George Steuart
George Steuart and Co. was founded in Ceylon in 1835 by the brothers James and George Steuart, and is the oldest mercantile firm in Sri Lanka. Its history runs alongside that of Ceylon tea: as the island's plantations moved to tea in the nineteenth century, the firm's export trade moved with them. Its tea company, George Steuart Teas (Pvt) Ltd, calls itself "the original Ceylon tea people" and sells its teas under the Steuarts name. Here is the part of the range we ship worldwide from Sri Lanka.
The company buys, warehouses, blends and packs its tea itself, with its own tea tasters, in some 100,000 square feet of blending, bagging and packing plant and stores near Colombo. Its site shows ISO 22000, ISO 9001, GMP and HACCP certification, organic marks from the EU, USDA and JAS, and the Presidential Export Award for 2014/15 as the tea sector's highest value added exporter.
Tea bags in envelopes (25 x 2 g). Pure Ceylon Black Tea, English Breakfast and Pure Green Tea; black teas flavoured with lemon, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, cherry, raspberry and strawberry; Grapes Tea (rosehip, blackberry, wild strawberry, cranberry and red wine flavour), Mixed Fruit and Masala Chai; green blends with mint, ginger and lemongrass and karela (bitter melon); and Rooibos.
Pyramid bags in metal caddies (20 x 2 g). Chai, Fiesta (orange peel, cinnamon, cloves and flowers), Royal Delight (rose petals, marigold and blue mallow), Green Tea Jasmine, English Breakfast, and the green and herbal blends: Super Mint, Melissa, Lemon Ginger, Camomile, Ceylon cinnamon and Hibiscus.
Loose leaf. The Heritage Collection in 125 g caddies (FBOP, OP1, PEKOE) and the same three grades as 100 g Pure Ceylon packs; single-region BOP from Dimbula, Nuwara Eliya, Uva, Uda Pussellawa, Kandy and Ruhuna, boxed in threes as Regional BOP Collection 1 and Collection 2 or in 150 g canisters; Earl Grey Cornflower, English Breakfast, Green Tea Jasmine and Royal Delight in 100 g caddies; and two hand-rolled white teas, Golden Tips and Silver Tips.
The Sri Lankan range. Since 2013 the company has also packed tea for shops at home: Premium BOPF; Rosa Kahata, a dust-grade tea for strong plain tea (in 2018 the company won an intellectual property case over the name against Unilever's Lipton Ceylon); Kahata Rahata; Steuarts Ginger with natural ginger; Dimbula tea bags; and James Coffee. The grid also carries Heladiv ice tea syrups in 750 ml bottles.
In Colombo, the company's Steuarts Town House Tea Lounge on Union Place serves the same teas by the cup.
Amazon 8 
Binupa 
Dhanushi 
Madubashini 
Malaka 
Savindu 
Yasindu 
