Lounge
The legacy of Thomas Lipton
Summary
We talk of provenance now but that’s what Thomas Lipton did over 100 years ago—offer his customers tea that was branded, packed at source and affordable
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.
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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 the source. In 1888, Lipton set sail from England, supposedly to Australia but stopping at Ceylon to meet Taylor.
Lipton not only partnered with Taylor to buy his tea but went on to purchase several tea estates in the central highlands. He began to package tea rather than sell it loose as was the practice. We talk of provenance now but that’s what Lipton did over 100 years ago—offer his customers tea that was branded, packed at source and affordable, or as his slogan said: “Direct from the tea garden to the tea pot". In a 2016 NPR article, author Jeff Koehler writes that, “The packets were so successful that Lipton began selling his tea not just in his own shops, but through other retailers—in the UK and beyond. In 1893, he headed to the World’s Fair in Chicago, where he sold 1 million packets of Ceylon tea."
From the vantage point in the Dambatenne estate he once owned, Thomas Lipton had a 360-degree view of his empire of tea. It’s now famous as Lipton’s Seat, and comes with a statue and a sign, the end of a hike that rewards you with a view Lipton loved. Incidentally, Loolecondera has a viewpoint now called Taylor’s Seat. If you are in these parts, do consider a detour to Loolecondera tea estate and Dambatenne tea factory with a hike up to Lipton’s Seat to enjoy a great slice of tea history.
Tea Nanny is a fortnightly series on the world of tea. Aravinda Anantharaman is a Bengaluru-based tea blogger and writer who reports on the tea industry. She posts @AravindaAnanth1
