History of tea in India Upper Assam; in 1840, the Assam Tea Company began the commercial production of tea in the region, run by indentured servitude of the local inhabitants. [This tea was not for export - dis ambiguities needed] Beginning in the 1850s, the tea industry rapidly expanded, consuming vast tracts of land for tea plantations. By the turn of the century, Assam became the leading tea producing region in the world. India was the top producer of tea for nearly a century, but recently China has overtaken India as the top tea producer due to increased land availability. Indian tea companies have acquired
Sayama tea were brought to this region by rivers. The upper layer is made of a reddish loam created by the accumulation of volcanic ash. Together, these two layers make the region unsuitable for growing rice but suitable for tea growing, which requires high precipitation and high soil permeability. It is known that the Japanese people started growing tea trees roughly 800 years ago when Buddhist monks who traveled to China brought back seeds. A historical document from the Nanboku-chō period, , mentions as one of the best regions for tea along with , , , , and . However, the production