The fourth largest tea producer, but the third largest tea exporter, in the world, is Ceylon/Sri Lanka. Though they are a relative newcomer, tea only arriving in the country in 1867
Like Kenya, their tea tends to be dark and strong, but Kenya seems to market theirs better, and is slowly taking over the lion`s share of sales. Strange then that if you want to buy Sri Lankan tea, you need to look for the Lion; this is a logo, owned by the Sri Lanka Tea Board, which means the contents are pure tea, meeting regulated standards, and entirely picked and packed within Sri Lanka.
To its credit, Sri Lanka is trying to turn this around, with better advertising and also in sponsoring sporting events, as well as their men`s and women`s cricket teams. And in 1995 it exported more tea than any other country, however the next quarter of a century saw them dropping back in the ratings table.
Our card for today comes from Tetley, which at one time was owned by two Yorkshire brothers, Joseph and Edward Tetley, though it was only ever called "Joseph Tetley", and they added the "& Co" in 1837. In 1856 they moved to London. Then there was a falling out, and the brothers split up. In 1871, Joseph Tetley again took on a partner, his son Joseph Tetley junior, and he took over on the death of his father in 1889.
Whilst researching this we were told that they were the first company to sell tea in teabags. This is not strictly true, as the invention of the tea bag was an accident, or rather a misunderstanding, in 1908, when a man called Thomas Sullivan sent samples of tea out to his prospective customers in silk bags, but with no instructions as to the fact that the user had to remove the tea from the bags. This mistake led to a brief flurry in the popularity of using tea in bags, but it died out. However it does seem to have been Tetley who brought the custom back, in 1953 - and we also discovered that Tetley invented the round teabag, in 1989.
By that time, they had been sold, to J. Lyons & Co; that happened in 1973. Then, after several changes of name and ownership, they became part of the giant Indian company Tata.