Tea Timeline

BCE means 'Before Common Era' or BC. CE means 'Common Era' or AD.

2737 BCE

The second emperor of China, Shen Nung, discovers tea as a ‘Divine Healer’, when tea leaves blow into his cup of hot water and so the story goes.

1027 BCE

King Wen, founder of the Zhou Dynasty, receives tea as tribute from leaders in the Szechwan district.

551-479 BCE

Confucius documented as a tea drinker.

300-400 BCE

First drying processes developed. Before this time fresh leaves are brewed. Now leaves are dried and powdered.

221-206 BCE

Liu Kun, a military leader in the Qin Dynasty writes to his nephew requesting "real tea" to lift his spirits.

74 - 49 BCE

Slave contract indicating duties including the buying and making of tea.

59 BCE

Wang Boa gives instructions in his book on how to buy tea and brew it.

350 CE

The first description of tea (cha) is mentioned in a Chinese Erya Encyclopaedia.

400-600 CE

Demand for tea as a medicinal beverage rises in China and cultivation processes are developed. Many tea drinkers add onion, ginger, spices, or orange to their teas.

400 CE

Now called Kuang Ya in the Chinese dictionary, tea and its detailed infusion and preparation steps are defined.

479 CE

Turkish traders barter for tea on the border of Mongolia.

542 CE

The Myth of ‘Ta Mo’ or ‘Bodhi dharma’. Buddhist master from India who brought Buddhism to China and founded the Zen School, Said to discover the virtues of tea (cha) after cutting off his eyelids to stay awake during meditation.

593 CE

Buddhism and tea journey from China to Japan. Japanese priests studying in China carried tea seeds and leaves back.

618-907 CE

T'ang Dynasty:

Tea becomes a popular drink in China for both its flavor and medicinal qualities.
Brick tea is made by steaming the fresh leaves, which are then powdered, and formed into cakes. Cakes can be stored for long periods of time and pieces are broken off and boiled when needed.
Early forms of the Tea ceremony develop.
Tibet and India trading for tea.

648-749 CE

Japanese monk Gyoki plants the first tea bushes in 49 Buddhist temple gardens.
Tea in Japan is rare and expensive, enjoyed mostly by high priests and the aristocracy.

725 CE

The Chinese give its own character ch’a for the word tea.

729 CE

The Japanese emperor serves powdered tea (named hiki-cha from the Chinese character) to 100 Buddhist monks.

780 CE

First tea tax imposed in China.
Chinese poet-scholar Lu Yu writes the first book of tea titled Ch’a Ching (The Classic of Tea) in timely alignment with the Taoist beliefs. The book covers detailed ancient Chinese tea cultivation and preparation techniques.

805 CE

Buddhism and tea devotion spreads further.
The Japanese Buddhist saint and priest Saicho and monk Kobo Daishi bring tea seeds and cultivation and manufacturing tips back from China and plant gardens in the Japanese temples.

960-1280 CE

Sung Dynasty:

Chinese tea drinking is on the rise, as are elegant teahouses and teacups carefully crafted from porcelain and pottery.
Drinking powdered (from Tea Bricks) and frothed tea or tea scented with flowers is widespread in China while earlier flavorings fall by the wayside.
Zen Buddhism catches on in Japan via China and along come tea-drinking temple rituals.

1012 CE

Cai Xiang is born. Becomes Fijian Province's tea commissioner and widely accepted as the most discerning tea palette of his day. "Tea tastings" at this time are popular entertainment among the government officials.

1101-1125

Chinese Emperor Hui Tsung becomes tea obsessed and writes about the best tea-whisking methods and holds tea-tasting tournaments in the court. While “tea minded,” so the story goes, he doesn’t notice the Mongol takeover of his empire.
Teahouses in garden settings pop up around China.

1191

Japanese Buddhist abbot Eisai, who introduced Zen Buddhism to Japan, brings tea seeds from China and plants them around his Kyoto temple.

1200 - 1253

Dogen, disciple of Aeisai (Eisais) is recognized as the founder of the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism. Dogen is an enthusiastic tea drinker.

1211

Japanese Buddhist abbot Eisai writes the first Japanese tea book Kitcha-Yojoki (Book of Tea Sanitation).

1227

Dogen returns from China with a wide assortment of tea utensils. In his instructions on daily life at the Eiheiji temple, he gives instructions for tea ceremonies.

1206-1368

Yuan Dynasty:

During the Mongol takeover of China, tea becomes a commonplace beverage but never regains its high social status.

1280

Mongolia takes over of China and since the Emperor of Mongol isn’t a “tea guy,” tea drinking dies down in the courts and among the aristocracy. The masses continue to indulge.

1368-1644

Ming Dynasty:

At the fall of the Mongol take over, all teas — green, black, and oolong — is easily found in China.
The process of steeping whole tea leaves in cups or teapots becomes popular.

1391

Chu Yuan-chang decrees that brick tea should no longer be produced, and that all tribute tea should be leaf tea. (The production of brick tea for the imperial court had been a highly complex and very expensive process, an extravagant source of corruption and waste.) Once cake tea was no longer available, the ritual of preparing whisked tea from powdered tea is abandoned. Brewed tea becomes the most popular way to prepare tea. Early forms of teapots are used.

1394-1481

Ikkyu, a prince who became a priest, was successful in guiding the nobles away from their corruption of the tea ceremony.

1422-1502

The Japanese tea ceremony emerges onto the scene. First created by a Zen priest named Murata Shuko, the ceremony is called Cha-no-yu, literally meaning "hot water tea" and celebrates the mundane aspects of everyday life.
Tea’s status elevates to an art form and almost a religion.

1484

Japan's Shogun Yoshimasa encourages tea ceremonies, painting, and drama.

1533-1591

Japanese tea master Sen-no Rikyu opens the first independent teahouse and evolves the tea ceremony into its current simple and aesthetic ritual. During this ceremony, one takes a garden path into a portico, enters upon hearing the host’s gong, washes in a special room, and then enters a small tearoom that holds a painting or flower arrangement to gaze upon. The tea master uses special utensils to whisk the intense powdered tea. Tea drinkers enjoy the art or flowers and then smell and slurp from a shared tea bowl.

1559

A Venetian diplomat and traveller Giambattista Ramusio writes a book called the Voyages and Travels in which he describes "Chai Catai” (Tea of China). Europeans learn about tea when the Venetian author credits the lengthy lives of Asians to their tea drinking.

1597

Tea is mentioned for the first time in an English translation of Dutch navigator Jan Hugo van Linschooten's travels, in which he refers to tea as chaa.

End of 1500s

Europeans hear about tea again when Portuguese priests spreading Roman Catholicism through China taste tea and write about its medicinal and taste benefits.

1610

The Dutch bring back green tea from Japan (although some argue it was from China).
Dutch East India Company market tea as an exotic medicinal drink, but it’s so expensive only the aristocracy can afford the tea and its serving pieces.

1618

Chinese ambassadors present the Russian Czar Alexis with many chests of tea, which are refused as useless.

1635

Tea catches on in the Dutch court.
A German physician touts a warning about the dangers of tea drinking.

1637

Wealthy Dutch merchants’ wives serve tea at parties.

1638

Mongolian Ruler Altyn Khan sent his envoy Vassili Starkov to Russian Tsar Michael I and gifted 250 pounds of Tea; and tea was introduced in Russia.

1650-1700

Tea parties become quite trendy among women across the social classes. Husbands cry family ruin, and religious reformers call for a ban.

1644

Manchus invade China and take power as the Quing dynasty. Tea makers discover the secrets of controlled "fermentation" or oxidation of the leaves before and during the drying process. Oolong and Black (red) teas are developed. As a result the coloration of tea cups changes to lighter hues.

1650

The Dutch introduce several teas and tea traditions to New Amsterdam, which later becomes New York.

1657

East India Company advertises tea's health benefits and begins sales in London. Tea is recommended as a treatment for apoplexy, catarrh, colic, consumption, drowsiness, epilepsy, gallstones, lethargy, migraine, paralysis, and vertigo.
Tea was first time sold in England as a health beverage when Thomas Garway advertises tea in his Coffee House in London.

1661

The debate over tea’s health benefits versus detriments heightens when a Dutch doctor praises its curative side while French and German doctors call out its harmful side.

1662

When Charles II takes a tea-drinking bride (Catherine Braganza of Portugal), tea becomes so chic that alcohol consumption declines.

1664

English East India Company brings the gift of tea to the British king and queen.
The British take over New Amsterdam, name it New York, and a British tea tradition ensues.

1666

Holland tea prices drop to $80-$100 per pound.

1669

English East India Company monopolizes British tea imports after convincing British government to ban Dutch imports of tea.

1670

The Massachusetts colony is known to drink black tea.

1675

Tea becomes available in Holland in regular food stores.

1679

First Early Tea Auctions Held by East India Company at Leadenhall Street in London, later know as East India House. The ‘Lit of Candle’ was used to measure duration of Auctions.

1679

Russia concluded a treaty with China to supply tea in Camel Caravan in exchange for furs. The Chinese ambassador to Moscow gifted several chests of tea to Alexis I.

1680s

Tea with milk is mentioned in Madam de Sévigné’s letters.
The Duchess of York introduces tea to Scotland.

1689

The Russians signed treaty of Nerchinsk that formalized Russia’s sovereignty over Siberia. This lead to creation of Tea Road to trade tea between China and Russia. This helped in cutting down cost of transportation of Teas to Russia.

1690

The first tea is sold publicly in Massachusetts.

1697

The first known Taiwanese cultivation and export of domestic tea takes place.

Late 1600s

Russia and China sign a treaty that brings the tea trade across Mongolia and Siberia.

18th Century

The controversy over tea continues in England and Scotland where opponents claim it’s overpriced, harmful to one’s health, and may even lead to moral decay.

1702-14

During Queen Anne’s reign, tea drinking thrives in British coffeehouses.

1705

Annual tea importation to England tops 800,000 pounds.

1706

Thomas Twining serves up tea at Tom’s Coffee House in London.

1717

Tom’s Coffee House evolves into the first teashop called the Golden Lyon. Both men and women patronize the shop.

1723

British Prime Minister Robert Walpole reduces British import taxes on tea.

1735

The Russian Empress extends tea as a regulated trade.
In order to fill Russia’s tea demand, traders and three hundred camels travel 11,000 miles to and from China, which takes sixteen months.
Russian tea-drinking customs emerge, which entail using tea concentrate, adding hot water, topping it with a lemon, and drinking it through a lump of sugar held between the teeth.

1765

Tea easily ranks as the most popular beverage in the American colonies.

1767

The Townshend Revenue Act passes British Parliament, imposing duty on tea and other goods imported into the British American colonies.
A town meeting is held in Boston to protest the Townshend Revenue Act, which leads to an American boycott of British imports and a smuggling in of Dutch teas.

1770

Parliament rescinds the Townshend Revenue Act, eliminating all import taxes except those on teas.

1773

The Tea Act of 1773 gave the East India Company control of trading in the Americas, imposing taxes and levies on the colonists.
In protest of British tea taxes (Tea Act) and in what becomes known as the ‘Boston Tea Party’, colonists disguised as Native Americans board East India Company ships and unload hundreds of chests of tea into the harbour.
Such “tea parties” are repeated in Philadelphia, New York, Maine, North Carolina, and Maryland through 1774.

1774

A furious British Parliament passes the Coercive Acts in response to the American “tea party” rebellions.
King George III agrees to the Boston Port Bill, which closes the Boston Harbour until the East India Company is reimbursed for its tea.

1775

After several British attempts to end the taxation protests, the American Revolution begins.

1778

Before the indigenous Assam tea plants is identified, British naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, hired by the East India Company, suggests that India grow plant and cultivate imported Chinese tea. For 50 years, India is unsuccessful.

1784

Parliament further reduces the British import taxes on tea in an effort to end the smuggling that accounts for the majority of the nation's tea imports.

1785

11 million pounds of tea are brought into England.

1797

English tea drinking hits a rate of 2 pounds per capita annually, a rate that increases by five times over the next 10 years.

1815-1831

Samples of indigenous Indian tea plants (wild plants) are sent to an East India Company botanist Robert Bruce who is slowly convinced that they are bonafide tea plants.

1824

A tea plant was brought to Ceylon by the British from China and was planted in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya for non-commercial purposes.
John Cadbury, a young English Quaker fresh from his apprenticeship at teahouses in Leeds, opens a grocery store at 93 Bull Street in Birmingham. Tea and coffee are his main commodities along with a newly imported product, cocoa. In 1831 he shifts the focus of his business to drinking chocolate and in 1849 manufactures his first chocolate bars.

1826

English Quaker John Horniman introduces the first retail tea in sealed, lead-lined packages.

1830

Congress reduces U.S. duties on coffee and tea and other imports.

1832

Tea planted in India for the first time by Dr. A. Christie in the Nilgiris.

1833

By an act of the British Prime Minister Charles Grey (the second Earl Grey and the namesake of the famous tea), the East India Company loses its monopoly in the trade with China, mostly in tea.

1834

The East India Co. ceased to do auctions.
First Tea Committee appointed by Lord Bentinck, Governor General of India.

1835

The East India Company starts the first tea plantations in Assam, India marking first Commercial Plantation of Tea in India.

1837

The first American consul at Canton, Major Samuel Shaw, trades cargo for tea and silk, earning investors a great return on their capital and encouraging more Americans to trade with China.

1838

The first tea from Indian soil and imported Chinese tea plants is sold. A small amount is sent to England and quickly purchased due to its uniqueness.

1839

Black Assam tea arrives in London from India in large quantities. From this point on Black tea sales increase and Green tea sales decrease.
On 10-01-1839 London Auctions shifted to a newly build ‘Commercial Sales Room’ at Mincing Lane of London (UK).
Experimental tea plants were brought from Assam and Calcutta in India to Peradeniya through the East India Company.
Establishment of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

1840s

American clipper ships speed up tea transports to America and Europe.

1840s and 50s

The first tea plants, imports from China and India, are cultivated on a trial basis in Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

1840

Anna the Duchess of Bedford introduces afternoon tea, which becomes a lasting English ritual.

1849

Parliament ends the Britain's Navigation Acts, and U.S. clipper ships are allowed to transport China tea to British ports.
Tea wholesaler Henry Charles Harrod takes over a London grocery store and grows it into one of the world's largest department stores.

1850

Londoners get their first peak at a U.S. clipper ship when one arrives from Hong Kong after a 97-day voyage. Named the "Oriental" she carries 1,600-tons of Chinese tea and her $48,000 cargo fee nearly covers the cost of her construction.
U.S. clipper ships soon desert China trade for the more profitable work of taking gold seekers to California.

1854

Establishment of the Planters’ Association of Ceylon.

1856

Tea is planted in and about Darjeeling, India.
Formation of the Consultative Committee of Tea Producers’ Association and Tea Association of India; formation of Bhartiya Cha Parishad.

1859

Local New York merchant George Huntington Hartford and his employer George P. Gilman give the A&P retail chain its start as the Great American Tea Company store. Hartford and Gilman buy whole clipper shipments from the New York harbour and sell the tea 1/3 cheaper than other merchants.

1861

27-12-1861 Opening of Calcutta Auction Centre in India.

1866

Over 90 percent of Britain's tea is still imported from China.

1867

British Planter James Taylor planted the first 19 acres of tea in Loolecondra Estate near Kandy, Ceylon and this marked the birth of tea industry in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

1869

The Suez Canal opens, shortening the trip to China and making steamships more economical.
In a marketing effort to capitalize on the transcontinental rail link fervor, the Great American Tea Company is renamed the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company.
A plant fungus ruins the coffee crop in Ceylon and spreads throughout the Orient and Pacific, giving a hefty boost to tea drinking.

1870

Twinings of England begins to blend tea for uniformity.

1872

The Adulteration of Food, Drink, and Drugs Act deems the sale of adulterated drugs or other unlabeled mixtures with foreign additives that increase weight as punishable offenses.
First mechanical Tea roller introduced by William Jackson in Jorhat (India).
James Taylor began operating a fully equipped Tea Factory in Loolecondra Estate (Sri Lanka) and the same year the first sale of Loolecondra tea (Loolkandura) was made in Kandy (Sri Lanka).

1873

The first consignment of Ceylon Tea of 23 lbs (10Kg) from Loolecondra Estate was shipped to London.

1875

A new British Sale of Food and Drugs Law calls adulteration hazardous to personal health and increases its legal consequences to a heavy fine or imprisonment.

1876

Thomas Johnstone Lipton opens his first shop in Glasgow at the age of 26. He was successful by using American merchandising methods he learned working in the grocery section of a New York department store.
The first Indian owned a Tea Estate.
Founding of the first Broking firm of Sri Lanka, John Brothers & Co.

1877

Manufacture of first “SIROCCO” tea drier by Samuel Cleland Davidson

1880

British Henry Randolph Trafford arrived in Ceylon and bought coffee estates in places such as Poyston, near Kandy. Very soon he converted Coffee Estates into Tea Estates. By the late 1980s most Coffee Estates turned into Tea Estates.
Manufacture of first Tea tea rolling machine by John Walker & Co.

1881

Indian Tea Association formed.

1883

30-07-1883 The first public Colombo Auction was held at the premises of Somerville & Co., under the auspices of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

1890

Thomas Lipton buys tea estates in Ceylon, in order to sell tea at a reasonable price at his growing chain of 300 grocery stores.

1891

For the first time India exports a million pounds of tea.
Nilgiris Planters’ Association founded.

1892

Darjeeling Tea Planters’ Association formed.

1893

One million tea packets sold at the Chicago World’s Fair.
The United Planters’ Association of Southern India founded.
Tea was sold at a record price of Sterling Pound 36.15 per lb at London Tea Auctions.

1894

09-08-1894 Opening of Colombo Auction Centre in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) under the banner of Ceylon Tea Trade Association.

1896

Indian Tea Cess Committee formed and Planters’ Enquiry Committee appointed.
The Colombo Brokers’ Association was formed.

1897

US Tea Act to ensure quality standards of all Tea imported into the United States.

Late 1800s

Assam tea plants take over imported Chinese plants in India and its tea market booms.
Ceylon’s successful coffee market turns into a successful tea market.

1903

Indian Tea Cess Act comes into force.

1904

Englishman Richard Blechynden creates iced tea during a heat wave at the St Louis World Fair.
Green tea and Formosan (Taiwanese) tea outsells black tea by five times in the U.S.

1908

New York tea importer Thomas Sullivan inadvertently invents tea bags when he sends tea to clients in small silk bags, and they mistakenly steep the bags whole.

1909

Thomas Lipton begins blending and packaging his tea in New York.

1910

Sumatra, Indonesia becomes a cultivator and exporter of tea followed by Kenya and parts of Africa.

1915

Thomas Amarasuriya became the first Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) to be appointed as Chairman of the Planters’ Associaiton.

1918

A National Tea Control was brought in and tea was split into three grades and sold at a fixed retail price.

1925

Tea Research Institute established in Ceylon.

1929

Crash of the American stock market and the depression that followed.

1932

Introduction of CTC Manufacturing machines.
The Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board formed.

1933

Indian Tea Control Bill introduced.
Formation of Assam Tea Planters’ Association.

1934

The first time a joint promotional campaign is organized by India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Java.
A Law was introduced in Sri Lanka to prohibit export of poor quality tea.

1935

International Tea Market Expansion Board Established in India.

1944

Excise duty becomes leviable on Tea in India.

1940

After a slump in the tea trade, Britain and the UK began to recover. However, the economy collapsed with World War II and tea was rationed from 1940 until October 1952.

1941

The first Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) Tea Broking house, M/s Pieris & Abeywardena, was formed.

1944

The Ceylon Estate Employers’ Federation was founded.

1947

04-07-1947 Opening of Cochin Auction Centre in India.
ESUSI becomes the first registered trade union in the Indian tea industry
Export Duty raised.

1948

Royal Commission on Industrial Labour formed in India.

1949

16-07-1949 Opening of Chittagong Auction Centre in Bangladesh.

1951

The Plantations Labour Act passed in India.
01-10-1951 An export duty on tea was introduced in Sri Lanka.

1952

Tea Act 1953 introduced by Parliament of India.

1953

Tea Board of India founded. Tea Board Act, 1953.

1954

The Plantations Labour Act 1954, brought into force in India. Tea Board Rules, 1954. A boom year for Tea.

1955

Tea Board By Laws, 1955 (Indian Act).
First Clonal Tea field began cultivation in Sri Lanka.

1956

07-11-1956 Opening of Nairobi Auction Centre in Kenya (Later Shifted to Mombasa).

1959

Tea Waste Control Order, 1959 (Indian Act).

1960

Sri Lanka Tea Production and exports reached 200 million kgs. for the first time and teas were grown in 200,000 hectares.

1961

Dooars Tea Research Institute founded.

1963

23-03-1963 Opening of Coonoor Auction Centre in India.

1964

30-04-1964 Opening of Amritsar Auction Centre in India.
Production & Export of Instant tea began in Sri Lanka.

1965

Sri Lanka became the world’s largest exporter for the first time.

1966

First International Tea Convention held at Sri Lanka to commemorate 100 years of tea industry of the country.

1968

Instant tea comes into being; crude fibre from CTC tea.

1969

14-07-1969 Opening of Mombasa Auction Centre in Kenya (shifted from Nairobi).

1970

February 1970 Opening of Limbe Auction Centre in Malawi.
25-09-1970 Opening of Guwahati Auction Centre in India.

1971

Tea Board (Recruitment and Conditions of Services of Officers appointed by Government) Rules of 1971 (Indian Act).
Tea Board Order Notification dt. 25-05-1971.
1971-72 Sri Lankan Government nationalised Estates owned by Sri Lankan and British companies taking over some privately held tea, rubber and coconut estates.

1972

11-12-1972 Opening of Jakarta Auction Centre in Indonesia.

1973

First National Seminar on tea organized by the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations in New Delhi.

1975

Equal Remunerations Act. Plantations implemented in India.
Sri Lanka nationalised Rupee and Sterling companies.

1976

For the first Time Pakistan buys Indian Tea.
29-10-1976 Opening of Siliguri Auction Centre in India.
Sri Lanka founded bodies like Sri Lanka Tea Board, Janatha Estate Development Board (JEDB), Sri Lanka Estate Plantation Corporation(SLSPC), Tea Small Holding Development Authority (TSHDA).
The export of Tea Bags commenced.

1978

Tea declared an essential commodity in India; the Direct Taxes Committee set up by the Govt. of India.

1980

22-11-1980 Opening of Coimbatore Auction Centre in India.

1981

22-11-1981 Opening of Singapore Auction Centre (which later closed).
Investigation of tea undertaking / Tea Unit Procedure Rules, 1981 Order (India).
Sri Lanka began importing teas for blending and re-export.

1982

Sri Lanka began production and export of Green Teas.

1983

Sri Lanka commenced manufacture of CTC Teas manufacturing.

1984

Tea (Marketing) Control Order, 1984 (India).
Sri Lanka constructed a Central Tea factory on Fairy Land Estate (Pedro) in Nuwara Eliya.

1989

Tea Ware House Licensing Order, 1989 (India).

1991

The Chelliah Committee on Tax Reforms.

1992

Sri Lanka celebrated 125th anniversary of tea industry and conducted international tea convention in Colombo.
21-12-1992 Sri Lanka abolished Export duty and Ad-Valorem tax and established Tea Research Board.
1992-93 Sri Lanka privatised tea estates, and sold it to various Indian entrepreneurs, which were earlier privatised during 1970s.

1993

UPASI India's centenary celebration.

1996

Tea Board (Right of Law Rules), 1996 (India).

1998

29-06-1998 Closure of London Auctions.

1999

World’s largest tea party in Hong Kong attended by 4950 guests
The Plantation Enquiry Commission established.

2000

India International Tea Convention organized by the Consultative Committee of Plantation Association in New Delhi.

2001

01-07-2001 ‘Global Tea Brokers’ promoted by two young entrepreneurs, Mr. Rajesh Gupta and Mr. Rakesh Gupta (from Gupta family), launched its first Tea Auction Broking office at Coonoor w.e.f. sale week no.28, marking the beginning of modern era 21st century Tea Auctioning services.
‘Global Tea Brokers’ published weekly ‘Auction Catalogue and Sold Prices’ in its websites, the first Auction Broker to do so.
‘Global Tea Brokers’ begin circulating Sold prices and Auction Reports to Buyers and Sellers through email.
‘Global Tea Brokers’ introduced mass Market Report Alerts to Buyers and Sellers through mobile ‘SMS’ system, the first brokers to introduce such system.
‘Global Tea Brokers’ proposed the Executive Director Tea Board to appoint consultants to implement pan India internet based tea auctioning in electronic platform. The Tea Board took the proposal positively and took initiatives to study the E-auction plan.
Forbes & Walker Ltd. launched Sri Lanka’s first online tea sale under Colombo Tea Auctions, which was short lived.
A Tea museum was established in Kandy.

2002

Tea Association of Sri Lanka formed.

2003

01-10-2003 Opening of Tamil Nadu State Govt. controlled ‘Tea Serve’ Auction Centre at Coonoor, India. This was the world’s first electronic Auction (Computer based Bidding but not through Internet) which replaced the traditional system of use of Gavel (Hammer) by Auctioneers and ‘Outcry bidding’ by Buyers.
01-01-2015 Govt. of India withdrew Tea (Marketing) Control Order 1984 and replaced it with Tea (Marketing) Control Order 2003; Increased import protection on tea and enhanced development allowance in the Union Budget of 2001-02.

2005

Opening of Jalpaiguri Auction Centre in India.
01-05-2005 Tea (Distribution and Export) Control Order, 2005 declared (India).

2008

21-12-2008 World’s first Internet Based Electronic Auction (i-auction) launched by the Tea Board of India in Coimbatore and Coonoor in the state of Tamil Nadu in India.
India becomes the first country in the world to sell its entire Auction Teas in Internet platform. India sells around 500 million kg of teas annually through electronic platform.
‘Tea Settlement Banker’ formed in Coonoor to handle payments of Auction Sale Proceeds. India becomes the first country to appoint clearing bank.

2010

21-07-2010 TeaServe, Coonoor migrated its offline (LAN) based electronic auctions (e-auction) to Internet based auctions (i-auction).

2011

‘Global Tea Brokers’ completed its One Decade of Auctioning Services.
GTB published 161 pages Statistical compilations of Tea Data and Tea Encyclopaedia in the name of ‘Global Tea Diary 2011’, which was distributed to 700 members of Tea fraternity absolutely without any charge, promoting mass education and knowledge about Tea Trade and Tea facts.

2013

Coonoor Tea Trade Association celebrated its 50th anniversary (Golden Jubilee).

2014

12-02-2014 ‘Chai pe Charcha’ – ‘Discussion over tea’ interactive (video conference) election campaign of BJP Prime ministerial candidate Mr. Narendra Modi launched in India at 1000 tea stall locations.

2016

21-06-2016 PAN INDIA E auction platform launched by Tea Board of India, permitting Tea Buyers of All India to simultaneously bid in auctions of any auction centre of the country. i.e. Buyers registered in one centre can bid for teas sold in any other centre of the country viz. Kolkata, Guwahati, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri, Coonoor, Coimbatore and Kochi.
14-09-2016 Tea Board of India appointed ‘Bank of India’ as a ‘Common Tea Settlement Banker’ for the entire Indian auctions to handle sale proceeds, collection and remittance of Buyers, Sellers and Auctions Brokers, w.e.f. sale week no.37. However Tea Board later suspended services of Bank of India from sale week no.42 onwards due to technical glitches and service issues.

2017

12th to 14th Jan 2017 – Bangladesh Tea Expo, Chittagong – first international tea convention held in Bangladesh.
8th to 11th Aug 2017 – Colombo International Tea Convention – celebration of 150 years of Ceylon Tea
01-07-2017 Indian Government introduced its biggest ever Taxation reform in the name of GST (Goods and Services Tax).