Taste worth celebrating

ON the chilly morning of 19th June, 2025 a group of friends and colleagues from media, grocery and hospitality industries and Dilmah gathered at Sydney iconic Opera House for a celebration. It was called the Future of Tea; it was worth celebrating as it marked 40 years since Dilmah Founder Merrill J. Fernando had offered tea picked, perfected, packed at source direct to his customers.

- By Dilhan C. Fernando

In 2025, that sounds quite normal but it was 1985 and when Dilmah Tea was first launched in Australia in September, 1985, it was the first time a grower in tea, coffee or cocoa offered their produce to customers. Four and a half centuries of European colonisation had ravaged the once rich island, with its advanced civilisation, cultural, environmental and scientific sophistication. 2 years after Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was then known, gained independence from Britain, Merrill J. Fernando embarked on his mission. 35 years later Dilmah reached Australian consumers.

35 years is a very long time for a farmer to bring his produce to market. Merrill J. Fernando was neither slow nor patient — armed solely with his faith in God, his belief in integrity and quality, and a relentless determination, he battled a colonial economic system. In 1948 our nation received her political independence, although the battle was against transnational corporations — heirs to colonial economic power — whose market dominance and access had set the stage for colonial exploitation to continue.