The legacy of Thomas Lipton

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. By the time I arrived at Sri Lanka’s Amba tea estate it was late evening and dark. In the morning, a short walk to the dining area was all it took for gorgeous views of the valley.

Later, standing at the edge of the estate, overlooking the valley and beyond, I could see the famous Little Adam’s Peak, a popular hiking trail. And not far from it, I was told, was Lipton’s Seat, famous for its views and named for the man who created the Lipton brand of tea. For nearly 100 years beginning in the late 18th century, coffee was the crop that was grown and exported to Europe from this island.

In 1869, the coffee rust disease arrived, destroying the industry, wiping out nearly all the coffee. Tea replaced it, a seemingly small shift but one that changed the course of the island’s history, influencing its politics, economy and society. But before that, before Lipton, comes the story of another Scotsman, James Taylor, who arrived here in 1852 and was assigned to work on the Loolecondera estate near Kandy.

In 1866, he was sent to India to learn about tea cultivation. A year later, he planted tea on 21 acres at Loolecondera, creating the island’s first tea estate. By the time the coffee rust spread, Taylor’s experiments in tea were successful.

From here on, it was a short decade and some before Sri Lanka became a significant tea producer. Ceylon tea was gaining favour in the British market. It caught the interest of businessman Thomas Lipton who had set up an enormously successful grocery chain in Britain.

Tea was still expensive but no longer a beverage of only the aristocrats. And Lipton wanted to make it affordable. He thought he could do this by cutting out the middlemen and going straight to