The first International Tea Day was celebrated in India's capital city, New Delhi, in 2005 and the celebrations were later followed by other tea growing countries - Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Uganda and Tanzania.
To compete with China’s tea production monopoly, Britishers first introduced the tea crop commercially in India in 1824 and ever since then, it is grown in bulk across Darjeeling, Nilgiri and Assam with 900,000 tonnes of tea reportedly produced in the country. The story goes that Chinese Emperor Shen Nung first tasted the beverage when he and his soldiers were busy sheltering under a tree and some windblown tea leaves fell into a pot of boiling water which then infused into it and resulted into today's most consumed drink.įirst discovered in China in 2737 BC, tea went on to become a staple within Asian culture where it was a symbolic part of religious rituals before it turned into a drink and a medicinal cure. After water, tea is the world’s most consumed drink and India is the second largest producer of tea in the world after China.Īs per the United Nations, there is evidence that tea was consumed in China 5,000 years ago.
Using tea plants brought from China, the first tea estates in India were established in Assam and the Assam Tea Company began the commercial production of tea in the region.