Ethical tea-maker brews up a storm

Three decades after Merrill J. Fernando created the global tea brand Dilmah and transformed it into one of the world's biggest independent tea brands to rival global giants like Twinings and Lipton, the 88-year-old Sri Lankan has now set his sights on the China market - the world's largest.

His approach to knocking open the doors of a market that is also the world's largest producer of tea appears rather unconventional at first, but Fernando's aim is to get Chinese people, especially the young coffee cats, to sip tea "back in the Chinese traditional style".

"The tea industry was started in China. Over the centuries it has become one of the most globally celebrated beverages. Unfortunately, during its Westernization - largely by encouraging consumers to add sugar and milk into the tea, it has also become one of the world's most commercialized products. The original concept of tea as a herbal drink from China has become secondary, if not forgotten," Fernando tells China Daily during a recent trip to Shanghai.