Tea Grower and Dilmah Founder, Merrill J. Fernando was recognized as the World's Most Experienced Teamaker. He founded Dilmah and championed quality, authenticity, and variety in tea. His Dilmah pioneered the concept of offering the World’s Finest Single Origin Pure Ceylon Tea in 1985, disrupting an exploitative colonial industry to become the World's First Producer-Owned Tea. Dedicated to benefit the farmer, Dilmah is committed to authenticity and to serving humanity with kindness to people and nature. Unlike other tea companies we grow our own tea, then pick the best leaves by hand and pack it garden fresh, right here in Sri Lanka.
New Zealand was one of the first countries to welcome Dilmah, a return to real tea. Since then, Dilmah and our Founder have become household names both in New Zealand and around the world, owing to the respect we have earned for our Founder’s values of offering the finest taste, natural antioxidant-rich goodness, and a genuinely ethical purpose. Dilmah is known for being an Ethical Tea because 15% of our pre-tax profits are used to fund the MJF Charitable Foundation and Dilmah Conservation established by Merrill J. Fernando himself to fulfil his philosophy of making "Business a Matter of Human Service".