20th & 21st Century
1900- (i)Tocklai Experimental Station of Indian Tea Association starts with one agricultural Chemist.
(ii)Overproduction stops planting in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and India.
(iii) Tea cultivation starts in Persia (Iran).
(iv)The Trans-Siberian Railroad is completed in Russia, ending camel caravan trade between Russia and China. In Russia, tea has become the national beverage (besides Vodka).
(v) Tea is planted in the Botanical gardens at Entebbe, Uganda.
(vi) In England, teashops become the popular place for the working class to take their afternoon tea. By this time Lyon's has over 250 teashops, and taking tea, as meal away from home becomes a part of daily life.
(vii) The proprietor of the Aerated Bread Company begins to serve tea in the back of her shop to her favorite customers. Her back room becomes such a popular place to take afternoon tea,that the company decides to open an actual teashop, the first of a chain of shops that would come to be known as the ABC teashop.
1903- Tea is planted in Kenya at Limuru.
1904 – (i) Englishman Richard Blechynden creates iced tea during a heat wave at the St. Louis World Fair. The first "iced tea" was served at the St. Louis World's Fair. A certain tea merchant had planned to give away samples of his tea to the fair-goers, and when unable to think of anything else to do when a heat wave threatened his plans, he dumped ice into his hot tea.
(ii)Green tea and Formosan (Taiwanese) tea outsells black tea by five times in the United States of America.
1905-National Tea Experimental Station at Kanaya, Japan is established.
1906- The Book of Tea is written by Okakura Kakuzo, thus introducing the west to the Japanese Tea Ceremony and its history.
1907-The China Tea Association is formed at London.
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 of tea in New York.
1910 – Sumatra (Indonesia)becomes a cultivator and exporter of tea followed by Kenya and parts of Africa.
1914 -British workers are given tea breaks throughout the day as this is thought to improve their productivity. British soldiers are given tea as part of their rations.
1915- Sampel Uchida patents the first tea plucking shears in Japan.
1920- The second severe crisis of overproduction in this century brings an agreement between British tea planters for restriction of production this year.
1921- A policy of fine plucking is adopted by the planters of India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to reduce production.
1924-Japanese chemists announces the discovery of vitamin C in green teas of Japan.
1925- (i) Tea Research Institute of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) is established.(ii)Extensive planting of tea begins in Kenya by Brooke Bond & Co and James Finley & Co.Ltd.
1926- Tea Scientific Department in UPASI (United Planters’ Association of South India) is set up.
1928-The first shipment of Kenyan tea is sold in London.
1930- (i) W.McKercher invents the CTC machine in Assam (ii)Tea from Uganda is first sold in London.
1933- (i) An International Tea Committee is formed in London as administrator of the five year plan of tea export regulation adopted by British India, Ceylon and the Netherland East Indies(Indonesia).(ii) Mr. A.C.Tunstall of Tocklai Experimenmtal Station, Assam develops the method of vegetative propagation of tea by single leaf internode cutting.
1935- The International Boanical Congress in its session held in Amsterdam decides to unite the two genera Thea and Camellia into single genus Camellia
1947- Cochin (India)Tea Auction Centre is established on July 4.
1949- (i)Tockali Experimental Station releases three tea clones for the first time and marks the beginning of revolution in plant improvement in tea.
(ii)Chittagong Tea Auction Centre is established on July 14.
1950 - The Japanese Grand Tea Master (Urasenke School), Sositsu Sen devotes his life to spreading the Way of Tea around the world.
1953-The paper tea-bag is developed by the Tetley tea Company, thus transforming tea-drinking habits around the world.
1954- Tea Board of India is inaugurated.
1957- Mr.I.McTear invents Rotorvane machine.
1958- (i) J.R.Sealy of Royal Botanical Garden, Kew publishes his most comprehensive book “A Rivision of the Genus Camellia” (ii) Indonesian Govt.takes over the companies owned by the Dutch and initiates to rehabilitate the sick industry devasted by Second World War.
1960- Mombasa and Amritsar Tea Auction Centres are established.
1963- Coonor Tea Auction Centre on March 23.
1964-Tea Research Association is formed to take over the management of Tocklai Experiomental Station.
1965- Ceylon (Sri Lanka) replaces India as the leading exporter of tea in the international market.
1968-The Department of Tea Husbandry & Technology is established in Assam Agricultural University, India, the first University to offer formal education on tea.
1970- Limbe and Guwahati Tea auction centres are established.
1972- Djakarta Auction Centre is established
1974-Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA) is formed.
1980- (i)International Tea Promotion Association(ITPA) starts functioning with its H.Q.at Rotterdam.(ii)Coimbatore Tea Auction Centre is established on November 22.
1998-London Tea Auction Centre is closed down permanently on June 28.
1999- Tea began to be grown as a commercial crop on the Tregothnan estate in the Cornwall, UK with first harvest in 2005
2007-Tenfu Tea College is established in China. Tenfu Tea College, now called Zhangzhou College of Science and Technology, is the world's first private vocational college to specialize in the study of the tea industry. It is in Zhangzhou, Fujian, China. The college provides education in tea science and cultivation, tea arts and culture, tea drinking promotion,as well as preparing people in the field of tea marketing.
