Tea and crumpets have been synonymous with British culture for so long that its history as the one-time greatest coffee producer has been long forgotten. But, were it not for a fungus called “coffee rust”, the British passion for tea might never have developed.
From most of the eighteenth century, the world coffee markets were supplied by Dutch coffee from Southern India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, and French coffee from the Caribbean Islands of Martinique, Guadalupe, and St. Dominique.
The Island of Sri Lanka is home to Trincomalee harbor, and the Dutch, who had opted to support the Americans in their revolution against the British, refused British trading ships access to the harbor. The British finally took matters into their own hands in 1796, seizing the harbor by force and banishing the Dutch from Sri Lanka.
Under the authority of the British East India Company, Sri Lanka was declared a crown colony, and the East India Company got busy importing indentured workers to clear even more of the island for coffee and tea plantations.
The coffee plantations prospered, and by 1860, Sri Lanka had become the world’s largest coffee producer. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the East India Company, in 1861, a fungus known as “coffee rust” had taken hold in Kenya. The fungus would cause leaf-drop on the coffee bushes, weakening them and decreasing their berry production.
The fungus made it to Sri Lanka in 1869, but for ten years the East India Company disregarded it as a threat and kept extending its coffee plantings. Their denial caught up with them in 1879, when the damage to the coffee plants was so severe that they were no longer profitable.
Ever nimble on their economic feet, the East India company switched gears, capitalizing on a “the cup that cheers” tea promotion which had introduced tea to Britain in the early 1800’s. Replacing uprooted coffee plants with tea, they had a ready substitute to satisfy the British consumers. The cups that cheered were soon overflowing with hot sweet tea, and the British passion was born.
Now you know.
