The story of Ceylon tea begins over two hundred years ago. Then Coffee was the dominant crop on the island. However, coffee was not destined to succeed in Ceylon. Towards the close of the 1860's the coffee plantations were struck by Hemileia Vostatrix, coffee rust, better known as coffee leaf disease which caused the plants to die, and planters switched to the production and cultivation of tea.
Experimental planting of tea had already begun in 1839. These plants had arrived from Assam and Calcutta through the East India Company. Commercial cultivation of tea commenced in Ceylon in 1867.
James Taylor, a Scotsman, played a significant role in the development of Ceylon Tea. He experimented with tea cultivation and leaf manipulation in order to obtain the best possible flavor from the tea leaves. Soon, Ceylon Tea was being favorably received by buyers in London, proving that tea could be a profitable plantation crop.
In 1872 the first official Ceylon tea was shipped to England. however, was dispatched to England in 1877 aboard the vessel The Duke of Argyll. By the 1880s almost all the coffee plantations in Ceylon had been converted to tea. Coffee stores were rapidly converted to tea factories to meet the demand for tea. As tea production in Ceylon progressed, new factories were constructed and an element of mechanization was introduced. Machinery for factories was brought in from England where some of them are yet in use.
A need arose to mediate and monitor the sale of tea due to the demand. An auction system was established and in 1883 the first public sale of tea was conducted. The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce undertook responsibility for the auctions, and by 1894 the Ceylon Tea Traders Association was formed. Today almost all tea produced in Sri Lanka is conducted by these two organizations.