The Beginnings of Tea
Tea is, and has been synonymous with Britain and Ireland for so long that understandably, many think this is where it all began, sadly no as our association with tea is only 350 years old, For the origins it is necessary to go back 4750 years and to China.
How much of the following is a myth is hard to tell, but the story goes that a few wild leaves falling into a pot of boiling water seems to be the accepted beginning.
Chinese Emperor Shen Nung was the one boiling the water and who, coincidentally, was also a scholar and herbalist.
“It quenches thirst,” he declared. “It lessens the desire for sleep. It gladdens the heart.”
Stories of this type abound across the centuries: all profess to a love of tea, health benefits and tea’s ability to stimulate the mind and the senses.
During the Han Dynasty (206 -220 AD), tea became popular and by the third century AD, China’s national drink. Zoom forward 500 years and China’s first tea specialist, LuYu published Ch’a Chang (Classic of Tea). The book took 20 years to write and became the essential work for tea farmers, merchants, and tea drinkers. Tea was also on the move during this time, spreading from China, into Tibet, to the West and beyond.
Tea was first mentioned in Europe in the latter end of the sixteenth century. It is believed to have been brought from China by returning Portuguese merchants and missionaries along with silks and spices. Commercial trade in tea, started with the Dutch, and from Holland, the drinking of tea spread into continental Europe.
Prices for tea were very high so tea was a drink only for the wealthy.
Tea Arrives in Britain
At first, Britain rejected the continental fashion for tea drinking. Finding tea in Britain in the mid-late seventeenth century, though available, was unusual.
Thomas Garraway sold tea in his general store in London, and in 1660 wrote a broadsheet named An Exact Description of the Growth, Quality and Vertes of the Leaf Tea. The paper describes where it comes from and how it is produced, states fourteen reasons why tea was good for you. Tea, according to Garrawy was a cure for headaches, skin complaints, kidney problems, infections, scurvy.
In 1662, the turning point for tea came when Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza, arrived in Britain for her marriage to King Charles II. Included in her dowry was a chest of tea as she was a big fan having grown-up drinking tea. Tea slowly became a fashionable drink, but as it was heavily taxed by the government was seen only in courtly and aristocratic circles.
The rising demand for tea across the social classes meant many could not afford the precious commodity. Soon a ‘black-market’ evolved. A small illegal trade quickly developed into an organised crime network using brutal methods to supply the growing demand. At its height, as much as 7 million pounds were illegally imported annually. Sadly, often the tea was adulterated with dried leaves from other plants.
Eventually, it became apparent that the tax was not worth the problems it created and in 1784 Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger slashed the tax from 119% to 12.5 making tea affordable and the smuggling ceased.
Tea Replaces Beer
By the middle of the eighteenth century, the normal breakfast drink of ale and beer were cast aside as tea became the preferred drink of all classes in Britain. From the cuppa in the workplace, the tea allowance for household servants and free tea for workers through to the serving of tea in the most elegant homes, the British embraced tea. There is strong evidence that it was tea which fueled the industrial revolution. As the water for tea is boiled the drinking of tea reduced urban disease and illness.
Tea From India
With relations with China deteriorating in the early part of the 19th century new supplies of tea were needed. A new variety of tea bush growing in northern India, Assam, was to come to the rescue. The first imports arrived just in time as Britain declared war on China in 1839 and no Chinese tea was imported again until 1860. Ceylon also began to grow very good tea around the 1870’s and joined by the teas from India became the preferred flavours for tea in Britain and the popularity of China tea declined .
Tea and the World Wars
The approach to tea during the two World War bears testament to the importance of the morale-boosting beverage to the British way of life. The government took over the importation of tea to ensure that the beverage was available and affordable to everyone during the First, and rationed tea from 1940 to 1952 in the Second.
Tea Holds it Own
Through the second half of the twentieth century, tea has held its own despite the popularity of the American coffee shop chains, skinny mochas and brownies. Into the 21st is enjoying something of a revival especially with niche connoisseur teas. The popularity of green, oolong and specialty teas is growing and tea is once again being recognised for its health properties. It is now acknowledged that tea is healthier as it contains less caffeine than coffee and, like fruit and vegetables, tea is a natural source of polyphenols and flavonoids which have antioxidant activity.
A staggering 162 million cups are still drunk every day in Britain so, happily, it seems the British love of tea is as strong today as it ever was.