Ceylon Coffee: Why Sri Lanka Switched From Coffee to Tea
Share
Say “Ceylon” today and most people think of tea. Yet around 1870, the island now called Sri Lanka was one of the three largest coffee producers in the world, alongside Brazil and Java. The answer to why Sri Lanka switched from coffee to tea is, in short, a fungus. Coffee leaf rust appeared on the island’s plantations around 1869, spread estate by estate, and within two decades had destroyed most of the industry. Planters, banks and laborers turned to tea, which by the late 1880s covered more land than coffee.
It is one of the clearest examples in agricultural history of a single disease reshaping an entire economy, and it still matters to coffee farmers today.
Key takeaways
- Coffee reached Ceylon centuries ago, but the plantation boom came under British rule from the 1820s.
- By about 1870, coffee covered over 111,000 hectares and Ceylon ranked among the top three producers worldwide.
- Coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix) spread from around 1869; by 1886 exports had fallen about 80%.
- Tea, first planted commercially at Loolecondera estate in 1867, overtook coffee in planted area by 1888.
- Sri Lanka still grows some coffee today, on a much smaller scale.
In this article
- Ceylon coffee timeline
- The coffee boom
- Why Sri Lanka switched from coffee to tea
- The rise of Ceylon tea
- What the Ceylon disaster taught coffee
- Sri Lankan coffee today
- FAQ
Ceylon coffee timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| Early 1600s | Arabica coffee likely arrives from Yemen via India with Muslim pilgrims |
| 1740 | The Dutch attempt systematic coffee cultivation in Matale |
| 1796–1815 | The British arrive and take control of the island |
| 1825–1827 | Governor Edward Barnes establishes a plantation at Gannoruwa; the first highland plantation follows |
| 1830s–1840s | A “coffee rush” clears forests; Tamil laborers are recruited from South India |
| 1860s | Ceylon ranks among the world’s three largest coffee producers |
| 1867 | James Taylor plants tea commercially on 19 acres at Loolecondera estate near Kandy |
| Around 1869 | Coffee leaf rust is recorded on the island |
| 1870 | Coffee area peaks above 111,000 hectares; exports around 118 million pounds |
| Around 1880 | Botanist Harry Marshall Ward investigates and describes the fungus’s life cycle |
| 1886 | Coffee exports down about 80% from their peak |
| 1888 | Tea acreage overtakes coffee |
| 1899 | Tea covers nearly 400,000 acres |
| 1900 | Coffee has shrunk to about 4,600 hectares |
The coffee boom
Coffee had grown on the island long before the British, and the Dutch tried to farm it in the 1700s. But the industry took off after the British took control of the central highlands. From the late 1820s, colonial officials and investors cleared large areas of mountain forest for Arabica plantations. Land was cheap, demand in Europe was strong, and the highland climate suited the crop.
The boom relied heavily on Tamil workers recruited from South India, many of whom traveled long distances under hard conditions to work on the estates. By the 1860s, Ceylon was one of the world’s top coffee producers, and coffee exports drove the colonial economy.
That success had a hidden weakness. The estates were vast blocks of a single crop, often a narrow genetic base of Arabica, planted close together. For a plant disease, it was an ideal target.
Why Sri Lanka switched from coffee to tea
The fungus arrives
Coffee leaf rust is caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix. It produces orange, powdery spots on the underside of leaves. Infected leaves drop early, the tree loses its ability to feed the developing cherries, and yields collapse over successive seasons. Spores spread on the wind and on people and tools moving between estates.
After it appeared around 1869, the disease spread across the highlands over the following two decades. Planters nicknamed it “Devastating Emily.” Production held up for a few years, then began a rapid decline from the late 1870s as trees weakened season after season.
Science arrives too late
Around 1880, a young British botanist, Harry Marshall Ward, was sent to investigate. Over roughly two years he showed that the fungus caused the disease and worked out much of its life cycle. His work was a landmark in plant pathology, but neither he nor anyone else had a way to stop the epidemic at the time. Recommended sprays and treatments could not save estates already in decline.
The economics of collapse
By 1886, coffee exports were roughly 80% below their earlier level, and by around 1890 most land once under coffee had been abandoned or replanted. Many planters went bankrupt. Some tried other crops, such as cinchona (the source of quinine) and cocoa, with limited success. The crop that worked was tea.
The rise of Ceylon tea
Tea had a head start. In 1867, two years before rust was recorded, Scottish planter James Taylor planted tea commercially on 19 acres at Loolecondera estate near Kandy. In 1872 he was running a tea factory there, and the first small shipment of Ceylon tea reached London in 1873. The first public tea auction in Colombo followed in 1883.
| Coffee (Arabica) | Tea | |
|---|---|---|
| Disease in Ceylon at the time | Devastated by leaf rust | Not affected by coffee rust |
| Harvest | Seasonal | Leaves picked many times a year |
| Fit with existing estates | Infrastructure, roads and labor already in place | Could reuse land, labor and roads |
| Market trend | Prices and confidence falling | Strong British demand for black tea |
The roads, estates and labor force built for coffee were turned to tea. By 1888, tea covered more land than coffee, and by 1899 nearly 400,000 acres. “Ceylon tea” became one of the world’s best-known product names, and Sri Lanka remains a major tea producer today. For more on the British side of the story, see our article on London coffeehouses.
What the Ceylon disaster taught coffee
- Monoculture is fragile. Huge areas of genetically similar plants let a disease spread unchecked.
- Diseases travel. Coffee rust later spread across Asia and Africa and, in the 20th century, reached the Americas.
- Breeding matters. The search for rust-resistant coffee shaped which varieties farmers grow today. Our guide to coffee varieties explains how.
- Robusta’s rise. In parts of Asia, growers turned to more rust-tolerant species, part of the story told in Arabica vs Robusta.
Sri Lankan coffee today
Coffee never disappeared completely. FAO data put Sri Lanka’s 2019 coffee production at around 7,700 tonnes from about 6,400 hectares, small next to its tea industry. In recent years, cafés in Colombo and other cities have increasingly sourced local beans, and small growers are exploring specialty coffee.
Taste the story
You can taste both sides of this history. Our Earl Grey is built on Ceylon black tea with bergamot and cornflowers. For coffee from the same wider region, our Asian Plateau Blend brings together Southeast Asian coffees with herbal notes and a heavy body, and our Robusta from West Java shows the hardy species that spread through Asia after rust, with cacao and malt notes.
Ceylon coffee FAQ
Did Sri Lanka grow coffee before tea?
Yes. Coffee was Ceylon’s main plantation crop for much of the 19th century, before tea.
What killed Ceylon’s coffee?
Coffee leaf rust, a fungal disease caused by Hemileia vastatrix, spreading from around 1869.
Who started Ceylon tea?
James Taylor is credited with the first commercial tea plantation, at Loolecondera estate in 1867.
Does Sri Lanka still produce coffee?
Yes, on a small scale, with growing interest in local specialty coffee.
Sources
- Coffee production in Sri Lanka, Wikipedia, accessed 2026.
- Ceylon tea history, Sri Lanka Tea Board, accessed 2026.
- Coffee rust threatens Latin American crop; 150 years ago it wiped out an empire, NPR via KAXE, 2018.
- Ward HM. 1882 report on the coffee leaf disease of Ceylon, via Darwin Online.
Facts checked in October 2026.
Keep reading: History of coffee · Indian coffee · Tea collection